Discuss about the Governance and Leadership Management.
Telstra has been a leader in technology for the better part of the decade. Its pioneer work in the field of communication has been revolutionizing. It has made its mark by making many breakthroughs in technology (Telstra.com 2016). Contribution of Telstra to the Australian cloud services and telecommunications has been the result of sound project governance structure of the company. Detailed description of the structure of governance of Telstra is discussed below:
Telstra has selected its Board members very sensibly over the years that has made this company grow better and at a faster rate than its competitors in Australia. As of now Telstra has 12 core Board members out which 11 are core members and one director who contribute in the decision making of the company in every aspect of business. Telstra has hired its CEO who has an experience of more than 25 years. The CEO has expertise in finance, strategy development and business of telecommunication products with a worldwide view.Telstra has also incorporated Business Improvement and Support unit for constant innovation in the business ideas. BI&S was created by the company some time ago when there was a shakeup in the structure of Telstra and the company was suffering from some inter-company issues around the globe (Telstra.com 2016). But due to establishment of this unit Telstra gained in its productivity and has acquired tools and other programs that assists in simplification of the business procedure. The company has also changed its international business composition to harvest the benefits of evolving business needs in the overseas market. The Board has recognized the expertise and experience of members and has designated the suitable portfolio to the concerned members. Telstra has been working on the three pillars of business strategy that is building growth, derive value from the central part of the team and advance customer support (Van den Berghe 2012). Constant review is done by the boards to keep track of the developments and to focus on business ideas. Telstra has a dynamic way of mixing its membership with diversified field of execution for appropriate balance in the management. The Board consists of three standing committees that are Nominating Committee, Remunerating Committee and Risk & Audit Committee (Chhaochharia, Kumar and Niessen-Ruenzi 2012). The Board is responsible and is gender neutral as it has included 40% representatives of female gender among its non-executive members.
Telstra is very keen in deployment of Project Engagement structure that ranges to the complete life-cycle of the project. This framework spans from scope of the project, definition of the project to its delivery. To monitor this cycle of project Telstra has employed Project Managers who are competent in managing complex and diverse projects for the implementation of transformation and transition of assignments. Project Office of Management sees to the fact that projects are completed and delivered on time and with utmost precision (Belloc 2012). Project Managers are well versed to follow the guidelines of project execution such as PRINCE2,PMBoK and PMI. They also provide the risk management techniques to ensure the integration of network solutions. Experienced, skilled and expert project managers steer the project through business modules. They are experts in end-to-end delivery of projects with additional stress given to the development of requirements, management of design, quoting and management of implementation (Karolyi 2012).
Project and portfolio management is done following certain steps by the managers of Telstra which are as follows:
Governance: This phase defines the project structure, does identification of specific resources and their responsibilities and roles.
Change in management of organization: Stakeholders are notified about the alteration made in the project.
Management of stakeholders: Notification of changes in roles and timeframes in the implementation of the project to the concerned shareholders.
Management if risks and issues:This phase comprises of identification, monitoring, mitigation and quantification of risks involved in the project.
Management of quality: Definition and compliance with the expectations of the customers.
Reporting of status: Consistent updating the status of project including risks involved, budget and attaining milestones.
Some other methods and characteristics of Project and Portfolio Management includes the following aspects:
Telstra has grown with rapid pace in Australia and globally. It has laid much emphasis in expansion and linking corporate strategies in execution of its projects. In pursuance of innovation and new ideas to cater to the needs of the customer to thrive in the changing technological world (Michelon, G. and Parbonetti 2012). There are three strategies which are mainly followed by Telstra to link its projects with main business ideas. There strategies are discussed below:
Improvement of Customer Support:The policy of customer support is very necessary for Telstra as it is a market driven company, responses and feedback of the customers become the backbone of company’s growth. More the customers will be satisfied with the services of Telstra more they will recommend it to others. In this strategy, key areas where customers find problems is targeted by proper planning for the ease of access to the customers. Employees pay great emphasis in notifying the customers about new technologies that are innovated (Armstrong, Balakrishnan and Cohen 2012). Telstra is known for providing customized merchandise as per the requirements of the customers. These include digital options, enhancement in stores and mobile.
Derivation of values from the center: Customers of Telstra have much reliance on the services and products of Telstra. Seeing the popularity and sales of its products Telstra has decided to expand its networks by investing in it to provide its customers the best experience available.Core network of Telstra also supports the communication of other government organizations of Australia. Superiority of network has provided a large number of users of mobile network (Brammer, Jackson and Matten 2012). New data plans and other high value services has generated a substantial revenue for Telstra.
