Management Analysis of Telstra Corporation Limited - Case Study Example

Name: Course: Date: Instructor: Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………….3 2. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..3 3. Strategies and Issues related to Sustainability at Telstra Corporation…………………….4 3.1. Organizational behavior……………………………………………………………….4 3.2. Human resource management practices……………………………………………….6 3.3. International business……………………………………………………………….....6 3.4. Technology management……………………………………………………………...7 4. Entrepreneurship and Innovation……………………………………………………….…8 5. Future Strategies by Management………………………………………………………...8 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………...9 Bibliographies……………………………………………………………………………………11 Management Analysis of Telstra Corporation Limited Executive Summary This is a report on the management analysis of Telstra Corporation Limited. Telstra Corporation is a telecommunication company in Australia. The report analyses and discusses some of the issues and strategies related to sustainability at Telstra. The report covers the role of organizational behavior at Telstra in relation to sustainability related strategies and issues. The report also analyses human resource management practices at Telstra in relation to sustainability related strategies and issues. It further analyses the role of international business at Telstra in relation to sustainability related strategies and issues. In addition to that, the report provides an analysis of entrepreneurship and innovation seen at Telstra. Lastly, it recommends the future strategies that Telstra management should engage in. These recommended strategies are based on previous analyses of the company. Introduction Telstra Corporation Limited, commonly known as “Telstra” is a leading telecommunication company in Australia. Telstra is also a company that provides media services within and outside Australia. In a nutshell, Telstra Corporation Limited specializes in provision of a whole range of communication services both in Australia and in other parts of the world. These communication services include mobile, internet and voice services to its customers. Telstra is a fully privatized company. Having been originally owned by the Australian federal government, its shares were gradually sold to the public in three phases making it fully privatized. Telstra has succeeded tremendously in recovering its market shares on the Australian market overtime (Bingemann, 2011). The other area of success by Telstra is customer service. Telstra boasts of excellent service to its customer base with the complaints from its customers having reduced by 3% in June 2011 in comparison to June 2010 (Foo, 2011).Telstra is also a leading company in Australia in terms of technological advancement. By the end of 2013, Telstra is said to have fully digitalized its operations including online strategies that involved managing transactions digitally (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2012). Customers could also pay their bills online. Telstra also used social media to improve customer service. As part of its success plan, Telstra also expanded their retail network by creating more rental stores and even changing their brand identities in 2011. All these strategies by Telstra’s management have seen its continuous improvement in the telecommunication industry. Telstra has also stood out among its competitors who include Optus and Vodafone. Strategies and Issues related to Sustainability at Telstra Corporation Telstra, as a global telecommunication company has put in place strategies that ensure its sustainability in the telecommunication market. The strategies discussed here include organizational behavior, human resource management, international business and technology management. Organizational Behavior As a way of sustaining the company in the highly competitive and dynamic market, the Telstra management has established a set of organizational behavior that is upheld by each stakeholder in the organization. The first organizational behavior that is to be observed is privacy. Telstra management is devoted in ensuring the privacy of their customers’ personal information. As a measure to ensure high standards of privacy are upheld by each stakeholder, Telstra has taken up a number of principles in regards to privacy in the organization. These principles dictate the manner of protection of the personal information given by Telstra’s customers (Lancaster, 2014). The principles also provide guidelines on the manner and reasons for collecting this information. The ways of usage and channels of disclosure of the information are also properly laid down. Lastly, privacy principles dictate the ways used by Telstra to ensure accuracy and security of the information. Telstra has taken up the privacy policies in compliance with the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988. The second organizational behavior upheld by Telstra is the watchdog policy where the employees at Telstra have been provided with channels to report any behavior that is not proper, is illegal or does not measure up to Telstra ethical standards. The watchdog policy places emphasis on anonymity and confidentiality. What follows is a thorough investigation