Vodacom becoming complacent

Jan

Jan

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Second is good enough

Vodacom has lost its drive for excellence and its obsession with being the best mobile network in South Africa, which is hurting customers and shareholders.

In his book “Second is nothing”, Vodacom founder and former CEO Alan Knott-Craig described how they built South Africa’s largest mobile operator.
 
Vodacom did become a mediocre mess after Pieter Uys left as CEO.

Network became unbearable around 2018.

Now one sits with an abusive relationship with MTN.

The customer service pretty much horrific and a dead network during loadshedding but I just couldn’t handle the consistently poor network at Vodacom anymore.
 
Unreal said:
Damn, somebody pissed off Rudolph Muller
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This is exactly what I thought when I read the article. I don't 'support' Vodacom but that write up seems more like abuse than being informative.
 
During AKC's time there was this relentless drive to be the best. It sure wasn't an ideal environment for everybody. And then Vodafone comes in, becomes the main shareholder and the priority becomes "how are we going to make money to keep on paying dividends to our (VF) share holders?, How are we going to keep cutting costs?". Now, take this with the fact that the only entity in the Vodafone stable that makes money/margin is Vodacom (European opcos make 1% margin, the market in India - the next best thing - was turned on its head by Jio so no margins there) money from Vodacom goes to pay dividends to VF's shareholders and not in capital investment. It's simple really.
 
If you email Vodacom executives today, you are lucky to get a response at all.
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If you email their customer care the same happens...

I've got certain SMSs going missing and their iMessage activation fails and there is no-one to assist...

Edit: should I add they also seem to have disappeared from this forum?
 
Voda remind me of mweb. Once frontline companies with innovation & clever marketing that eventually succumbed to the trap of corporate growth and became another behemoth unable to move with the times. These companies all get too big for their own good and everything (especially support) becomes rigid procedure.

(This attitude seems to be common in this country right now tho half of it is probably the feeling of hopelessness due to the ANC running the place and companies losing their lus to excel)
 
Article fails to address the influence of Vodafone on Vodacom. Vodacom could once call the shots wrt strategy and investment. Now VF dictates and Vodacom must follow, with very little room for local initiative and innovation.
 
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What about Shameel, doesn't really sound like he is re-igniting Vodacom's passion..
 
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