Network Services and Applications:Portfolio of NAS provides, enterprises and business connections with government organizations in Australia and software contracts with security services and service solutions. With expansion of services, Telstra has started working in collaboration with global companies such as IBM, Cisco, Amazon Web Services and VMware (Agrawal 2012).
Telstra Company has given more emphasis on the development of software technologies by taking one project as an individual entity. This method of project governance has proved very beneficial to the company. It provides liberty to the employees to focus completely on one problem at a time. Moreover, it enhances the efficiency of the workers as all the details of the project are segregated and a proper time window is available to complete the project. The employees find the proper framework to complete the project with all its entities and features integrated (Cuñat, Gine and Guadalupe 2012). Requirement analysis is done in the beginning, after that stakeholder’s inputs are taken for the project to construct a proper framework, then implementation strategy is made, a time limitation is set to complete the project, cost analysis is done and risk analysis is also done and other methods are also applied during the development of the project.
Telstra has governed some projects in the recent past which are:
Telstra Ventures:It is a corporate venture capital group founded by Telstra. This venture has invested in new and innovative technologies that have emerged recently and are going to be in market in the near future. Telstra has invested in high growth opportunities that will yield high returns to the company. Additionally, Telstra has its rich assets that allows the company to leverage these kind of investment ventures (Hochberg 2012).
Globecast Australia: Telstra has taken over thiscompany recently to construct a deeper base in the media and communication services for broadcasting in foreign countries as well. Knowing well about the Globecast Australia that it has its reach in delivering particular media services and has roots in local as well as international media business Telstra made this move to acquire the company (Morellec, Nikolov and Schürhoff 2012). This has provided Telstra an edge over its competitors in the media business making it the telecommunication giant of Australia.
With the history of over 14 years, Telstra has experienced the work of six CEO’s who have greatly contributed in the development of the company in every aspect. All the CEO’s were very optimistic, active and had positive frame of mind with a vision to achieve high goals for the company. As media and telecommunication industry has underwent drastic changes in recent years and to cope up with the change and grow at the same time was not an easy task. But management of Telstra was always in good hands through the journey of the company (Hazarika, Karpoff and Nahata, 2012). A top management official who can be the CEO or any other member of the board has to balance the stakes between the investment made for technological advancement of the company and the interest of the stakeholders and shareholders who are concerned with the profits and dividends that the company will make. A leader should also be aware of the opportunities and possibilities to maximize the benefits of the efforts made by the management and its employees. As in the case of Telstra, the innovative technology of networking like fiber technology and high quality routers has been used in such a way that the consumers are more than happy by the services (Walls, Berrone and Phan 2012). So the foresight is a very important trait of character a leader should possess and Telstra has been lucky in that context. Moreover, having technical skills, professional skills, integrity and personal values are some of the innate qualities that have been demonstrated by the leaders of Telstra in the past.
In the governance structure of Telstra, the communication and interaction with stakeholders is a vital point that needs consideration. For growth and development and supporting the framework of business, relationship with stakeholders and shareholders is a key point in delivering services as per the strategy.Telstra follows a two-way mode of conveying information to its investors and stakeholders about the strategies of the company. In this mode of information exchange, the management not only conveys important information such as legal obligations and market disclosures but also listens to, understands and give priority to the stakeholder’s perspectives and opinions. Stakeholder’s feedback is taken into consideration and execution of ideas is done as quickly as possible (Chen, Lu and Sougiannis 2012). There are various initiatives to involve shareholders in active decision making and convening business ideas so that they feel as a participant in company’s ventures. Some of these initiatives are discussed as follows:
As it can be established from the above discussion, Telstra has quite concrete Project and Portfolio Management system which has benefited the company in many ways. Its development in the recent past is the proof of its efficient structure of governance. But still, there is a room of improvement in the framework of Telstra’s governance. It can be observed that the company lacks proper advertisement mechanism to reach maximum number of customers through media. Being a popular company, it ignores the fact that it needs to advertise its products and services in a more dynamic and exhaustive way so that the customers can feel inquisitive to experience the services. Telstra can also improve and diversify their business base by increasing the number of Board members. This will enhance the area of expertise at the top level of management. This will incorporate personnel of diverse viewpoints who understand business in different ways. Their input will give a deep insight to expand the domain of the company exponentially. Since Telstra is a media and telecommunication based company, it should also lay emphasis on the data security of the customers on the network and also during data transmission. With advancement of technology, data security and risks involved with it is of prior importance.
References:
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Belloc, F., 2012. Corporate governance and innovation: A survey. Journal of Economic Surveys, 26(5), pp.835-864.
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