The outages galvanised Penn, billions were earmarked to improve the networks, and as the financial realities became more apparent, the company created the T22 transformation program. Announced in 2018, T22 was designed to slash billions of dollars in costs, including by cutting over 8,000 jobs.
External critics aside, the T22 strategy had to be sold internally to Telstra’s board and roster of senior executives. There were tough conversations, executives were turfed, but Penn was adamant about holding the course on the strategic overhaul.
“I am pretty emotionally resilient, and that helps. You have to make tough calls but you have to do them transparently, respectfully and be consistent, that’s the job,” he says.
“But it’s hard because there will be a lot of external criticism and a lot of noise….but you have to follow your convictions while being respectful.”
“Some of the toughest moments for me were in 2019, we had announced T22, we knew the strategy was sound, but Telstra is a complex beast and stakeholders wanted results and that put huge pressure, but what we couldn’t do was make knee-jerk decisions.”
Progress did come slowly, and there is still a fair bit of work left to be done. But Penn’s pragmatism and his willingness to endure criticism has allowed him to bow out at a time of his choosing.
“You don’t get to choose when you take on the role of a CEO but if you are lucky, you get to choose when you step down, which is what I am doing.”
As for life for after Telstra, Penn has enough feathers in his cap, not to mention the gumption, to take on new challenges.
“Whatever I do next I want to be able to make an impact...one of things I would stress is to build emotional resilience, that’s very much what I would have told my younger self...I like to try new things,” he says.
However, the one thing he won’t be dabbling in is politics.
“I am too old to go into politics, in the sense you have to win an electorate and put in the time. It’s easy to be critical of politicians, but it’s a tough gig, and you end up losing faith in humanity.”
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