Telecom's entire executive team has cut up its corporate credit cards, as the company starts an efficiency drive that chief executive Paul Reynolds is telling staff will put an end to the company "waffling around."

Savings of "at least $100 million" are being targeted from capital spending plans, while the company can save "tens of millions by just looking at the way we spend individually."

"The entire executive team has cut up their credit cards, including myself," says Reynolds. "We're going to cut credit cards in Telecom to 1000 from 3500 in coming months."

Meanwhile, Reynolds is also signalling a shake-up in the way the national telco does business internally, and with its partners.

"We've got poor accountability, we're siloed in our decision-making, and our core processes and operations aren't working well enough. That's the challenge, and it's a big one. While it might sound dramatic, we can't afford to waffle around anymore."

With respect to its product mix, Reynolds says that by 2013 "instead of being in every market, every segment, we would have chosen markets where we have competitive advantage and where there are profits to be made.