Goodbye Sun Cellular?

“…dusk is the time when men whisper of matters about which they remain silent…” – Simon Raven

It started out as a mere whisper within the four corners of the board room after our wireless consumer head Ariel Fermin took over from Charles Lim in May. A few months later, the whisper about Sun Cellular being dissolved is now slowly echoing within every floor of Smart Tower. 

Top 3 Reasons why Smart can no longer climb back the saddle

“We have fallen off the saddle. We’ll climb back and ride on it but it will take a while. This year will be tough.” These were the frustrating words that our beloved chair Manny V. Pangilinan reluctantly uttered during the 2nd quarter report to the media.

The post-Charles A. Lim era created a positive perception within the organization that the newly appointed head of the wireless consumer business, Ariel Fermin, would lead us to recovery. We all knew that the task at hand is not a walk in the park.

This blog was silent for a while because we wanted to give our new boss the benefit of the doubt.  We needed to support him like how we embraced Noel Lorenzana and Charles Lim when they first took over.

But a few months after the announcement of the much anticipated leadership revamp, it seems that, still, nothing has changed in the wireless business. We have become very aggressive in terms of marketing visibility. However, there are no game-changing and innovative marketing programs in sight that would catapult us back to leadership or back to that “saddle”. Aggressive marketing campaigns won’t get us the much needed numbers, as seen in the 1st half of the year.

We strongly believe that we will never recover due to the following reasons:

1) Bad Eggs. The company continues to undergo organizational change. Many have been offered their lucrative walking papers but many of the bad eggs are still very much in charge. If MVP wants change, he needs a massive change of leadership team. There are rumors that Poly is about to retire but it’s not just him or the people that they kicked out. The existing leadership team members who are traditional telco professionals are the ones pulling us down because of their old school strategic mindset disguised as innovation. These people will always implement old school approaches.

2) Old Dogs Can Never Learn New Tricks. MVP said that the company is preparing to adapt to evolving telco landscape. How can this become a reality if the two prong strategy of the new leadership is basically “Bash the competitor with a different brand (Sun) while the flagship brand (Smart) is copying what the competitor is doing.”

Let me give you an example. When Joel Lumanlan launched the brand refresh for Sun Cellular, many were hopeful that this would be the game changer to jumpstart the momentum in the postpaid segment. Apparently, the brand refresh was nothing more than changing the brand tagline and offering the same value proposition that Charles Lim started in 2006. The competitor has been selling a lifestyle and no longer postpaid plans. But wait there is more. The advertising materials bashed Globe (probably because the tagline Choose Better is designed to show that competitor is inferior).  We already did that attack-the-competitor-strategy when we launched “Live More” during the time of Noel.

We even spend advertising monies to do this bashing thing. Check this out http://rodmagaru.com/2015/08/18/madonna-rebel-hear-manila-concert-brand-defamation-responsible-journalism/

Then while we are wasting A&P budget to bashing the competitor, we are copying them with our Smart Life brand repositioning offering basically what they have right now such as Free Instagram, Iflix, BigBytes, among others. There is nothing wrong here but if we want to be on top again, we need to change the game and not play the game of our competitor.

3) Revenue vs. Subscriber Base. I was one of those laughing when Globe announced that they are number 1 based on revenue early this year. But after hearing MVP say that we have fallen off the saddle and have declined company performance, I am now having second thoughts on the measurement of leadership. We still have the higher the subscriber base against Globe but they have the higher revenue.  It’s only a couple of months before 2015 ends, I just hope the number of subscribers we have now can give us the amount bonus we used to have when we were still on top.

We have indeed fallen of the saddle.

TOP 4 RUMORS WHY CHARLES LIM IS STILL HERE

CONTRIBUTORS’S NOTE:  We are back! After our last post “A Quick Guide to the Rumors inside SMART”

 (http://smartbehindthescenes.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-quick-guide-to-rumors-inside-smart.html), we were overwhelmed by the traffic it generated. Honestly, we became afraid and feared for our job security here (not that we have one anyway). We even contemplated of shutting down this blog site after it was cited in Philippine Daily Inquireronline  last April 10 in their BizBuzz column but it mysteriously disappeared after (note: the article about it is now gone - http://business.inquirer.net/189965/biz-buzz-management-shakeup).But after a secret meeting with all the contributors composing of existing and former employees of Smart (some were offered the walking papers last year), we decided to continue our crusade for the love of Smart.  We want the old glory of our beloved company restored. We will be the eyes, ears and voice of all the employees who are loyal and whose family livelihood relies on the well-being of the company. And so here is another edition of Smart Behind the Scenes.

Perhaps many of you were surprised when our beloved Chairperson MVP announced the recent organizational movement. Contrary to the rumors circulated for the past months, Charles A. Lim or CAL as we call him is still part of the PLDT organization. The announcement killed all the rumors about CAL’s supposedly imminent exodus. But it only gave birth to a new series of rumors on why he is still here which we all gathered and compiled to share it with you.

