Joe had barely digested the news when
CEO Gerald Segner opened the door. “Why
didn’t we know about this?” he asked,
stern but calm.
“We suspected that TelZip was planning
to go after new markets,” Joe answered.
“But I must admit I didn’t expect it to be
broadband—or for them to give it away
free for life.”
“Look, the ad is a shock, but it’s not
really TelZip I’m worried about,” Segner
said. “We’ve ignored price attacks from
gnats like these in the past, and we always
come out on top. Meridicom is one of the
best-known brands in this country, in
Europe even—and customers, especially
business customers, know and trust our
quality. We don’t want to jeopardize that.
But the real question is: Could this threat
become bigger? The word ‘free’ gets attention, especially from the press. If our larger
competitors follow suit, would customers
then take the offer more seriously?”
“It’s a good question.”
“Don’t forget, this isn’t only free broadband,” Segner continued. “If customers
decide to migrate to TelZip, we’ll lose their
landline revenue and, worse, the connection between the local exchange and their
home or office. That’s the umbilical cord—
it’s how we gather data about customers
and figure out how to build and sell them
tomorrow’s telecom services.”
“Do you really think
people will renew their
contracts with us out of
nostalgia?”
Joe nodded. He may have been new
to the business, but he understood the
importance of owning the “last mile” in
the network.
“This is just the sort of thing I brought
you over from Pimmit for,” Segner
said. “You picked the right fights there,
internally and externally. You got the
division heads to work together and even
built market share with all those newbies
nipping at your heels. And you did it
without hurting the brand. I’m sure you
can do it again here.”
Heels Dug In
An hour later Joe and the Meridicom
division heads—Adam Dupree at Landline,
Emeline Ricard at Broadband, and Frank...