{"id":643799,"date":"2026-04-28T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=643799"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T06:04:26","slug":"whats-next-jorge-mendes-on-leading-cell-cs-turnaround-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/643799-whats-next-jorge-mendes-on-leading-cell-cs-turnaround-plan.html","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s Next \u2014 Jorge Mendes on leading Cell C\u2019s turnaround plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this What\u2019s Next with Aki Anastasiou interview, Jorge Mendes discusses his journey to becoming Cell\u00a0C CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mendes has 25 years of experience in the telecoms industry and took on his current role in July 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before this, he had worked extensively at Vodacom in roles such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Senior Manager: Customer Services <\/strong>\u2014 Vodacom Mozambique<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Executive Head: Customer Care and Sales<\/strong> \u2014 Vodacom Tanzania PLC<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Managing Executive: Central Region (Free State and Northern Cape)<\/strong> \u2014 Vodacom<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Chief Officer: Consumer Business Unit<\/strong> \u2014 Vodacom<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Chief Officer: Distribution and Marketing<\/strong> \u2014 Vodacom<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Executive Head: Dealers, Franchise, and Service Provider Channels<\/strong> \u2014 Vodacom<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This impressive professional journey has equipped Mendes with extensive leadership skills \u2014 making him well-qualified for the Cell C role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since taking over at Cell C, Mendes has led a comprehensive turnaround plan that has included right-sizing the organisation to ensure a more efficient, streamlined business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mendes has also helped to build a more capital-light business to improve margins by focusing on an opex-heavy model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s Next interview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In this What\u2019s Next interview, Mendes begins by discussing his formative years and how they led him into his current career path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He unpacks his career journey \u2013 starting as a call center agent and rising through the leadership ranks throughout his work life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mendes then explains why he decided to take on the role of Cell C CEO in 2023, and highlights the biggest challenges he has faced in this role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He discusses the progress he and his team have made since 2023 and reveals what his vision is for the months and years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mendes concludes the discussion by sharing the advice he would give himself if he could go back in time to his first day as a call center agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the full interview with Jorge Mendes, below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What\u2019s Next - Jorge Mendes on driving growth and innovation at Cell C\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gOhPAiNz25c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since taking over at Cell C, Mendes has led a comprehensive turnaround plan that has included right sizing the organisation to ensure a more efficient, streamlined business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":643800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,58256,65345],"class_list":["post-643799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-jorge-mendes","tag-whats-next"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643799"}],"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=643799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643805,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643799\/revisions\/643805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}