|
Home > Newslist
BT at forefront of change
Thursday May 15th 2008. Posted: 14:29
 |
|
Mike Rake paid tribute to Ben Verwaayen, presenting BT's results for the last time
|
BT chairman Mike Rake has today (Thursday) hailed BT as a robust company with a great future that is determined to seize the opportunity to evolve to meet its customers’ changing needs.
Addressing an audience of City analysts and journalists at BT Centre in London as BT delivered its fourth quarter and full year financial results, Mike said he is convinced BT is adopting the right strategy for the success of the group and will continue to deliver value for shareholders. “I believe we have made really excellent progress on the transformation from a fixed-line telecoms incumbent to a global software-driven communications services company,” he said. “I have been in this role for eight months and I am absolutely sure I made the right choice in accepting the offer to come here. This is a fascinating and challenging and complex industry that is critical to everyone and every organisation. “BT is a company that’s at the forefront of change and innovation in a very global environment and it has some extremely talented people. For me, it’s been incredibly stimulating and a lot of fun.” Mike said that, by delivering excellent customer service, BT will not only secure the trust and loyalty of its existing customers but will be better placed to do new business around the world. “We are investing very substantial resources in getting it right first time for our customers, with the ambition of being number one for customer service in any industry,” he said. “As well as providing a key differentiator for us, getting it right for our customers will help us drive costs down and reduce the cost of failure.” Mike said none of BT’s success would have been possible without its people. “We have a culture in a large organisation that still stimulates innovation and we must strive to be agile to respond effectively in this fast-changing marketplace and for the opportunities that we have,” he said. Mike paid tribute to Ben Verwaayen, who was presenting his final set of results before he retires as BT chief executive. He said: “There is absolutely no doubt that Ben has completely reinvented this company. It’s a process that required courage, determination and downright bloody-mindedness at times over the last six years. This has been much to the benefit of UK plc and the global communications industry.” Ben described the latest results as “cracking numbers” and said the diversity of BT’s activities and the capability to have a shift in the market was being translated in its ability to continue to grow. He set out the highlights in performance of each line of business - including a 28 per cent growth in BT’s business outside the UK and the fact that BT now serves around 60 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies. He spoke about progress on the 21st century network (21CN), saying it has already delivered £600 million in cost savings related to operating efficiencies and reduced spend on legacy networks. Ben said 21CN has moved from a purely technology-led programme to one that is customer-led, with services coming on line much earlier in the process - the next generation 21CN Ethernet and Smart Broadband products being good examples of this.
| 
Last updated:
14:55