The arrival of 5G carries with it massive new opportunities for the telecommunications industry. But as companies invest heavily to build higher network density, add spectrum, and upgrade active equipment, they must think carefully about what capabilities they should invest in for long-term success. Monetisation will mean going beyond simply charging consumers more for faster data.
At Strategy&, we’ll work hand in hand with you to deliver results. We’ll not only help design your future, but we’ll also build it with you in a tangible, practical way. We provide fresh perspectives to help our clients — including the world’s top wireline, wireless, cable, satellite, and alternative carriers — manage costs strategically and differentiate their businesses for sustainable growth.
Our distinctive approach enables telecom companies to focus on their greatest strengths and gain a competitive advantage. Our services include corporate and business unit strategy; strategic planning, scenario analysis, and wargaming; new product and service diversification; innovation strategy; and market entry and international expansion.
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Our proven industry expertise and functional experience mean you get trusted support during all phases of deal making. Our clients get hands-on guidance during portfolio strategy and valuation; strategic target, partner, and buyer identification and assessment; strategic, commercial, and operating model due diligence (buy and sell side); and deal value realisation for M&A, divestitures, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships.
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With so many digital possibilities, it’s critical to invest in the right ones. We help telecom companies establish a clear, actionable, and quantified perspective on which capabilities they should prioritize to enhance customer intimacy, build innovative products and services, and digitize their processes for greater effectiveness. We create road maps that detail the business requirements to realise value from these new digital opportunities.
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As the telecoms industry transforms, is your business ready to tackle its most intense challenges? Our Fit for Growth approach is a proven model for unlocking performance that helps companies manage their cost in a more strategic way, allowing them to cut costs and grow stronger at the same time.
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For telecoms, technology strategy and business strategy are inseparable. With experience on both the demand and supply sides, we can help with new technology assessments and business cases; investment strategies and capital planning for next-generation networks and technologies; strategic technology deployment and adoption programme management; cloud, XaaS, and SDN/NFV service rationalisation and transformation; technology capability building for the age of agile, cloud, and DevOps; technology operating model transformation; and strategic sourcing and technology supplier management capability building.
More on technology strategyA leading US carrier wanted to prepare for long-term competitive threats in the connectivity ecosystem. Strategy& helped the client's corporate strategists develop a comprehensive model of the US wireless, wireline, and video subscription market. We then identified possible disruptive events, quantified their impact industry financials, and developed scenarios to describe possible futures. Finally, we facilitated a set of wargame offsites that allowed the senior executive team to step into competitor's shoes to disrupt the market. We simulated strategies to pre-empt or respond to competitive threats, driving a deeper understanding of industry challenges, as well as providing clarity around specific needs to fortify and expand the client's strategy.
An emerging North American provider of IoT communications services wanted to develop and communicate its regulatory strategy in response to an opportunity to help shape U.S. government policy on IoT. Strategy& worked with the client's leadership team to rapidly identify their strategic priorities, translate them into regulatory imperatives, and develop supporting analyses to support the company’s position. The results were integrated into a filing to highlight the service provider’s unique technology assets and vision, including network capabilities that enable the deployment of “mission-critical” applications. The filing also publicly unveiled the company’s new strategy to the industry, highlighting its unique technology vision for IoT. It was the most-cited private company input in the government’s resulting policy, affirming the effectiveness of the company’s strategy.
A top-10 telecoms company needed a global analytics solution and required an analytics operating-model strategy. We conducted as-is and gap analyses of the client’s data, technology, people, skills, culture, and processes. We also created an analytics target operating model (TOM) and a new organisational structure, governance model, and change-management plan. Finally, we rolled out the analytics TOM pilot in two countries as well as a post-pilot scale-up strategy. Our work resulted in $1 billion of incremental revenue identified over the next four years and a 52% cost savings identified for the same period. In addition, we facilitated a 2X increase in speed of product innovation.
The strategy team of a telco group needed help to develop an OTT vision to define the future of the telco in the OTT landscape and develop strategic options. The client had already launched its own communication app, developed an OTT partnership and experimented with other OTT services, but the results were limited. Strategy& analysed the OTT ecosystem (services, business model, and threats) and studied telecom operators’ initiatives to face OTTs. We derived strategic themes to be pursued by the client, and also evaluated the revenue at risk due to the OTT threat. We identified 10 strategic themes across the B2C and B2B businesses and created a detailed action plan by strategic theme in the comms services space. On the back of our work, a new communication hub was defined and developed.
A telco suffering from inefficiencies due to the high complexity of its offerings had made several unsuccessful attempts at simplification. Strategy& supported the client with reducing / rationalising its current commercial offer. We helped the client concentrate its customer base, focus on improving the client’s processes through the elimination of legacy systems, platforms and associated networks. The impact on both product portfolio and systems and networks was compelling: 58% of products and 82% of monthly promotions were eliminated. In addition, 78 of 200 services on obsolete platforms were discontinued and 3 network platforms were shut down. EBITDA increased by more than $100 million.
Strategy& worked with the Enterprise business unit of a Global Tier 1 telecoms operator to develop a growth strategy for international regions.
The enterprise market is changing thanks to Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) and this has implications for successful strategies to achieve profitable growth.
The Strategy& team evaluated the markets in all relevant regions, captured key dynamics and assessed the client's SDN/NFV product roadmap. We developed a series of organic and inorganic growth options focused on infrastructure-based, asset-light and software-based models.
Strategy& evaluated the options against the client's level of ambition, capabilities and investment appetite and made detailed recommendations on a strategy to achieve a faster and more profitable growth trajectory.
