{"id":547352,"date":"2005-11-24T10:20:31","date_gmt":"2005-11-24T10:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/547352-mtn-great-company-poor-communicator.html"},"modified":"2005-11-24T10:20:31","modified_gmt":"2005-11-24T10:20:31","slug":"mtn-great-company-poor-communicator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/547352-mtn-great-company-poor-communicator.html","title":{"rendered":"MTN – Great company, poor communicator"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nice case in point is this week\u2019s possible cancellation by Investec of its odd-lot offer. To clean up the register, Investec offered a small premium to holders of odd-lots, not knowing that the premium was attractive enough to cause hundreds of traders to create new ones and take advantage of the premium. It was a boo-boo on which Merrill Lynch advised. Investec must be more than a little embarrassed to miss a key detail with its own corporate finance transaction \u2013 something it does for others every day. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same with MTN. The mobile operator may have facilitated communications among millions of people across the continent but its own communication leaves much to be desired. <\/p>\n

It is the only listed company I know that would not offer comment to journalists until the day after the interim results came out. Granted, the numbers were only released very late, but perhaps someone should explain to MTN that being in the news business means a comment from a CEO on the day of the news is far more valuable than one the day after, when other companies are reporting, and happily presenting their CEOs to journalists for a grilling. <\/p>\n

Most CEOs are approachable to journalists with a single phone call. Others might take a little longer to track down, but are certainly reachable most times of the year through one or two key people \u2013 that all-important PA, the key corporate communications person. Other important people don\u2019t mind at all being called up on their cell phones at any stage. <\/p>\n

Not so in the case of MTN CEO Phuthuma Nhleko. He must meet with institutional investors more often (or maybe they experience similar frustrations). But, the only time he \u2018presents\u2019 himself to the media is twice a year \u2013 when journalists get handed a copy of the presentation slides, normally not even accompanied by a full set of financials \u2013 and thrust into a room to compete with scores of other news-hungry journos to squeeze in a question or two before dashing back to their keyboards to file a story on deadline.<\/p>\n

And it always feels like he\u2019s there under duress. <\/p>\n

Any question posed through the corporate communications department during the year \u2013 on matters other than those of a product related nature \u2013 are guaranteed to illicit a stock standard response in the order of: \u201cMTN continues to identify value-enhancing expansion opportunities in line with the group’s vision to be a leader in telecommunications in developing markets.\u201d <\/p>\n

The fact that MTN is on an expansion drive, and has been trading under cautionary a lot of the time makes this kind of response more understandable. Companies can\u2019t discuss negotiations once they get to a serious stage. They can only warn the market to trade with caution in their shares until a further announcement is made. <\/p>\n

But, it is frustrating nonetheless and represents a broader culture of trying to fly below the radar despite punching right up there in the market value and performance stakes. <\/p>\n

Also frustrating is being invited to \u2018big announcements\u2019 only to find there\u2019s a new consumer offering on the market. Take the \u2018news\u2019 of MTN\u2019s 3G launch. Moneyweb<\/i> wrote about it a week before the launch after details of the offering were posted on broadband activist website MyADSL. But, the group still hosted a clearly expensive \u2018mad hatter\u2019s tea party\u2019 replete with yellow cookies to celebrate the \u2018news\u2019 of the big launch. All very well for other stakeholders, but an unnecessary two hours out of the day of any busy journalist needing to tackle other \u2018news\u2019. <\/p>\n

But why should MTN communicate better with the media? <\/p>\n

The company itself doesn\u2019t seem to have been disadvantaged by the lack of presenting itself for comment. Shareholders can hardly complain about a price of more than R60, for a share that only three years ago was trading below R10. MTN has been such a success story that journalists write about it all the time anyway, tapping into whatever they can glean from the company, as well as in our case, into the knowledge of the fund managers who\u2019ve pumped millions into the company on behalf of their fund holders and know it well. <\/p>\n

These fund managers take a long-term view of the company, and don\u2019t care whether or not Moneyweb<\/i> interviews the CEO the night of the results, as they\u2019ll more than likely work the numbers through their models and then head out to the analysts\u2019 presentation the next day. But, although Moneyweb<\/i> serves those in the financial services industry \u2013 the bulk of our readers work in this industry \u2013 we also serve the man in the street who relies on us for access to company insights. <\/p>\n

Communications specialist Clive Simpkins puts it into perspective. He says how a company communicates is a \u201cpivotal aspect\u201d of its corporate image. Good communication can add value to a company\u2019s share price by creating the perception that the company is in safe and competent hands. <\/p>\n

The irony with MTN, however, is that despite intermittent communication with some stakeholders, few seem to doubt management\u2019s ability to run the company well. It is widely acknowledged as being a smooth operator in difficult markets, and is known not to overpay for acquisitions. This kudos seems to have become widespread once it demonstrated it had made a success of Nigeria. <\/p>\n

So one could argue it has demonstrated its abilities, rather than told people about its achievements. Which is fine when things are going well, but what about if it ever falls on hard-times or slips up? <\/p>\n

Simpkins describes the media as a company\u2019s \u201cumbilical cord\u201d to its stakeholders. He says in today\u2019s world of powerful alternative media like blogs, Wikis and RSS feeds, \u201cout-of-touch management teams are putting their personal and corporate reputations at risk with poor media skills.\u201d He says: \u201cMedia competence is a strategic marketing differentiator between companies. The adage of \u2018you snooze you lose\u2019 has never been more apposite.\u201d <\/p>\n

Maybe MTN will lose out in the long-term, maybe not. But, one can\u2019t help contrasting the likes of a company like Barloworld, whose recent results presentation carried surprisingly detailed disclosure and whose CEO Tony Philips openly shared his thoughts and views on the company\u2019s performance and positioning with Moneyweb<\/i> Radio\u2019s listeners despite it being possibly one of his busiest days of the year for him. I don\u2019t cover Barloworld personally, but I\u2019d be willing to bet Tony Phillips wouldn\u2019t be too important to take my call. <\/font><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0 <\/font>http:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

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It is ironic that companies are often better at delivering their service to their customers than to themselves. The children of the cobbler, as they say, never have decent shoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547352"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}