Embracing
technological change, Italian style
The CEO of Italian telecommunications company
Wind, Maximo Ibarra, explains how the company is evolving to serve increasingly
connected, savvy customers.
In his nearly four years as chief executive officer
and chief operating officer of Italian telecommunications operator Wind, Maximo
Ibarra has pushed the company to become one of the leaders in the Italian
mobile market, particularly in the consumer segment. Despite starting his tenure
during an economic downturn in Italy and amid rapidly increasing competition in
the industry, Ibarra focused on providing innovative products to serve
hyperconnected customers, developing Wind Factory, an initiative within the
company that builds cross-functional teams to bring new ideas to life. In this
interview with McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland, Ibarra explains how he has worked to
redesign strategic functions throughout the company to keep up with the pace of
technology. An extended and edited transcript of Ibarra’s remarks follows.
Operating in a
multiscreen world
Until now, the
consumer has been considered a stand-alone customer. But that idea is shifting
so that we now focus on entire households. From a statistical point of view,
each single consumer has approximately 2.5 screens—soon it will be
approximately 4. If we look at the household and all the different needs that
customers have with all these screens, the typical household, then, has about
10 screens, at least. In order to meet those demands, we’ve launched a new
portfolio of products called Digital Home and Life. Because everybody is now
really engaged with their smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs and they’re
looking for something more.
That’s also why
the Internet of Things is becoming so material. Gadgets are providing exactly
this kind of experience. It’s not only about your wealth or your health, but
it’s also about your security at the household level. For example, cameras are
plug-and-play. Also, the fact that you can really monitor the quality of the
air and temperature inside and outside your house. The fact that you can really
interact with these devices at home in a very super-easy way is why, as I
always say, you have to make it customer-proof. That means the customers don’t
have to think about it.
Gadgets that
are “wearables” and that are becoming, in the next three or four years,
“insideables” are probably the last thing that customers will be willing to
get. For me, this interaction among personal devices and household devices is
the next frontier in terms of integration with smartphones and tablets at the
household level.
Building up superfast
broadband
Broadband is
becoming a link among the most important new technologies that are growing
exponentially. So it’s not only a consumer enabler; it’s also a technology
enabler. Superfast broadband is the new highway, no doubt about it. That now
means 4G for mobile, plus fiber on fixed devices. The next step will probably
be 5G on mobile and then 6G. This integrated superfast broadband highway will
be the enabler of technology’s exponential growth. In medicine, for example, it
will enable biotechnology, robotics, nanotechnologies. All these new
technologies are and will be working with superfast broadband to enable growth.
The important
advantage we can take, apart from building these superhighways—which is our
core business—is figuring out the kind of insights we can glean from the
massive amount of information we get from our customers.
The fact that
we have the highway, as well as the customers who are populating this highway,
means that we have a unique opportunity—thanks to big data platforms and new
technology enablers—to get information and drive customers’ expectations in
real time.
So the mind-set
is that if you, as a company, deal with millions of customers and thousands of
companies and you have such a massive amount of information available, you can
leverage this information much better.
The question,
then, is how? Now we have the technology—technologies made by cloud computing,
technologies made by big data platforms, technologies made by digital touch
points. The combination of these three things can really provide you with
massive amounts of information.
The next
question is, what do you do with all this information? And that’s why we’re now
talking about data scientists—probably the new frontier in terms of job
opportunities.
Defining ‘data
scientist’
Data scientist
is a profession that did not used to exist. Or it existed only in theory. But
it’s new. Some people are now becoming data scientists. It’s something that is
being created.
That’s why we
need to get to universities and start working with people who are attending
courses but at the same time are also engaging in start-ups or new ventures.
Because these people are the ones who are able to manage technologies and to
understand, by applying some analytics, what a data scientist needs to be.
We have to be a
little bit more proactive. The channel that we have always used—traditional
headhunters—doesn’t work. One reason is that we need people who can really work
on the design of applications. And not many people like that exist. So
headhunters have to change and become more focused on digital, and we need to
be more proactive getting into universities and incubators. We need to talk to
people who are still at the university level and who understand the kind of
experience they are getting.
Reshaping the
organization
Our most
important innovation is how we shape the whole organization and the mind-sets
of people working in a company like this one in order to address our specific
challenges.
We have to
address it in two different ways: First by being able to capture the technology
that we have available. And second, we have to understand how to use it.
One very
important innovation, in terms of organization, is [how we have] changed our
concept of functions, business units, and vertical organizations. The old
thinking is absolutely inconsistent with the current pace of technology.
It’s
inconsistent for the simple reason that you now have to be more holistic in
your approach. You manage all these interdependencies, and all these
exponential technologies are coming at the same time. So the organization has
to have a totally different approach.
Let’s take
marketing, for example. Marketing, until now, has been a function made by
people who are devoted to the brand and who are giving the direction to the
rest of the company on where to go. This is outdated. Marketing is spread
across more of the company. The way we design some strategic functions in the
company is probably one of the most important innovations that we have to
address.
We’re doing
this with a new concept called Wind Factory. In this initiative, we’ve created
groups of people who work on different domains. And we told them, “Look,
together you can really bring something to the company, to the brand because
you have ideas.” Getting these talented people from different functions to work
together has been effective for the simple reason that these people are more
energetic.
Being a 360-degree
leader
When I was
appointed CEO, there was an economic downturn in Italy. At the same time, the
industry was entering into a superhigh-pressure, competitive scenario. The
combination of the two was challenging, but I learned a lot.
As CEO, you
have to be able to manage 360 degrees—everything at the same time. You cannot
approach one subject at a time; you always have to have the big picture in
front of you, which is a tough exercise. But it has been an interesting one.
Then, as soon as you have the big picture, you need to tell this story to all
your employees.
That is
something that I tried to do from day one: telling the story and saying exactly
where we were going. And I explained the story using different language based
on the different audiences I dealt with.
The third
element is making sure the organization is future-proof. You look for new
talent but also leverage the talent you have.
I have worked
for family companies, superbig Italian multinationals, and international
companies. All these experiences gave me a lot of insight into how to deal with
different people with difficult structures at the same time and to make
everything possible.
And this is
important because if you assume that people will understand what you think,
what you believe, what you do in just five seconds, you are totally wrong. I’m
not overestimating myself. I don’t have the expectation that everything I say
is going to work. But the important thing is the direction is there.
-
Maximo
Ibarra is the CEO and
COO of Wind. Rik Kirkland is the senior managing editor of
McKinsey Publishing, based in McKinsey’s New York office.
http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Leading_in_the_21st_century/Embracing_technological_change_Italian_style?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1602
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