Here are the TOP 4 Rumors Why CAL Is Still Here:

NUMBER 4:  CAL overpriced himself to SMC.

According to a very reliable source, there was indeed an offer from the camp of Ramon Ang to bring in CAL to head the upcoming third player telco in the country. However, our sources revealed that he asked too much. When CAL was offered to lead Sun back in the day, JG Summit big boss James Go offered him a fortune like international scholarships for his children in the country of their choice, a luxury car, at least a 7-figure monthly salary excluding bonuses and a lot more.  How much did he ask? Let’s just say it’s at least double than what he is getting now. The SMC group found his asking price ridiculous and drop the idea altogether.

NUMBER 3: James Go to the Rescue.

After the dismal performance of Smart for several consecutive quarters, everyone knew that he was on his way out and it was only a matter of time. But CAL they say has an ace up his sleeve and that is his patron, James Go, Chairman of JG Summit and PLDT Board Member. Rumor has it that because of CAL’s sterling performance as business unit head of Sun Cellular, Mr. James has CAL’s back.  We heard that it was Mr. James who endorsed CAL to MVP to head both Smart and Sun in 2013 to replace Noel Lorenzana.  Many believed that he is again responsible why CAL is still with PLDT today.

NUMBER 2:  We pre-empted his departure! It’s our FAULT!!!

Before we published our last blog post, many of us here were certain that CAL was already on his way out.  Everyone in Smart Tower was hopeful and excited that justice can be attained here against his Machiavellian rule.  We too got excited and we published “A Quick Guide to the Rumors inside SMART”.   After a few weeks, this was featured in BizBuzz column in Philippine Daily Inquirer online where San Miguel executives denied that they were in talks with CAL and where Boss Poly disputed all rumors written in our blog.  Perhaps management changed their mind to prove this blog wrong. Funny, the portion about management shake-up that cited this blog vanished (good thing we have a screenshot, see below).   You have to hand it to our Public Affairs team, they know how to put out a fire. But this also reflects negatively on the business editorial of PDI for succumbing to pressure by removing online the said published material.  They even forgot to remove the tags of Napoleon Nazareno, Manuel V. Pangalinan, Sun Cellular, and PLDT. This only strengthens our credibility and our resolve to continue this blog.  #WeAreNotAfraid

NUMBER 1: The Ateneo-Basketball Connection

From being the head of individual wireless business for Smart and Sun, CAL now reports directly to MVP as the head of wireless strategic investments and acquisition group. Our chairman was quoted that CAL will be with him on a “secret mission”.  You have to give it to CAL, he knows how to save his ass. Good thing he was a former Ateneo Blue Eagle Basketball player.  Go figure!

A Quick Guide to the Rumors inside SMART

The entire Smart organization has become a big corporate grapevine for tons of rumors these days. Many are confused and are afraid of being affected by the organizational change that might be implemented in the coming days.  Here is a guide to the rumors and we hope it will enlighten you and guide you properly.

1. Is it true that the head of our mobile business, Charles A. Lim, is out?

Yes. According to multiple reliable sources, after the company incurred a P5 Billion revenue loss due to the Free Internet Promo since September 2014 which angered MVP, Charles A. Lim also knowned as CAL was asked to step down early March of this year.  Inside PLDT group, the Free Internet Promo is called as the great free mobile data fiasco. The failure of CAL’s price war strategy did not work in Smart and it dragged down the revenue of the entire PLDT group. Another reason is our low morale as Smart Employees. Since he stepped in to take over the mobile business, CAL replaced good people in Smart with his people in Sun. This was known as the great Sun takeover. All key positions were taken over by Sun executives.  We even heard that he engineered the removal of Jane Basas out of Smart. Karma is a bitch!

2. Where will Charles A. Lim go?

There are reports from the same reliable sources that he is on his way to SMCTel to start their telco venture.  Hopefully, his marketing expertise will work there like what he did when he started Sun Cellular.

3. Who will replace him?

Temporarily, Ariel Fermin from PLDT Home will replace CAL and will head the mobile business unit. We hope that he won’t make any “wais” move like what he did during the Gilas vs. NBA Exhibition Game Scandal. There are also reports that former Smart boss and now TV5 head honcho Noel Lorenzana will make a comeback. 

4. What about Big Boss Polly Nazareno?

We should give the guy some break.  With all due respect, our most senior executive who led us during our glory days should be spared from all these rumors inside the company. But we heard from the grapevine that when he retires, PLDT’s Eric Alberto will be his shoe-in successor. 

5. What will happen to Sun employees who were transferred to Smart?

Like what our Chairman MVP said, job security in Smart is suspended unless everyone performs accordingly and unless we recover from the loss revenue brought about by our out-of-date-marketing-directions thanks to CAL. Whether you are long-time Smart employees like me or transferee from Sun, unless we perform, “we have no job security”.  But we think those who are close to CAL and hold key positions are in immediate danger of being replaced, removed and fired.

We hope that this guide helped you achieve clarity and not more confusion. More to come!