March 27, 2009

Hawaiian Tel Too Vital to Fail

Interesting Opinion Piece in the Maui News today March 27, 2009 advocating that Hawaiian Telcom which is currently in bankruptcy proceedings should not be allowed to fail. Barry Fukunaga’s case essentially is that since the company is providing critical utility value to the state of Hawaii, it’s failure would cause undue hardship on its customers and the Hawaiian people generally. He basically tries to make the case that the company plays a social role for the state and its failure would negatively affect the societal benefits Hawaiians’s enjoy from its operations.

Over the past two weeks I have read quite a bit about the situation that ‘Haw Tel’ finds itself in. Why is the company in bankruptcy? Well, the telecom business has gone through enormous change over the past decade or so - more competition in the traditional telephony markets, greater price sensitivity of its customers, and more recently of course the economic downturn challenging all businesses to find the secret of survival. I know of what I speak. Been there; done that in my 30+ year career with BC Telecom and TELUS in Canada.

Mr Fukunaga’s opinion is noticeably absent on the fact that the obligation rests not with ‘society’ to prevent the failure of Haw Tel; rather it rests square on the shoulders of the company to ensure they survive! Businesses are not about receiving survival pay, their prime purpose is to earn the right to survive by taking care of their customers in a manner that is unmatched by others in the market.

Sure, the telecom business is more competitve than it used to be. Welcome to the real world where monopolies are bordering on extinct if not completely there already. Executives get paid to steer their corporate ship through turbulent times; ever-changing challenges that test the survival instinct.

Rather than spout rhetoric suggesting that ‘someone’ needs to prevent Haw Tel from failing, we should be demanding that the company table a Renewal Plan that convinces people that they will be unique and competitive in providing the very best communications solutions (with dazzling customer service) demanded by their customers. They need to stand up and show the market they are a force to be reckoned with and that in spite of the current tough times they are facing, they will arise as the BE DiFFERENT champion of Hawaiian telecom. Quite frankly, having seen some of the competitive positioning ads posted by their competition, winning should be quite straightforward if they have the BE DiFFERENT practices in mind.

Haw Tel - Renew Yourself
Begin with your Strategy

Stay tuned for more blogs on this topic.Cheers, Roy Osing

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Posted 3.27.09 at 02:30 pm by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment