Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (00:16):
Welcome back to Extra Shot for the last broadcast live from Windsor at the DSP Leaders World Forum. I bet you two are very tired after the past two days because you were on stage. Of course moderating many, many very rich discussions with our telco leaders and it's thank to wrap up two exceptional days, but I want to talk about the very last session before we move on to highlights and key takeaways from the past two days. The last session was dedicated to focusing on the customer. Do you think that amid discussions around network automation, ai, hybrid cloud, et cetera, with somehow losing track of what the customer is really after what they need and want? Great.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (01:02):
And I think that this industry is quite guilty of that in general. And what we tried to do this year was make a conscious effort while having those discussions to always try and swing it back to the customer and remind everybody that we were going to have a session at the end that was devoted to the customer needs and customer requirements. So we did try to keep that in mind. Why are we introducing ai? Why do we need to make things automated? At the end of the day, nobody's doing this just because they can anymore. It's all for a reason and it's usually around money, but there's also the customer aspect as well. Can we make the experience better or are we able to create new services? I think what was really interesting in that last panel was the poll result because we asked what would make customers' lives better essentially.

(02:06):
And one of the three options was lower prices. And I was sure that that was going to be the most popular answer and it was by far the least popular answer. Having personalized services and a better interaction, a better engagement with the service provider, far out, shun, far out, shunned, the lower prices. So it just goes to show that if you want to retain customers and be able to do more business with them, treating them better and delivering to them what they actually need, that is the answer. This industry knows that, but it very rarely acts on it. And I think that is the problem the industry faces, right?

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (02:45):
Yeah, absolutely. And I was very surprised at that result, but I wonder if we'd only asked consumers, people outside of the industry, I wonder if they would've said, yeah, lower prices. But the reality is no, it's a better experience and we hear about this so often, but you feel that not a lot's been done for it. So as Ray said, we made sure we tried to get the customer the focus on the customer throughout the sessions for both days. It was very important.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (03:13):
I was not surprised by the result from the survey because you've actually mentioned the word experience, and let's face it, we are moving towards an experience-based economy aren't for you. And I think that especially among the younger generation, I'm the mother of teenage boys, so I know that today would be ready to pay more for that personalized experience. And of course for always greater, better connectivity. Of course. So let's go back to the discussions we've been having here for the past two days. What really sticks with you in terms of the key messaging? How much have they changed compared to last year or the previous years Last year, for instance, I remember we talked a lot to rent on topics linked to sustainability and skills. For instance, still did this year of course, but maybe not so much. We talked about ai of course, a lot because everyone's talking about ai. Let's face it. So share your key takeaways and the highlights from your perspective.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (04:05):
Okay. You'll always have topics of the day and there there'll always be trends. And every year it'd be a new trend. I'm pleased that it felt to me there was more in depth and open discussion and a willingness to really tell as close to the truth as these guys are probably going to go. And that was really refreshing. I mean, we tagged this event, unleashing the digital services opportunity. There's been a few jokes about unleashing, but the message is very clear that it's about services because that's what the customers want to, that's what they're after, the services, the customers need the services, so everything's got to tie back in. So I was very pleased that all the discussions focused in on that to a greater extent than perhaps we've seen before.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (04:55):
Yeah, we did ask the speakers, the co-hosts and the panelists to bring a reality check and not just be coming with corporate messages. And it helps that we at this event that we don't have just pure slideware and vendor presentations, not to do the vendors down, but people see that as other events. They just want to hear what's really going on in the industry. And actually I think more than ever before the speakers and the co-hosts did bring that to, and I think that was really shown in the first session today on network APIs and Lauren led Boucher from Orange was the co-host, and he steamed straight in with essentially, he said, we bug it up in the past and we need to make sure we don't do it again. We don't know how this is going to play out. How often do we hear people saying that, but we're going to give it a go, okay, yeah, this is really what's happening, not somebody going, this is definitely going to work. Everybody wants it and we're going to make a whole load of money out of it. So I think it's that to build from that realistic viewpoint was really encouraging. It got a few backs up, but that meant that people were really on their metal and had to be on their best game. Nobody here could get away with them, throw away or flimsy comments because they were going to get picked up for sure by the other speakers.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (06:22):
And I think you've touched upon something very important here. In order to succeed, the transformation the industry's undertaking or undergoing at the moment, being humble is important, isn't it? Admitting that you need to be realistic. What does

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (06:34):
That mean?

