FAILURE OF THE ONE TEL ON CHANGE MANAGEMENT

PERSPECTIVE

Abstract:
The One Tel is not another start-up we can come across every day because,
in a short span of 6 years, it occupied the Second rank in the position of Australian
Telecommunication companies. But, The One Tel had its growth and collapse at a
fast pace. So, it's essential to study the failure of The One Tel, and this paper
examines the failures that happened in the organization because of not following the
basics of Change management.

Change Management:
Change management is defined as a fundamental management approach to
describing, preparing, equipping, and implementing Change within internal and
external processes. Change management is a set of functions that helps to identify
the Change, assess the risk involved in adapting the Change, place the resources
needed, determine the cost and timeline involved, implement the Change, and
monitor till the Change is in smooth progress at the customer end.

Successful implementation of Change management requires cooperation at

all levels and different independent entities of an organization. Following the
fundamental change management approach will help us to ensure a beneficial
transition while mitigating disruption. But the tricky part in implementing change
management is that people are not optimistic about changing because it disturbs
their routine. Therefore, effective communication is one of effective change
management. Also, prioritizing change management as an essential process will
make individuals understand the importance of Change and cascade the required
changes through all the stages.

Requirement for Change management:

Change is inevitable, and as an organization, Change management needs to
be followed in the below situations:

 Market Condition (Need to adapt to what’s going on in the world)

 Customer Demand (Need for More, Solving fundamental Customer
issues)
 Changing technology (New Technology)
 Input Costs (Cost outweighs profits, raw goods, processing cost)
 Competition (Better alternative)
  Performance gap (Gap to achieve the Goals)
 Organizational Changes (Management, Goals)

Critical Failures of The One Tel:

Input Costs
A periodic review of the Input cost is not done

 During the initial phase of the business, many of the services were provided at
low cost, with low profit, as an initial marketing strategy to get more clients.
But input costs are not revisited after reaching a certain number of clients.
Adding to the inflation, this contributes to a significant loss.
 An inadequate billing system creates less cash flow, making the organization
spend more from the shareholder's money.

Change in Technology
 Resources not identified and deployed - During the addition of an Internet
Service provider, undoubtedly more human resources were deployed for
Marketing and fewer resources deployed for Operations. (CAN DO mindset of
organization)
 Results not reviewed - The billing system created in the Initial phase of the
business doesn't suit the production phase of the company. Therefore, testing
the Billing system concerning the production phase is not done, so no risks
are identified.
 Resources not planned - Not equipped for the addition of Next Gen Mobile
Service, and this made an increase of 50% in billing systems.

Market Condition
 Not prepared for Implementation of GST – The introduction of GST was
done by 2000. The One Tel was not prepared and prioritized much in
implementation. This creates an additional load concerning the billing system.
Training of GST and changes required in the billing system are not
considered.

Customer Demand
 Failure of Issue Resolution – Customer Complaints on the Billing system
were not considered, and issue resolution was not followed

Conclusion:
 The growth rate of The One Tel clearly shows it had excellent skill in
forecasting the exact market demand. Considering the no. of clients, undoubtedly, it
had a good marketing strategy. But continuous growth and increasing market
demand need consistent changes, and the organization was not focused on
implementing those changes. Periodic review of Input Costs, balance in staffing
deployment, understanding of the risks/ requirements on Change, proper resource
allocation to implement Change, issue resolution, identification of gap, and risk
mitigation would have made the organization not collapse, and it would have given
some breathing space to overcome the financial constraints. Unfortunately, the
lethargic attitude of Management towards the fundamental of the Change
management process made the organization collapse unnecessarily.