Telstra rings in new era with more management changes * Mitchell...

Telstra rings in new era with more management changes

* Mitchell Bingemann
* From: The Australian
* March 30, 2010 12:00AM

TELSTRA chief David Thodey has reshuffled his executive deck for the second time in four months but it is not likely to be the last, with key lieutenants from the Sol Trujillo regime still facing uncertain futures.

The management overhaul, which aims to streamline decision-making in the large organisation, claimed the scalps of two senior Telstra executives, as Mr Thodey continued his quest to halt declining revenues and position the telco giant for its place in the national broadband network.

"This reform will enable the company to bring products to market much more quickly, with marketing and pricing integrated into the development process from the very beginning. Also, it will allow our customer-facing units to focus on serving and defining the needs of our customers," Mr Thodey said.

But it is unlikely the reforms will end there. The departure of Telstra broadband and media boss Justin Milne, as foreshadowed in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, is the third high-profile resignation in a year under Mr Thodey. Mr Milne and last year's departees David Moffatt and Holly Kramer were all favourites under the Trujillo regime. But now more Trujillo faithful could be on the way out.

It is expected that Mr Thodey will instigate up to another two management reshuffles -- but not before a deal with the NBN is finalised -- before settling on a final executive team.

Forty-year Telstra veteran and current acting chief operations officer Michael Rocca faces an uncertain future after a deal with the NBN is forged. Until that time, Mr Thodey will hold off any more executive changes, saying that a separated Telstra would be an entirely different beast to tame.

One future casualty has already been confirmed, with the head of Telstra's NBN engagement team, Geoff Booth, set to retire once a deal with the government on Telstra's involvement in the project is finalised.

Analysts believe the Trujillo-era purge has been a long time coming and should help Mr Thodey remove much of the bureaucracy that has plagued Telstra's internal operations.

Mr Milne's resignation was coupled with the departure of acting consumer boss Glenice Maclellan. Mr Milne will depart on June 1 and will be replaced by Telstra executive J.B. Rousselot, who will become executive director of voice, broadband and media.

While Ms Maclellan left the company on good terms, Mr Milne departed in unhappier circumstances. He resigned on Friday after being told of his demotion to an executive director role and that he would now report to Kate McKenzie, who has been promoted to the newly created role of chief marketing officer.

Ms McKenzie, formerly head of strategic marketing, will now have group-wide responsibility for pricing across Telstra's product suites and will oversee product innovation and promotion.

Telstra's three main product units -- Wireless, Data, Applications and Services; Mobility Products; and Voice, Broadband and Media -- will report directly to Ms McKenzie, reducing the number of Mr Thodey's direct reports from 17 to 14.

Ms Maclellan has been replaced by British-born Gordon Ballantyne, who joins the telco after a three-month stint as a vice-president at Hewlett-Packard. He has also served previous posts at computer manufacturer Dell in Europe and was a board member for T-Mobile, German mobile phone giant, in Europe.

Mr Ballantyne will be charged with turning around Telstra's struggling retail consumer arm, which has haemorrhaged customers and revenue while the telco has struggled to maintain its competitiveness amid distracting negotiations with the government over participation in the $43 billion NBN.

Robert Nason, who joined the company at the start of this year to repair the telco's woeful customer service record, has had his duties extended and will now cover strategy, mergers and acquisitions.

The expansion of Mr Nason's role gives him additional oversight of Telstra's business as he works through a wide-ranging review of the company's operations that seeks to cut out unnecessary costs and improve market competitiveness.

"In a perfect world you would want an even simpler structure, but in a company as big and complex as Telstra's, this is a good start and a needed injection of fresh perspective, especially in the consumer space," one analyst said.

Questions of structure will play a big part in Mr Thodey's revamped executive line-up and this was made more evident with the promotion of Telstra's program office head, Stuart Lee, to group managing director. In his new role, Mr Lee will work directly with Mr Thodey on possible future models.