About Elephants and Tigers

The past year has been marked, above all, by a time of transformation for Deutsche Telekom Global Business (DTGB), this due not only to the pandemic. Our integration of T-Systems into Telekom Deutschland brought its own unique challenges. After one year of DTGB, it is time for me to reflect on what we have achieved in the last 12 months, and what I can personally take away from this year.

From the outside, the task seems daring to undertake, amidst the coronavirus pandemic: consolidating T-Systems' telecommunications (TC) and network business with Telekom Deutschland, as well as establishing new national companies around the world. My September 1st start date at DTGB fell right in the middle of the restructuring phase during 2020. I could have hardly imagined a more exciting start in my new role. Fortunately, the travel and contact restrictions during the pandemic did not pose a fundamental problem for us at DTGB, given that conference calls and virtual collaboration were already part of daily business within our international set-up. It was nice to see how our communication around the world proceeded quite naturally via remote channels. Of course, this came with the odd, unwanted early or late shift due to time differences which particularly affected colleagues in Asia and America.

The big challenge for us as a company, however, was to successfully merge the 28 national companies, establish new overarching processes, position DTGB as an international contender on the market, and put the TC business on course for growth. The figures show that we are already well on our way – our SD-X business, for example, is growing continuously. Looking back on our first year, I can identify four key success factors whose crucial experience have enriched us as a team, as well as me personally.

1. Commitment

Long-term business relationships are our top priority. We want to build future-proof partnerships with our customers and nurture them for many years. To achieve this, we, first and foremost, attach great importance to selecting the right platform services: our "consultative selling approach" focuses on advising our customers. No matter what their requirements are, we find the optimal solution. Secondly, we focus on flexibility: with five global competence centers for our SD-WAN solutions, we are able to offer all customers the right technology for their specific needs. For example, changing the SD-WAN platform within the runtime is possible without any problems should they desire to do so. Thirdly, we are in favor of future-proofing: we are constantly developing our products. And with the power of Telekom Deutschland behind us, our clients can be sure that we will continue to invest heavily in our future-oriented portfolio for many years to come.

2. The power of the elephant, and the agility of the tiger

I like to describe Telekom and DTGB as elephant and tiger: the ideal combination of strength, consistency, and agility. For our customers, this means innovative end-to-end solutions, including sales, services, and delivery worldwide, and speed and flexibility. For example, our time-to-quote program guarantees that new and existing customers receive a quote for an international network within 24 hours – no matter which or in how many countries the services are required. Our new organizational assignment was well thought out. After all, Telekom and DTGB are united by the telco business, and our international structure perfectly complements the German parent company. Germany is still the world's third-largest export country, and half of our networks are international systems. This offers great potential, allowing us to set new goals together.

3. Progress and Innovation

Many people talk about software-defined networks, but few think about what really lies behind them. There continues to be a complete decentralization of markets: organizations are no longer transporting their data within their own premises, but are using public clouds, software as a service, and other decentralized solutions. The internet is becoming the most important data channel. This requires secure and virtual (i.e. software-defined) networks. In addition, companies are attaching increasing importance to flexibility. More and more companies connect or disconnect sites within a very short time, require temporarily higher performance, and expect usage-based billing. This shift requires new solutions such as advanced SD-WAN and security concepts. I see this as a major responsibility for us: to drive forward progressive digitalization for our customers.

4. Teamwork

Our teams handled DTGB's move to Telekom Deutschland smoothly and successfully. Setting up new companies in 28 countries within a short span of time while dovetailing them closely and concluding numerous contracts is a huge achievement. Because let's not fool ourselves! The Corona pandemic was and is a personal challenge for all of us. It fills me with gratitude to know how much commitment each and every one of us has proffered to achieve this result. In fact, international cooperation is better today than ever before. Spontaneous joint projects, for example between Singapore and Germany - once an exception - are now natural. Our cross-border cooperation is the basis for our success. That's why we promote it, for example with the Ambassador program: employees from the different country organizations can pitch their ideas, contribute suggestions from their teams to an international brigade, and thus actively shape the company. In doing so, we ensure a successful tomorrow. I very much look forward to the next few years.

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