Skinny boss leaves after six months

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Skinny boss leaves after six months

old3eyes

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#105217 29-Jun-2012 13:13

"CEO of Telecom’s youth-orientated sub brand leaves to “pursue other opportunities”

That used to be "Further their educational experience" when i was in Telecom and this happened..

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/skinny-boss-leaves-after-six-months

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#648628 30-Jun-2012 13:18

old3eyes: "CEO of Telecom’s youth-orientated sub brand leaves to “pursue other opportunities”

That used to be "Further their educational experience" when i was in Telecom and this happened..

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/skinny-boss-leaves-after-six-months

The NBR article

UPDATE 3pm: A source has told NBR ONLINE that departed Skinny Mobile boss Paul O'Shannessey had "a gun to his head" over poor sales.

He is also said to have objected to taking Skinny's marketing in a more meat-and-potatoes direction.

And, certainly, a full page add in the NZ Herald today – pictured – is very straight forward compared to Skinny's edgy earlier, edgier imagery.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/controversial-boss-telecoms-skinny-mobile-out-ck-122108

th3r3turn

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#648634 30-Jun-2012 13:45

hahahahaha

Gourdie won?t release customer numbers but he says Skinny has become the most-liked Facebook site amongst all New Zealand telcos with 85,000 fans.

Yes cause facebook fans make you a great company.

tritex

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#648776 30-Jun-2012 20:43

I know of at least 3 friends who tried them and have since moved to there former provider funnily enough 1 each to Telecom, Voda, 2D. Short Codes don't work is a big thing i hear. No WAP portal to do the plans so if one is not near a computer you cant change it after hours, customer service hours are so short you can't really rely on them. It's pretty much a lack of all things the other companies have. And not a hell of alot cheaper... Improve Skinny or your last customers maybe next....

Batman

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#648804 30-Jun-2012 21:40

I'm obviously not a business person but I thought it was dumb to create something inferior that was set up to fail - why don't just make up another skinny looking plan under the telecom umbrella??? So simple!

thinkingtrex8848

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#650744 4-Jul-2012 16:28

I might be one of those who is going to revert back to old network two degrees in my case. i had expected skinny to be the next best thing but probably not. after all they see ownedby telecom..

ubergeeknz

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#650766 4-Jul-2012 17:22

My thoughts on Skinny...

An attempt by Telecom to get a piece of the "budget" market currently being dominated by 2degrees, using spare capacity on the XT network, and taking all of that pie by selling retail directly.

Flawed because - they are not cheaper, don't offer a better customer experience, and will never be "cool and edgy" for so long as they are a subsidiary of Telecom and have all the expectations that go with it. Anyone thinking not in terms of the status quo will be summarily rounded up and booted out.

If Telecom want to sell their excess capacity, maybe they should make it attractive at a wholesale level, and a cottage industry will grow around it to sell it to end customers that Telecom could never get. When the small fish run out of steam just buy them up and bam, instant retail customer base they never had to sell, in the case of "solution" resellers they have at least a small piece of a pie they would have never had at all.

I guess the fear is that someone competes with their beloved "high value" XT product, IMO, almost impossible for any small or new players and unlikely for any big players to move on it.

geek4me

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#650789 4-Jul-2012 17:52

Skinny newspaper advertisements that offer their $4 plans and don't actually say what they are is not good advertising in my opinion. You have to look on the web to see what you get for your $4.

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ubergeeknz

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#650791 4-Jul-2012 17:53

geek4me: Skinny newspaper advertisements that offer their $4 plans and don't actually say what they are is not good advertising in my opinion. You have to look on the web to see what you get for your $4.

Sounds like it was effective to me.. if you bothered to look anyway :D

geek4me

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#650792 4-Jul-2012 17:55

I'd checked the prices before I saw the newspaper ads.

old3eyes

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#650836 4-Jul-2012 18:51

ubergeeknz: My thoughts on Skinny...

An attempt by Telecom to get a piece of the "budget" market currently being dominated by 2degrees, using spare capacity on the XT network, and taking all of that pie by selling retail directly.

Flawed because - they are not cheaper, don't offer a better customer experience, and will never be "cool and edgy" for so long as they are a subsidiary of Telecom and have all the expectations that go with it. Anyone thinking not in terms of the status quo will be summarily rounded up and booted out.

