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Die Telecom!

Entry 829, on 2008-08-10 at 20:07:49 (Rating 3, Politics)

I recently read a couple of articles in New Zealand papers which described the downward path of our biggest company, Telecom. You would think that, as someone who cares about the country, I would be worried that Telecom is in a certain amount of trouble, but actually I'm not. In fact I derive a certain satisfaction from its pain.

From a business perspective it has been spectacularly successful, but like many successful businesses it has achieved this success through ripping off its customers, indulging in the most cynical advertising, and putting the minimum of effort amount practical into real service improvements.

I know that the new leader has genuine plans to improve things but maybe its too late. I can't imagine two more disgusting individuals than the previous chief executive Theresa Gattung and chairman Rod Deane, and they really messed the company up. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for all of us) they have already disappeared with their vast salaries for being dishonest and incompetent. Now the new CEO has to pay the price.

Well it would be great if Telecom failed and was bought by the government for a low price. Then we could actually operate it for everyone's good and we might gain some real benefits like we have from Kiwibank. I suppose it won't happen though. Even if Telecom becomes available, the new government, which almost certainly be controlled by National, is unlikely to want to buy useful assets. More likely the opposite!

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