Introduction
Telstra Corporation is Australia’s largest company that operates in the sphere of international technology and telecommunications providing Internet services and telephony, mobile communications, and cable television services. In general, telecommunications may be defined as the provision of communication over a distance, and the telecommunications industry unites internet service providers, cable companies, telephone providers, and satellite companies. Originating from postal courier services, telegraph, and telephone, modern telecommunications systems use a centralized network that transmits data between various locations and wireless connections.
Discussion
In the present day, the telecommunications industry plays an immeasurably important role in the life of almost every person across the globe, and Australia is no exception. As the global telecommunications market became less centralized, the country’s telecommunications market is also presented by the existence of several major players, including Optus, Telstra, TPG Telecom, and multiple smaller companies. At the same time, following global trends, the industry may be characterized by the interconnectedness of local companies rather than the performance of international and foreign newcomers. However, the industry is peculiar by high competitiveness and volatility as the sector’s diverse components provide multiple business opportunities. Although the industry does not require intense manual labor, it is in need of professionals who have strong expertise in emerging technology as the industry’s main competitive advantage. Moreover, “the telecommunications industry is extremely sensitive to the slightest change in technological and economic factors” (CFI Team, 2020, par. 8). Thus, over the last several years, the following changes have been traced:
- The increased use of telecommunications services by people due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
- The increased use of telecommunications services by businesses and public and governmental authorities due to global digitalization;
- The existence of a large number of competitive companies;
- The restructuring of telecommunications businesses for units to attract more customers and exceed their expectations within the framework of the competitive environment;
- The development of new strategies for independent financial growth due to the cancellation of the collaboration of major companies with the government;
- Modern social trends dedicated to environmental safety and sustainability impact companies’ practices and make them emphasize the advantages of their products for ecology;
- Continuous search for new technological opportunities and advancements and entering new markets and sectors for competitive advantages.
Considering that change is generally associated with the alteration of the current situation for more appropriate outcomes, Telstra’s change presupposes the company’s particular planned actions that aim to contribute to its stable growth and development. In general, some organizations operate in markets that have entered the stage of maturity, while others enter the global world trades; many companies have experienced mergers and acquisitions, while others have to reduce staff, fraught with adverse psychological and economic consequences for employees. The primary condition for survival is not the organization’s decision on the practicality of change but the determination of when and how to implement it.
The drivers of organizational change exist both within and outside the organization, however, any change initiated by external factors will inevitably require internal transformation for the efficiency of the process. External forces are formed in all sectors of the external environment such as consumers, competitors, technologies, the national economy, and the international sphere (Hayes, 2018). Internal drivers of change arise from the activities of the organization itself and the management decisions made in it (Hayes, 2018). If, for example, top management chooses a growth strategy, the organization’s internal activities must be restructured and reoriented to achieve the goal. Internal driving forces for organizational change include employee demands, unions, and poor performance. It is necessary to understand and take into account the fact that the increase in the complexity of business systems invariably leads to an increase in the value of effective change management.
At the same time, changes should be implemented in such a way as to prevent the occurrence of unforeseen risks and to minimize their impact on the results of the work. It is important that the planned changes are implemented on the first try – this will allow the company to achieve its competitive advantages with less cost and time. The main advantage of change management as a process is the ability to analyze key performance indicators (KPIs). Any method of control, including the change management process, cannot give an absolute guarantee that all errors will be tracked. Of course, the change management process must be implemented in such a way that risks are reduced to an acceptable level, but trying to implement a process to completely eliminate risks will lead to a slow, expensive bureaucratic process, and the expected result cannot be guaranteed.
In the case of Telstra, the main drivers of its change are external ones, such as the competitive environment, modern technologies, global trends, and the intention to attract new customers and retain them by exceeding their expectations. In general, “overall consumer use of communication services has increased over the year, with the effects of the pandemic continuing to encourage a shift towards online services” (ACMA, 2021, p. 3). In other words, when the pandemic caused the global spread of the coronavirus has substantially limit people’s mobility, the use of telecommunications was their main source of knowledge and interaction with others. Thus, “wireless services have become increasingly popular over the pandemic period, with almost all Australians now owning some form of mobile device, and internet-enabled ‘smart’ devices are prevalent in nearly all Australian households” (ACMA, 2021, p. 3). In addition, the simplicity of these services’ use led to their increased popularity after the lockdown. In this case, the shift in consumer demand determines the necessity of change.
At the same time, operating in a highly competitive environment, companies undertake all efforts to apply advanced technologies to outweigh the competitive advantages of their rivals. In 2004, Telstra launched its own communication 3G standard offering which was followed by a 3.5G network at 2100MHz to keep its market share facing the intentions of Optus and Vodafone to phase out the interconnected network (TPG Scheme Booklet, 2020). Thus, the country’s first HSDPA platform was launched in October 2006 (HSDPA Platform – High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, also known as 3.5 G, is a further development of third-generation cellular standards). The network, known as NextG, operating on 850MHz, by December 2008, covered more than 99% of the country’s population (Guide to mobile networks, no date). By this time, Telstra had installed over 6500 main stations (Guide to mobile networks, no date). In August 2008, Telstra allowed the HTA affiliate to access the NextG network in areas where Telstra did not have its interests. No legal reasons were given for this, but it can be assumed that Telstra was trying to increase the competitiveness of H3 G’s in order to weaken its main competitors – Optus and Vodafone.
In the present day, Telstra is one of the leading companies providing network services at 5G speed. Its network covers more than 75% of the Australian population, and the company expects to increase these results up to 95% in the upcoming future with substantial investments (Tomás, 2022; Amirthalingam, 2021). At the same time, other companies also focus on global trends and aim to provide the same services to citizens in combination with excellent customer service to receive their loyalty. However, many telecommunications companies are entering the new field of smartphone production (ACCC, 2021). The production of microelectronics today is one of the most important areas in the development of technology and companies that succeed in this area become leaders in the entire technology industry. Thus, the issue and related change identified for Telstra should be the introduction of its own smartphone which requires its manufacturing, advertising, budget planning, and the implementation of a new management strategy.
The process of change will start with various analyses of the microelectronics market to identify the best options for development and formulate the necessity of change. In general, the transformation model that will be applied partially corresponds to Kotter’s Eight Step Model. According to it, the state of change’s urgency should be created and spread throughout the company in order to make employees aware and minimize resistance. Subsequently, a well-articulated vision will be translated to employees to improve their commitment to the process of change and explain the negative consequences of its absence.
The next stage of the process will imply the creation of a specific team that will plan all activities necessary for change, form a specific management strategy that will ensure the commitment to an updated corporate vision, and coordinate the performance of responsible groups and departments. The main points of preparation that need to be completed for successful development in this industry will be identified as the following:
- Recruitment and training of additional staff will be required;
- Creation of advertising campaigns;
- Budget and allocation plan for timely completion of preparatory work;
- Forming a management strategy and development directions
Like any other production, the creation of smartphones begins with design. The entire initial stage of product manufacturing, including the development of design, software, and prototyping, should be taken over by the renewed company. Assembly of devices is a completely different process, which is quite possible to carry out without having its own capacities, but instead by concluding an agreement with an assembly company, as, for example, Apple produces its smartphones. Ordering parts from established manufacturing companies is more cost-effective than running a manufacturing base. Smartphones also require an operating system (OS) to function, however, since there is an Android OS for mobile devices, there is no need to develop an operating system from scratch (Sarkar et al., 2019). All in all, doing production at third-party factories will help avoid hiring tens of thousands of employees and investing in plant construction and staff training.
However, personnel will be required for the design process of the future device. To develop concepts, diagrams, and other things necessary in the production process, according to which the final product will be assembled in the future. Firstly, it will be necessary to create an engineering bureau. Engineering professionals will be involved at all stages of production. Therefore, there are specialists who design, those who establish the production of parts, engineers who monitor safety, and those who service the created equipment. Moreover, great attention should also be paid to quality control of already assembled devices. This makes it possible to ultimately obtain products of only excellent external and internal characteristics, to exclude defective or low-quality smartphones from entering the global market.