I don't see how XT 44c/ min is cheaper than Skinnys 39c/ min or XTs 20c / SMS is cheaper than Skinnys 9c/SMS.

My wife is away this week and is on XT One Bill which charges 57 c / minute so I gave her a Skinny SIM that does 40 min for $4. Hard to beat that on prepay..

Regards,

Old3eyes

ubergeeknz

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#650849 4-Jul-2012 19:25

old3eyes:
ubergeeknz: My thoughts on Skinny...

An attempt by Telecom to get a piece of the "budget" market currently being dominated by 2degrees, using spare capacity on the XT network, and taking all of that pie by selling retail directly.

Flawed because - they are not cheaper, don't offer a better customer experience, and will never be "cool and edgy" for so long as they are a subsidiary of Telecom and have all the expectations that go with it. ?Anyone thinking not in terms of the status quo will be summarily rounded up and booted out.?

I don't see how XT 44c/ min is cheaper than Skinnys 39c/ min or XTs 20c / SMS is cheaper than Skinnys 9c/SMS.

My wife is away this week and is on XT One Bill which charges 57 c / minute so I gave her a Skinny SIM that does 40 min for $4. ?Hard to beat that on prepay..?

Sorry, wasn't comparing with XT but rather 2degrees, which is more the market they are competing in.

thinkingtrex8848

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#650954 4-Jul-2012 21:35

Talked to skinny they pretty much told me they targeting teens and not willing to accommodate corporate slash business users who need both calling mins and data.

freitasm

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#651709 6-Jul-2012 09:55

Just received:

Skinny has announced the appointment of Mr Paul Taylor to the role of Chief Skinny Officer effective Monday 9^th July, 2012.

Mr Taylor has 16 years telecommunications experience, 10 of those within mobile. He has most recently been with Telecom leading mobile marketing.

Before joining Telecom, Mr Taylor worked for 13 years in the highly competitive UK market for a number of leading Telcos, including British Telecom, Virgin Media and was a Head of Marketing at O2, widely considered to be one of the world’s most successful mobile operators.

In 2008 he was awarded ‘O2 Leader of the Year’ from 12,000 staff. During his time at O2 he was responsible for a number of iconic propositions that went on to define the O2 brand such as O2 Simplicity, Priority and Treats and also worked on the launch of the iPhone to the UK.

Mr Taylor says he is looking forward to joining Skinny and continuing the momentum already created by the Skinny team and adding his considerable mobile experience to build on its commercial success.

Alan Gourdie, Telecom’s executive responsible for Skinny, says he is delighted Mr Taylor has stepped into the top role.

“We’re delighted Paul has moved into this pivotal role to continue building the successful Skinny brand within New Zealand. Paul has a proven mobile track record both here and abroad and understands how the market operates and where opportunities for growth lie. We are confident he will do a great job in continuing Skinny’s success.”

Mr Taylor grew up in New Zealand and graduated from the University of Waikato with a Masters Degree in Marketing and International Management.

OptimizerHQ

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#653104 9-Jul-2012 18:21

ubergeeknz: My thoughts on Skinny...

An attempt by Telecom to get a piece of the "budget" market currently being dominated by 2degrees, using spare capacity on the XT network, and taking all of that pie by selling retail directly.

Flawed because - they are not cheaper, don't offer a better customer experience, and will never be "cool and edgy" for so long as they are a subsidiary of Telecom and have all the expectations that go with it. Anyone thinking not in terms of the status quo will be summarily rounded up and booted out.

If Telecom want to sell their excess capacity, maybe they should make it attractive at a wholesale level, and a cottage industry will grow around it to sell it to end customers that Telecom could never get. When the small fish run out of steam just buy them up and bam, instant retail customer base they never had to sell, in the case of "solution" resellers they have at least a small piece of a pie they would have never had at all.

I guess the fear is that someone competes with their beloved "high value" XT product, IMO, almost impossible for any small or new players and unlikely for any big players to move on it.

Greatly said. With all this facts do you see any future of Skinny brand?

muppet

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#653121 9-Jul-2012 18:57

joker97: I'm obviously not a business person but I thought it was dumb to create something inferior that was set up to fail - why don't just make up another skinny looking plan under the telecom umbrella??? So simple!

Because you don't want to tarnish the brand you're trying to push as the premium network.

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