on the claims made by the Telstra management and then the appropriate course of action is taken. Telstra has also adopted policies against bribery and corruption. There are very strict laws regarding corruption and bribery that Telstra has to comply with. This prompted it to take up this principle that ensures integrity and honesty is upheld by the organization’s staff. It compels its employees not to receive or make any offers that could amount to bribery or corruption (Lancaster, 2014). Telstra has also established elaborate principles regarding the trading of its shares at the securities exchange. Buying and selling of the Telstra securities should only be done using the laid out appropriate channels. The other organizational behavior at Telstra that ensures its sustainability is the disclosure of market information. Market information is only disclosed at designated times, by the designated people and to designated recipients. This ensures close monitoring of how the information is disseminated and used without the jurisdiction of Telstra’s management. Telstra has well set policies on how to engage social media in its operations (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2012). The staffs at Telstra, who engage social media in their operations are expected to project a good image of Telstra, present only the credible information about the company and uphold the appropriate ethics while interacting with others on social media. These organizational behaviors at Telstra have really seen the company being sustainable in the telecommunication market. Human Resource Management The human resource management at Telstra has been crucial in seeing the company’s sustainability on the market. The Telstra human resource management team is tasked with managing the workforce of the company. It ensures the company does not run short of labor force at any given moment. This is done through continuous recruitment and hiring. The human resource management then has to ensure safety of the employees and their support at the workplace. There should be equity among the workforce in order to ensure motivation of the employees and a higher production scale. Telstra ensures that its staff is highly engaged in the driving of the company’s strategic objectives forward. The staff is made to participate directly in the effort to reach the goals of the organization. These kinds of efforts ensure the workforce is highly active in ensuring customer satisfaction and higher production. Human resource management practices at Telstra also include the creation of an environment for its employees where they can develop as individuals and as a whole company. The Telstra employees are required to uphold values of integrity and honesty as part of their culture (Elliott, 2014). They are also encouraged to work in teams that ensure respect and appreciation for each other. Another practice by the human resource management at Telstra is ensuring cultural diversity among employees and making them more flexible at the workplace. Gender equality is also embraced by the human resource management. This goes a long way in attracting and maintaining a quality workforce at Telstra. Research has shown that by mid-2011 more than 31% of Telstra’s workforce was women. This was part of the effort by the human resource management at Telstra to ensure gender equality in the organization’s workforce. International Business In the recent past, Telstra has surpassed its many competitors in the telecommunication by going global. The 2010/2011 report by the CEO of Telstra Corporation, David Thodey, showed that Telstra owned a number of international businesses including half the ownership of FOXTEL. Other than that, the international businesses owned by Telstra include Telstra International with its headquarters in China (Tung, 2009). This is a subsidiary of Telstra Corporation that provides telecommunication and media services across Asia, Europe and North America. Telstra also owns the CSL New World in China that has been named as the top mobile network operator in Hong Kong. Telstra also owns various search and advertisements businesses in China. In New Zealand, Telstra owns the Telstra Clear which is competitively operating in the New Zealand carrier market. The roles of international business at Telstra in relation to sustainability related strategies and issues are that it increases the company’s customer base and diversifies operations resulting in higher sales turnover and profitability. Since 1992, Telstra has listed international holdings in Europe where it has 100% ownership of the company. Europe is said to have more than 7000 customers to Telstra for both internet and voice services. Telstra also has international holdings in Asia with 50% ownership, China, 100% ownership in Sydney and Hawaii under the Telstra Endeavor, numerous joint ventures in India, and full ownerships in Singapore and Japan under Telstra Singapore and Telstra Japan K.K. respectively (Elliott, 2014). This expansion by Telstra into the international market has seen it maintaining its sustainability in the telecommunication market. Technology Management Telstra has embraced digitalization and rapid technological advancements in an effort to ensure sustainability in the competitive