The value of IT for your business

It is hard to imagine how the business world ever survived without the current technology and IT services, without the internet, and without the ability to communicate instantaneously with people any where, any time. Whilst attending the North American Next Generation Telecoms Summit, Adam Burns caught up with Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi, Chairman & CEO, 2020 Venture Partners and former CIO and CTO at AT&T.

Dr. Eslambolchi spoke with Adam about his view on the networks of the future, and how important it is to communicate and demonstrate the value of IT in business.

Whilst at AT&T, Dr. Eslambolchi was at the forefront of the company's deep transformation, but not before overcoming some institutional challenges. Before he arrived, AT&T was burdened by far too many goals and objectives, leaving staff confused as to the direction of the company. Dr. Eslambolchi made sure that AT&T's objectives were reduced to just three primary goals for the entire company, and each individual's personal goals would also be focused around these targets. His aim was to make the whole organisation more efficient, giving the customers a better experience.

Dr. Eslambolchi's philosophy was to "keep it simple" and too avoid complexity at all costs. Before he arrived at AT&T, there were 14 layers of management, he reduced this to seven in an effort to speed up decision making, and give customers a better opportunity at reaching high level management. He claims that all of this was geared towards benefiting the entire company, from shareholders to customers. Dr. Eslambolchi saw the necessity to concentrate on a "cultural" transformation as well as transforming networks and services.

"It took Jack Welch nearly 20 years to do the transformation in General Electric," Dr. Eslambolchi tells Adam Burns in this candid and wide-ranging interview. "If you go to IBM with Lou Gerstner, it took him almost 15 years to do the transformation. We did the transformation at AT&T when I was there in about three years."

Dr. Eslambolchi has always insisted that the future of the world's IT networks lies in evolution, revolution. He talks about how "legacy-based" networks will have to evolve into an IP-based future, and will not a case of simply flicking a switch, as databases and customers still rely heavily on legacy networks and many components have to be migrated.

Dr. Eslambolchi believes the future on the industry lies "on the edge of the network", in the shape of things like GPS and SmartPhones.

When Adam mentioned Google CEO, Eric Schmidt's vision of mobile location-based advertising and services revolutionizing the industry through the "recreation of the internet and recreation of the PC", Dr. Eslambolchi wholeheartedly agreed with Schmidt. However, he did express concerns of the level of analytics that would have to be done in order to get the "right level of advertising to the right individuals".

Yet, Dr. Eslambolchi did insist that if any company has the resources to combat the network, access and customer challenges of an IP-based paradigm and lead the way in the future of out networks - it's Google.

To watch the full interview with Dr. Hossain Eslambolchi, plus many more fantastic interviews dedicated specifically to your business, visit MeetTheBoss.com.

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