An advertising campaign is the primary means of promoting a new product or service of a company. Proper presentation of the services offered will help the company quickly get new partners and clients. An advertising campaign is designed to inform consumers about a company, its product, or service, draw attention to them and form a positive image. The creation of advertising campaigns should be approached creatively in order to present services in a new way that other companies have done before (Aldrady, 2021). In the present day, most Internet users spend their time mainly on social networks – thus, the number of marketing tools used in social networks to grow and develop businesses is growing daily. According to Raudeliūnienė et al. (2018), “advertising campaigns on social media networks… inform users more effectively, understand their changing informational and knowledge needs, receive feedback, observe users’ interest and involvement into activities carried out by organization and products (services) provided” (p. 2). In this case, after a thorough analysis of the target population and modern trends, the advertising campaign will be launched primarily in social media covering the TV segment as well.
Finally, budgeting plays a highly important role in change management as it ensures that this process continues efficiently. The creation of budgets is carried out as part of operational planning. As Dokulil, Popesko, and Kadalová (2022) state, “budgeting is considered a fundamental part of management accounting as an instrument assisting managers in decision-making processes” (p. 237). Based on the company’s strategic goals, the budgets solve the problems of the distribution of economic resources at the organization’s disposal. The development of budgets gives quantitative certainty to the chosen prospects for the company’s existence.
All in all, the current approach has multiple similarities with a planned change approach. It cannot be regarded as spontaneous as it is based on in-depth analyses of industries and the expediency of change. In addition, the implementation of new products by Telstra is not determined by emergency as the company may be regarded as one of its industry’s leading players, and its change is associated with stable growth and development rather than survival. Moreover, the current approach has its own particular features – on the one hand, it presupposes the development of long-lasting processes instead of small aims; on the other hand, the results of these processes will be constantly evaluated in order to correct strategies if necessary.
Conclusion
According to the “Intervention Style Indicator” assessment, my intervention style is Supportive. Individuals with this style contribute to the process of change with empathetic listening and close attention to a client’s feelings and emotions (Hayes, 2018). They focus on an individual’s features rather than a problem and help him develop a more objective view and appropriate solution independently (Hayes, 2018). As a change agent, I will be able to work with a coordinating team, an engineering team, and employees from other departments involved in the process of change. I believe that my contribution as a supportive professional will be the work with resistance to change that may occur due to a lack of awareness of understanding. In this case, I will listen to their concerns and articulate the significance of the change, its benefits, and the negative consequences of its absence in order to allow them to develop a broader perspective and increase commitment to new circumstances.
Reference List
ACCC (2021) Communications market report 2020-21. Web.
ACMA (2021) Communications and media in Australia: trends and developments in telecommunications 2020–21. Web.
Aldrady, I. (2021) Creative conception in the design of awareness advertising campaigns to achieve sustainable development. Journal of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, 27(6), pp. 117-140.
Amirthalingam, S. (2021) We’ve secured the maximum possible low-band spectrum at auction to maintain our leading mobile network. Web.
CFI Team (2020) Telecommunications industry. Web.
Dokulil, J., Popesko, B. and Kadalová, K. (2022) ‘Factors with a major effect on the budgetary control process–An empirical study from the Czech Republic. Amfiteatru Economic, 24(59), pp. 236-250.
Guide to mobile networks (no date) Web.
Hayes, J. (2018) The theory and practice of change management. 5th edn. London: Red Globe Press.
Raudeliūnienė, J., et al. (2018) ‘Evaluation of advertising campaigns on social media networks.’ Sustainability, 10(4), p. 973.
Sarkar, A., et al. (2019) ‘Android application development: a brief overview of android platforms and evolution of security systems,’ 2019 Third International Conference on I-SMAC, pp. 73-79.
Tomás, J. P. (2022) Telstra’s 5G network covers over 77% of Australian population: CEO. Web.
TPG Scheme Booklet (2020) Web.
Appendix A