telecommunications market. Telstra’s efforts to go digital began early in 2011 with the digitalization of services. Customers could pay their bills electronically (Durie &John, 2011).Telstra also created its website where company information was effectively disseminated to the customers and they were served efficiently. Since then, technology has advanced in Telstra and is being used in most operations in the company. Telstra has also embraced the use of social media in its operations (Lee & Tracy 2011). This ensures interaction with the customer base by the company staff where the customer complaints are heard and the appropriate course of action taken. Telstra even put up a Facebook app that could be downloaded by users to interact with the company. The realized downloads of this app were tremendous (Palmer, 2012). It was reported in 2012 that over 700,000 users had downloaded the app. Telstra also adopted digitalization of its transactions where most of the customer transactions were made online using the online customer portal (The Age, 2011). Telstra has also endeavored to use technological advancements in information and communication technology to give back to the community. Telstra has digitalized many business operations in Australia as an effort to empower the community through digitalization. Telstra is getting lessons from online corporations like Microsoft on the nitty-gritties of digital practices and online transactions (Hutchinson, 2014). These efforts to go digital are key to ensuring low costs of production of Telstra’s services. This will ensure higher profits by the company. These are the roles of technology management at Telstra in relation to the sustainability related strategies and issues. Analysis of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Company Telstra boasts of a long history of entrepreneurship and exceptional innovations. Telstra has a highly intellectual workforce with very many ideas that are great and highly innovative. The available resources are then used in actualizing the ideas in order to achieve the business objectives (Yin & Williamson 2011). The technology industry is one that is very dynamic and highly diverse. It therefore calls for the management to embrace innovation and entrepreneurial skills if the business has to survive in the market. As a result of technological advancements, Telstra has had a paradigm shift from the ways of traditional operations to a more software-oriented mode of operation. The recent development of cloud computing is an example of such exceptional innovations that are being developed by Telstra. Telstra’s management has also shown admirable entrepreneurial skills under the leadership of its CEO, David Thodey. Telstra expands mostly to Asia that has recently experienced an expanding middle class overtime. This means that the customer base for mobile and internet services is on the rise in Asia (Elliott, 2014). This is a very strategic move of expansion by the company. Telstra also makes very strategic mergers and acquisitions. An example is the merger with FOXTEL. These, alongside its protection for the environment and ensuring employee pride continue giving Telstra a higher pedestal in the circles of entrepreneurship and innovation. Future Strategies the Telstra Management Should Engage In In view of the previous analyses done on Telstra, it is recommended that the three future strategies that Telstra management should engage in market share recovery, customer service recovery and digitalization of operations. Telstra should make a future effort to recover market shares especially in important products like mobile and internet services. A strong sales turnover is expected in the future from Telstra. This can be achieved through cost innovation (Yin & Williamson, 2011). Telstra management should endeavor to cut down on their costs while maintaining quality of their services. The management should do away with things that do not add value to the organization. In order to recover their market shares, Telstra management should also embrace innovation. This can be achieved through combining technologies or just thinking laterally. Telstra should also strive to achieve the recovery of customer service in the future. The Telstra staff should be trained adequately on customer-orientation. They should embrace customer interaction and avoid working on a mere basis of assumptions (Solomon, 2013). They should direct more focus to the lifetime value of their loyal customers. Lastly, Telstra can ensure digitalization of their operations by use of operational analytics (Nicoletti, 2014). Operational analytics that can be used include planning, managing inventories and control of all the operations in the company. The company management should integrate all their transactions details and make use of the available resources in IT and human resource to ensure workable digital operations. Conclusion In conclusion, Telstra Corporation is a very successful company in terms of management. This is evident in the management analysis conducted on the company. Telstra has put in place effective strategies and raised issues that are directly related to sustainability of the company. The first measure put in place is by establishing effective organizational