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (06:36):
But I thought that our telco leaders here were very realistic and humble, weren't they? To admit that you don't really know where some aspects of technological developments are taking us. Yeah. Isn't admission that they lack clarity. Everyone lacks clarity, let's face it. But what's going to make the difference then in this context, leadership, collaboration, experimentation. We've heard

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (06:57):
This a few times about the need for leadership in the teams, especially the cloud native software teams conversation, for example. You can't just parachute in a couple of experts and hope it changes everything. You've got to have that leadership throughout the organization. So mindset, there was another one. It's a bit of a culture of telecom. Bingo here. These are important. It's very important to do that.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (07:19):
Yeah, and you mentioned that wasn't a particular focus, but that cropped up organically as did energy efficiency. So these things and security does as well. So we didn't have particular sessions on those topics, but they cropped up time and time again, I think to show that it's not all about ai. That these topics that were really high profile last year, they haven't gone away. They're now becoming part of every conversation. So I think that was good. That really played out.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (07:49):
So I know you're both probably very tired. I'm going to challenge you a little bit to finish this conversation and maybe to list at the top three main challenges the telco industry should be addressing right now in order of priority. There you go. Little challenge to finish the day, keep you on your toes.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (08:08):
I'm going to go first and try and steal the best ones.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (08:10):
Oh, no, no. Okay,

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (08:12):
Good. So the top three challenges, I think number one, engaging better with the B2B market, the enterprise users. I've been banging on about this for ages. The industry, the service providers have been trying to do this and talking about trying to do it for 30 years and they still haven't successfully done it. But if they don't do it, then they really do face an existential crisis because that's where a lot of the money that currently isn't coming in, that's where it sits. So they have to deal with that. They have to come up.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (08:48):
Did Ray still answer? That's 0.1. That's

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (08:50):
0.1. So Ray gambled on going first for the easy one, but that means it's going to go last for hard one. So I really,

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (08:56):
I love the competition between you by the way.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (08:58):
So it's number two, number

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (08:59):
2 0 3 between us. I got, yeah, I got,

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (09:02):
Okay, we can make it that way.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (09:03):
Yeah. Number two is don't innovate for technology's sake. Don't just follow the technology. Think about the product, the services, the need of the customer.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (09:13):
Think about giving a solution to an existing problem, I guess. I think a lot of the leaders on stage actually mentioned that starting from a solution rather than just trying something fun for the sake of it.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (09:26):
And that comes back to that enterprise thing. And I think thirdly then, and this, as you already pointed out, cropped up last year, it's about the skills thing. And it cropped up again this year about how does this industry present itself potentially to the people that might come and work in it. And I can't remember who it was earlier said, if you said to somebody coming out of university or even school, we've got this problem of massive amount of streaming data that we need to deal with, come and help us make it better and improve streaming experiences. People would jump at that. But if you said to them, do you want to come and work for a telecom company? They wouldn't even give you the time of day. So I think repositioning and representing the industry to the kind of people that are looking for jobs in AI and still at the hyperscalers and still at the big tech companies to attract them into the industry that is like, it's a big challenge, but ultra important.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (10:27):
No more challenges, but maybe as a final word, a conclusion. Why do you want the forum to retain its intimacy? It's quite a small gathering, isn't it? And it's important, isn't it, to create that safe space for people to have real open conversations. Because you mentioned that a lot of people were watching us online, but that doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to open the doors to absolutely everyone to join us or will you in the future. How do you think the forum is going to evolve going forward?

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (10:56):
I think they have the best of both worlds here. We can reach a global audience from the live streaming and they can listen and take in what's been said on the sessions. But if you really want to participate or quiz the guests here and participate fully, you've got to be here. But by keeping it small, as you say, it's intimate, it's a nicer feeling. You don't feel lost. You feel your voice is important and you are going to be heard. And it's a difficult balance. You don't want to go too big in person, otherwise it's a completely different field to the event.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (11:31):
But we can go bigger and we should do, because there are still important elements, parts of the jigsaw puzzle of this industry that we don't have in this room. We don't have developers. We had hyperscalers this year, which is great, but we don't necessarily have big enterprises, so we can bring in more people, but not the thousands. I think that the small number in one setting, in one room, breaking out into streams, no, thank you. No. This is all about making sure that everybody is focused. And I think the fact that we got to the end of two really intensive days, and there's still a lot of people here, some people are still playing pimble. That's fantastic. This is what it's all about. This means that people are really engaged with what we're doing here, and we do actually hear it. People like the format and they come back. So that's a vote of confidence.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (12:23):
Very much so. There's a great, very friendly atmosphere here. You wanted to say I would.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (12:27):
Can I just say thank you for all what you do here with extra shots and talking to all the guests and the team here, Louise and Phil, behind the scenes who are making all this work. It's appreciated.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (12:36):
Absolutely. A hundred percent. Great job.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (12:37):
Yeah, I think that's very important. Indeed. Thank you to all the people at telecom TV helping us, all the sponsors and partners. Of course, without home, this just wouldn't be happening. Of course. Well, many thanks. You must be so tired after two days of intense conversations. But congratulations, I'm

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (12:52):
Going to sleep in a pint of

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (12:53):
Whiskey. Yeah, I think you can

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (12:56):
Sleeping in the ground because we've

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (12:57):
Dropped. You have my blessing for sure. I mean, you've done a fantastic job here on Stato. Well done to both of you, guy Daniels and from TelecomTV. That's it from us. An extra shot. Thank you for watching and I wish you all the very best. Of course.