TELECOMS & MOBILE
Face-to-Face: Chris Clark, BT Ireland
05-10-2007
by Emmet Ryan
BT Ireland's new boss Chris Clark talks to Emmet Ryan about broadband, the new communications minister, and the challenges for broadband providers in Ireland.
ENN: Where are you originally from Chris and how did you end up in BT?
Clark: I'm originally from England but I spent two years of my childhood living in Australia and half of my working career, which is about 16 years in total, elsewhere, with four years in the US and four years in continental Europe. So whilst I'm from England I don't consider myself necessarily from anywhere.
I graduated from university with a geography degree, applied like a number of my friends unsure of what I wanted to do. I wanted to join a large global company that offered a good graduate programme and I got into BT. Sixteen years and two weeks later I'm still here after swearing blindly that I'd only be here for two years, but BT's evolved beyond recognition since I joined. Being part of that change has been fantastic; it's very difficult to describe what industry we're even in.
ENN: You've been in this job three months, since you have arrived what have you seen as the main challenges for BT Ireland?
Clark: First and foremost the biggest challenge is focus. What has really struck me is the size of the opportunity is so significant for BT. My biggest challenge is to make sure that we as an organisation are focused enough.
We're in a great position in the markets we're in; we're a leader in customer service. One thing that's absolutely critical is that customer service and customer experience is the key. Customer service is the new marketing and so to really ensure that we build on the customer experience is vital.
ENN: Another man who is not terribly long in his new job is the Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan, what's your experience of him to date and what do you expect from him going forward?
Clark: I'd be lying if I said I knew the Minister extremely well but I guess I've been fortunate enough to meet him twice to date. My impression is that he is a very charming man, very intellectual, very bright. He is definitely very supportive of where the industry is going and keen for a competitive market to develop so I feel very positive about him.
What we need to see from the Government and ComReg is to see an ambition and drive to allow a competitive communications and entertainment marketplace and to allow, as much as possible, the private sector to compete on an equal footing.
ENN: One of the parting gifts of Noel Dempsey's era in the Ministry was the apparent resolution of the LLU dispute with Eircom. How do you feel about the progress that has been made on this matter since the announcement was made in May that we apparently have 'peace in our time'?
Clark: I think the progress is very good. We as BT and other LLU operators, the regulator and Eircom have really matured in how we've gone about it. We've rolled out our first 15 exchanges, Eircom has been hugely supportive and so has the regulator.
It's now time for us all as an industry to change the debate. I think there's been too much debate around LLU and this and that. We've got to as an industry change the debate to how do we bring innovative services to the market and how to we succeed in developing customer experience?
ENN: The Irish public has essentially grown up with Eircom, what's it going to take for companies like yourselves to get the public's attention now that this barrier has come down?
Clark: I don't think you'd find if you walked into a major corporate boardroom that this would be an issue, same with the wholesale market. If you then talk about the SME market then yes we've got some work to do with the BT brand. The way that we're addressing that is that we're working with a number of the chambers [of commerce] around the Republic to get ourselves known.
Then if you look at the consumer marketplace where brand is a very significant play then there's a number of ways of skinning a cat. We're very focused on our consumer market around being a fixed broadband provider on a nationwide scale but particularly targeting high LLU areas. What we've been doing recently is very localised marketing to get the brand name out there.
ENN: The sector's image took a dent last year with the Smart debacle. Has there been work by firms like yourselves to make sure you don't get your image hit again?
Clark: I'm not sure we felt any impact at all, so it's not something that worries me. There's a challenge in whatever marketplace you operate in. You're always having to encourage customers to move to you, that's a fact of life. That's what winning's about. It's about being very clear in what you want to achieve. The real way to establish one's brand is not by running a series of adverts but actually by word of mouth. It's the most powerful form of marketing. Get the right customer service, the right customer experience and that becomes your marketing tool.
ENN: One of the problems with customer experience is the national picture. AMAS recently published its broadband map of Ireland which didn't paint a pretty picture. What do you think needs to be done to bridge this divide and allow companies like BT to provide services what you want to?
Clark: It is absolutely vital for Ireland Inc that it has 100 percent or there or thereabouts capability for broadband. Broadband is becoming the fabric of society just like the internet is. It's inherent on the industry and inherent on the Government to act. It's no different in Ireland but it's exaggerated in Ireland because of the geographical distribution. The Government and industry is working together to crack that problem and I think this issue will be off the table before too long.
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