behavior. The organizational behavior established by the company to ensure sustainability includes privacy of the customer’s information, the watchdog policy, policies against bribery and corruption, policies on the company’s securities exchange, disclosure of the market information and social media responsibility. Telstra Corporation has also put in place effective human resource management to ensure its sustainability. The human resource management is tasked with recruiting and hiring an able workforce, training and supporting new staff, ensuring workplace safety and equality, engagement of the employees in the company’s strategic operations, ensuring cultural diversity in the organization’s workforce, making sure the employees uphold cultural values of the organization and balancing the demographic characteristics of the organization’s workforce. International business in Telstra Corporation has the role of diversifying their operations on a global scale and increasing the company’s sales turnover. The company has on its part expanded globally to parts of Asia, North America and Europe. In addition to that, technology management in Telstra Corporation plays a big role in relation to sustainability related issues and strategies. In particular, digitalization of the company’s operations reduces its costs of operations by a big margin. In addition to that, digitalizing the company’s operations is used as a way of giving back to the society. The community in which Telstra thrives is empowered digitally with support from the company. Telstra Corporation is also a big name in entrepreneurial and innovation circles. Its biggest innovation is cloud computing and the company has continued successfully in obtaining mergers and acquisitions globally. It is therefore recommended that future strategies of market share recovery, customer service recovery and further digitalization of the company’s operations be engaged by the management to ensure continued success. Bibliographies Bingemann, M. (2011, February 22). Fighting Funds Pay Off. The Australian. Accessed: 05/22/2014 Durie & John (2011, March 26). Telstra Goes Back for its Future. The Australian. Retrieved 5 October 2011. Available from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/Telstra-Goes-Back-for-its-Future/story-fn91v9q3-1126803602214#mm-prem Elliott, G. (2014, January 17) Thodey’s Telstra has an Asian Future, Tech Entrepreneurs Told. The Australian. Available from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/thodeys-telstra-has-Qn-asian-future-tech-entrepreneurs-told/story-fn91v9q3-1126803602214#mm-prem (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Foo, F. (2011, November 8). Telstra Bucks Complaints Trend. The Australian. Available from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/Telstra-Bucks-Complaint-Trend/story-fn91v9q3-1126803602214#mm-prem (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Hutchinson, J. (2014, March 4). Telstra in Online Push for sales, Service. Australian Financial Review. Accessed: 05/22/2014 Lancaster, H. (2014, May 20) Telstra Corporation Limited Company Overview and Operating Statistics. Available from http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Telstra-Corporation-Limited-Company-Overview-and-Operating-Statistics.html/ (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Lee & Tracy (2011, August 11). Telstra Reveals Social Networking Strategy. The Australian. Available from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/Telstra-Reveals-Social-Networking-Strategy/story-fn98v9q3-1126867602214#mm-prem (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Nicoletti, B. (2014, February) Using Operational Analytics to Achieve a Digitized, Visible Supply Chain. Available from http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/#. (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Palmer, C. (2012, February 2) Telstra Details Benefits of Social Media Service Strategy. Technology Spectator. Accessed: 05/22/2014 Sharma, M. (2012, June 26) Telstra the ‘White Whale’ for Oz Entrepreneurs. Available from http://www.zdnet.com/telstra-the-white-whale-for-oz-entrepreneurs-1339340322/ (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Solomon, M. (2013, September 23) Service Recovery. Forbes. Available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2013/09/23/if-youre-perfect-you-dont-need-to-read-this-article/ (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Telstra Aims to Close Online Gap with Rivals. The Age (Melbourne). Available from http://www.theage/Telstra-aims-to-close-online-gaps-with-rivals/ (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Telstra's Online Self-service Proves a Hit with Customers. The Sydney Morning Herald. Available from http://www.thesydneymorningherald.au/Telstra’s-online-self-service-proves-a-hit-with-customers/ (Accessed: 05/22/2014) Tung, L. (2009, May 8). Telstra CEO: Who is David Thodey? ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Accessed: 05/22/2014 Yin, E. & Williamson, P. (2011, May/June) Rethinking Innovation for a Recovery. Global Business. Available from http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/global.business/rethinking-innovation-for-a-recovering#.U31rCPJyHcy(Accessed: 05/22/2014) Read More