PAPI Molotsane says that the decision to drop a R5-million lawsuit against website Hellkom reflects the attitude he wants to instil at Telkom.

Hellkom enraged Telkom executives but won wide popular support for sending it up on the Internet.

The decision to drop legal action came after Molotsane took over as CEO of Telkom in September.

“One of the pillars” of his strategy “going forward”, he says, is to improve Telkom’s relations with consumers. This means listening to outfits like Hellkom rather than bullying them.

“One has to understand that some of the people who are in these consumer movements are trying to get our business to be better. They’re not being destructive.”

Molotsane announced impressive half-year results this week. Revenue is up and profits are up. For shareholders this is wonderful. For consumers, however, the misery of having to deal with Telkom continues, which is why so many have dumped their fixed-line phones and gone cellular.

Molotsane acknowledges that it is time to balance the interests of shareholders with those of consumers.

Even the government, its largest shareholder, has begun agitating about its high prices and negative public image. Presumably there is some concern about the imminent arrival of a second network operator.

If so, Molotsane doesn’t share it. Or so he says. Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that his brief on being appointed was to repair Telkom’s image, and quickly.

He says his brief was to “run a profitable business”, but also, he adds, “to be fair to all stakeholders”.

Balancing the interests of shareholders and stakeholders won’t be easy, he says, but “perhaps” that’s why chief executives get paid so much.

He quotes a remark made by his icon Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, to the effect that sometimes consumers require Rolls- Royce service for the price of a Volkswagen.

We both laugh, although not for the same reason, I suspect.

“Our role as executives is to make sure that we please consumers.”

You’ve got a long way to go, I suggest.

“Undoubtedly, undoubtedly.”

Molotsane, whose friendly, approachable attitude is in stark contrast to the organisation he leads, says he has no illusions about what customers think of Telkom. Top of the list – although this is a hotly contested position – are Internet service providers who have accused Telkom of trying to put them out of business.

He says he wants to meet with ISPs and “understand exactly where they come from and how best we can work together”.

He admits that the relationship between them and Telkom “is not right. It is not what it should be.”

The ISPs are valued customers, he says.

They complain that Telkom treats them like enemies rather than customers, I remind him.

“That might be taking it a bit far. That’s why I need to sit down with them.”

In classic corporate speak he says he sees Telkom’s poor image as an opportunity, not a threat.

“I see the perceived negative feelings out there as an opportunity to turn around the image of the business. There’s a lot that can be done from our side to improve the image we have.”

Including an aggressive price-cutting policy?

“Not aggressive. But it’s prudent to ensure that one’s pricing is competitive. It is prudent for one to look at price elasticity, especially around broadband penetration, and determine whether it is prudent to reduce prices.”

Or not to reduce prices, he agrees with a laugh.

He concedes that pressure is “coming from all angles”. A “comprehensive analysis” of Telkom’s pricing structure is under way as we speak, he says.

“I would rather not wait to be pushed. I’d rather be proactive and do what I have to do now.”

Molotsane has shown that he is no slouch at doing what he feels he has to do. Soon after his appointment he suspended three top executives, who have now been fired.

Given their experience this seemed a brave, if not foolish, move for a new CEO who so conspicuously lacks experience in the industry himself.

He refuses to spell out the reasons for their dismissal, although it is believed that his appointment was not entirely welcomed by executives who felt they should have got the job.

What he is prepared to say about the incident lends credence to this view.

“One has to do what one has to do,” he says. “I have to have a team that will work with me moving forward. There’s got to be a chemistry, there’s got to be willingness, there’s got to be commitment.

“I as a leader have to make sure that I have the necessary ingredients to get this business to where it’s supposed to get to. And I have to take those kinds of decisions. Unfortunately they are hard decisions, but that’s the nature of my job.”

Molotsane is on his way to a meeting with investors in London and New York when I speak to him. Presumably he will brief them on Telkom’s recently announced plans for the future, which include a new drive into Africa and more focus on the delivery of data services as opposed to voice.

But I wonder if the visit is also designed to dispel concerns in the investment community about the new Telkom chief’s lack of experience in the industry.

Molotsane sounds like he’s a bit tired of hearing about his lack of telecommunications experience.

“I’m an engineer, and it doesn’t take one a long time to get to grips with technical issues. I know people have been saying, hey, you don’t have much experience, but I had oversight responsibility at Transnet for Transtel” (which is part of the second network operation. No, he says, this will not give Telkom an unfair advantage over its future competitor, and no, this is not why Telkom hired him).

He was also a systems engineer with IBM.

Molotsane, 46, was born in the Pretoria township of Atteridgeville where he was a student activist and secretary of the students’ representative council.

When he was 17 he was arrested under the Terrorism Act and held in solitary confinement for more than 200 days. During this time the only people he saw were his interrogators, who knocked him around a bit, but not as badly as some others, he hastens to add.

He had nothing to read in his cell, not even a bible. “Only a rusted razor blade.” He spent the long hours wondering if they hoped he would use it for purposes other than shaving.

In 1978 he joined his mother and stepfather in the US, and spent the next 10 years studying. He holds a bachelor of engineering technology degree from the University of Toledo in Ohio, and a master of science in business administration from Hood College in Maryland. He has completed an executive programme at Stanford. He returned to SA in 1988. Among other senior posts he was CEO of Fedics Food Services.

From food to phones might seem a long way, but telecommunications, he says, is a world that is “certainly compatible with my qualifications and which I enjoy”.

Inet-Bridge || Discuss this article