{"id":543091,"date":"2024-07-04T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=543091"},"modified":"2024-07-04T11:01:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T09:01:58","slug":"getting-cell-c-off-life-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/543091-getting-cell-c-off-life-support.html","title":{"rendered":"Getting Cell C off life support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes believes that South Africa\u2019s major mobile operators would prefer it if the company remains in a perpetual state of financial distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market needs us to succeed. We want to succeed, but not the way they want us to succeed,\u201d Mendes told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want us to succeed by lying in an ICU with a drip in our arm. I don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendes never outright says who \u201cthey\u201d are, but his meaning is clear \u2014 Vodacom and MTN would much prefer the status quo to a disruptive Cell C.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he was concerned that Cell C is dependent on Vodacom and MTN for wholesale mobile network services, Mendes said he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Cell C no longer operates its own mobile network, relying on Vodacom roaming for its contract subscribers, and MTN for a virtual radio access network to serve its prepaid and MVNO customers like Capitec Connect.<\/p>\n

Aside from the ethical considerations if Vodacom and MTN tried to short-change Cell C on network quality, Mendes said they also had financial incentive to treat them well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pay for the quality of service and data my customers use. I\u2019m both of the networks\u2019 biggest customer,\u201d said Mendes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had great commercial conversations. They are fully aware of how we want to show up. We compete commercially. It\u2019s nothing untoward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cell C boss has had a tumultuous year since he took over as chief executive of the beleaguered mobile network operator on 1 July 2023.<\/p>\n

Cell C remains in financial distress, reporting a R337 million loss in the six months from June to November. It is also technically insolvent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the company also said that its business stabilisation efforts started yielding results in the third quarter of 2023.<\/p>\n

Cell C said Q3 2023 was the first quarter in the year where it saw year-on-year revenue growth.<\/p>\n

The company said it is positioned to return to growth and greater competitiveness.<\/p>\n

\"Cell<\/a><\/p>\n

Extending the life support metaphor, Mendes told MyBroadband that he wanted to skip right past the rehabilitation phase and start running.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be on the front foot and compete and deliver real customer-centricity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know customer-centricity sounds like a clich\u00e9d word, but you\u2019ll see, as the network operators focus more on financial incentives, it typically goes against what customers really want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendes said he believes they are in a strategic position to think differently about how they can meet the expectations of customers who largely see their operator as a necessary evil.<\/p>\n

However, he added that Cell C\u2019s liquidity constraints required them to be strict about prioritising their focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to make trade-offs, concentrate on significant impact areas, delay some initiatives, and be clinical in our spending decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, our teams have become smart and innovative in maximising our limited resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendes said a critical focus was fixing the basics in Cell C\u2019s core business.<\/p>\n

This included addressing operations and structures, understanding the financial position, and identifying key business drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has enabled us to drive high performance rigorously and focus on returning to profitable growth, which remains high on our agenda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was also important to stabilise leadership and hire the best professionals in the field with the technical competencies to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendes said Cell C is a lean organisation, and building the right capacity and skills quickly while driving a turnaround agenda has been a big challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we have been addressing these capacity constraints effectively and continue to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding belief, balancing conflicting priorities, and maintaining positive energy are as important as having the right skills and capacity,\u201d Mendes continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese factors impact outcomes, and we have had to shift from a survival mindset to one of growth and a can-do attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendes said that one of his biggest ambitions from the start was to build and foster a great, inclusive culture and team spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn amazing culture will help people navigate both good and bad days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes says other industry players would prefer to keep the company on proverbial life support, ensuring it is unthreatening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":496469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,35,58256,42,41],"class_list":["post-543091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-jorge-mendes","tag-mtn","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}