Much has been made of Alan Knott-Craig's return to telecommunications. The Vodacom founder taking the reins at Cell C is akin to Bill Gates coming out of retirement to head up Google. It begs the question - what is he really after? You don't snag Knott-Craig with cash - he must be serious about Cell C's prospects. Or he was brought in for another reason.
Knott-Craig needs to help Cell C's hands catch up with its mouth.
Simon Dingle, contributor, ITWeb
Knott-Craig's restraint of trade agreement with Vodacom expires on 1 April 2012 at which time he is free to take up his new position. Not only is he returning to telecommunications, but he is doing so as soon as possible. Clearly retirement was never a long-term plan. Rumours that he was in talks with Cell C have been circulating for some time, but it beggars belief and so wasn't widely accepted.
Besides, rumours are rife in telecommunications, especially when it comes to Cell C. For years there has been gossip of Orange - the mobile brand of France T'el'ecom - eyeing Cell C for possible acquisition. More recently rumours have flared concerning a possible buy-out by Indian giant Bharti Airtel as it continues its invasion of Africa via a prior acquisition of Kenya's Zain Telecom.
The speculation of Cell C being an acquisition target is usually just lazy thinking on the part of analysts, given that Cell C is perceived as being the only acquirable South African mobile operator. Vodacom, MTN and Telkom's 8ta are beyond sale. This doesn't mean that we won't see Cell C become fodder for a big foreign player in the future, however - and I am certain that discussions to that effect have happened more than once.
When Lars Reichelt, the former CEO of Cell C, began his rapid turnaround of the company with a frenetic era of rebranding, network expansion and aggressive marketing tactics, another rumour at the time suggested that Reichelt had been instructed to dress up Cell C for acquisition. Is it possible that this is the real intention of the Cell C board in appointing Knott-Craig?
Reichelt did a masterful job of restructuring, rebranding and reinvigorating Cell C. His biggest achievement was in elevating the perception of Cell C in the minds of South African consumers. All of a sudden Cell C was no longer a struggling underdog, but was squaring off with the leading providers - in what some consumers considered an even footing. It wasn't, of course. But it looked like it. And Vodacom's retaliations reinforced that idea.
It's tempting to speculate that the reinvigorated Cell C has now been handed over to Knott-Craig - who sparked the cellular industry in South Africa - for final dressing up and sale, but it doesn't align with the message expressed by Cell C's leadership. And there is no reason not to take Knott-Craig's own statements on the matter at face-value.
In case you missed those statements, Knott-Craig has been widely quoted as saying that he sees the local telecommunications space as settled and boring. He wants to make Cell C more efficient and further its shaking up of the market. He said that step one will be addressing the operator's network. Marketing is less important.
This is a departure from the Cell C we have become familiar with in recent times, where there was a primary focus on marketing and the network itself left much to be desired for many customers. The balancing act was maintained pretty well for the first few months of the “new Cell C” - but talking a big game put the company ahead of itself in terms of actually serving customers, perceptions aside.
Knott-Craig needs to help Cell C's hands catch up with its mouth.
He has also said that he intends to focus on Cell C's distribution channels - an area where the company has a lot of work to do.
But more than anything, Knott-Craig wants to build a solid business where, he says, people are happy to come to work and the fundamentals are sound. Good luck to him in that endeavour. South Africa needs competent competition to our two major networks. It keeps them honest and innovating while ensuring that consumers continue to be prioritised.
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