WEBVTT

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It's all about bringing value
proposition to the customers

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and the different customers.

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Awais, Thomas, welcome.

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Thomas, how important are
strategic partnerships

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in telecoms today?

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I think it has been important for a while,

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but I think we are really meeting a era

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where it gets even more important.

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We are often talking
about strategic suppliers

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or vendors these days,

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so for some years now we have talked

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about the importance of partnership.

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And then I would say, what is it?

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It's everything and nothing,

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or is it something you
are able to embark on

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and really use in a way

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you are developing your
business as a telco?

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How I see it, it's different
type of engagement.

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So you can have explorative partnership,

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you can have what I call
business enablement,

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which is kind of more the
traditional area of telcos,

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and not least, the business
development aspect of it.

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And I think you can have partnership

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in all these three domains,

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but when you're talking with
the megaglobal partners,

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they will be maybe placed in
all these area or domains.

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And also, it's really about

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how are we evolving these engagements

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because everything is about
developing your business.

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We have talked about life cycle management

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and in the partnership landscape,

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I really think that is a key

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because there will be good days

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and other days where you need
to act on the purpose behind-

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on the long-term relation.

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And that's also where the
strategic aspect comes in

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because that's a de-risking element of it.

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Awais, Thomas spoke there

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about how the last few
years have become critical

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to creating these strategic partnerships.

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Especially why is it, do you
think, over the last few years,

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and is that what you're
hearing from leaders

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that you speak to all the time?

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I think it's a very vague term,

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but I think partnerships

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are becoming a new toolkit for executives,

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just as Thomas explained, to
solve some of the problems,

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which is just being accelerated
by rapid innovation,

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geopolitics that we see
in the world right now.

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And in terms of what I
would say companies do here

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to really succeed, there's
three things I always call out,

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and it's a very consistent pattern.

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One is, just like in
life and relationships,

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rather fewer but deeper.

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So executives who are really
nurturing the three to five,

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and some of these are global, as you said,

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and then quite honestly
discussing how to expand,

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which often increase both
risk and vulnerability,

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but also opportunity
in those three to five.

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It doesn't suffice just to say,

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I have a head of partnerships.

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You really need to build
a muscle around it.

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And that is a team, that is processes,

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that is life cycle management.

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And companies are consistently
doing that more and more.

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And third, I would say is, you also know

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why are you a great partner?

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Just as with us as people.

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And telcos truly have some
unique assets to build from.

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They are typically a very strong brand

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in the markets they
operate, they are trusted,

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and they have a large customer access.

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And I think with the
current rapid developments

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we see globally, that has
a unique vantage point

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to form those partnerships.

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So going forward then, what
is the key, do you think,

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to getting real value
from partnerships, Thomas?

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It's all about bringing value
proposition to the customers

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and the different customers.

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And also, in one way, how
are you doing that jointly?

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So it is really different
than just delivering something

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on your backdoor and
then you kind of bring it

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to the market yourself.

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So in one way, the collaboration

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and also the way you enter the
market jointly will be uplift

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for telcos based on
where we are coming from.

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But that's, how I say,
is a huge opportunity.

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We have strong brand,
we have a highly trust,

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and we have our infrastructure,

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we have our organizational capability,

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but I think we need to adjust,
we need to adjust the culture

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and we might need some IT
system to enable that type

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of go-to-market capability.

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An emphatic yes there, Awais.

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There's two elements to this
I typically would talk about.

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If you're an executive,

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I think normally in many discussions,

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there's a buy-or-build discussion.

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I would say now you should
buy, build, or partner.

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And I think that
boardrooms should have more

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of those types of dialogues.

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The second thing is like Thomas,

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you've quite articulately explains,

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partnerships only has value

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to the extent that they're activated.

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So to the frontline staff,
people who talk to customers

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or people are working on
day-to-day problems, to the extent

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that they're aware and able
to activate that partnership,

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that is the true value.

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And I think leaders should
really focus on making sure

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that activation takes place.

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Awais, Thomas, a pleasure.
Thank you so much.

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Thank you.
(lively music)