Telecoms Bosses Expect a Good 2005

Operating executives in North America-based telecommunications services providers, healthcare companies and retailers are most bullish about revenue growth prospects in 2005. Senior operating executives in consumer products companies and manufacturing enterprises are bearish about the year ahead, while executives in life sciences are surprisingly uncertain what 2005 holds.

Those are the findings of a survey of more than 250 operating and line executives in the United States and Canada across eight industry sectors conducted by a major research firm on behalf of Celerant Consulting.

Conducted in early Autumn by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Celerant, the survey found that 67% of executives in telecom companies expect revenue growth in 2005 "Senior executives know that growth puts new pressures on their organizations, especially if they have 'leaned' their business over the past few years," said Bill Jeffery, President of Celerant Consulting's Americas business.

"If they are going to perform as well or better than the competition they must focus on delighting customers through flawless execution. That will require that they ramp up the business accordingly, but executives in the survey overwhelmingly agree that the number one obstacle to strategic initiatives like flawless execution is a lack of human resources." "Top-line growth expectations across so many sectors are also going to put enormous pressure on sales channels - direct and indirect," Jeffery said. "CEOs who invested in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems in the past five years are going to be looking for a return on their investments in 2005. Sales force effectiveness is an imperative this year."

At major wireline and wireless carriers, executives clearly see daylight in 2005-after years of rampant price discounting. "The challenge for many executives will be to maximize existing investments in infrastructure to achieve their profit targets, while innovating in new services in a fairly dynamic market," Jeffery said.

Barely 3% of telecom executives surveyed by Celerant believe their revenues will decline. Some 23% think their sales will be flat relative to 2004. And 7% can't tell whether revenues will go up or down."

Posted to the site on 27th January 2005