In Part 2 of our Deep Dive with StarHub CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos, we explore whether telecoms companies can ever really become services companies.
The challenge, of course, as Peter freely admits, is that the DNA of telecoms is still stuck in the infrastructure world and it is hard to change that. Services, says Peter, is an entirely different game and the approach must also be radically different, throwing a new service into the market, seeing whether it works, developing and launching the next.
Innovation happens at the services layer, though, and Peter believes that partnering is the best approach, as the innovation in services is extraordinarily quick compared to infrastructure. To succeed you have to be digitally educated.
Although Singapore is already highly competitive, Peter would certainly not be averse to another competitor. It is not a market you can dominate but it is one that is neatly sliced, which provides opportunities in the SME and enterprise markets.
StarHub has made a couple of acquisitions recently, in cybersecurity and systems integration and Peter sees services flowing from both those companies.
He has learned the lesson from other markets about leaving a brand alone if you buy it, instead of allowing it to flourish over time. Obviously this approach does not apply if a merger or acquisition happens in the same arena, in which case consolidation may well make sense.
Watch the video, and listen to Peter Kaliaropoulos as he continues to describe the Starhub journey, the move to and challenges of innovating at the service level, and why he says he is losing his hair.
You can see Part One of our Deep Dive with Peter here.
Be the first to comment