Lessons from the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry
The telecom industry has always been innovative, but the innovation has been mostly incremental. Over the past century, we had telegraphs, then wired telephones, then wireless phones, then cell phones, and now we have smartphones. Up until the smartphone, the iterations were not fully reimagined products, just significant improvements on the existing products of the era. Today, we have high-speed internet and smartphones that put most of our communication and entertainment literally at our fingertips. Never has the telecom industry had to reinvent itself to the extent that it does today.
Telecom companies are now essentially media companies, not phone and internet companies. To accommodate all of these changes and to rapidly adapt, telecoms are engaging in an unprecedented number of mergers and acquisitions. A combination of these factors means telecoms need to constantly rethink their products and positioning. They also have to build and market new products—and they have to do it quickly. Continue reading
With 73% of the population regularly streaming video, consumers are racing to get streaming-capable devices for the holiday season. Not only has it been reported that Amazon accounted for half of all online Black Friday sales, its own Fire TV stick was the second most popular item sold on its site. Likewise, one of the hottest items this season at big-box stores such as Best Buy, Walmart and Target are smart TVs. There is little doubt that today’s consumer has become comfortable with streaming video and is looking for more ways to stream content. 
Not too long ago, the only viable option for watching video in the home was to subscribe to a cable or satellite TV provider. Sure, there was the fringe population who cut the cord and either relied on over-the-air (OTA) network broadcasts or streamed Netflix onto a PC that would then be connected via a mess of cables, software and converters to a television or projector (phew!). The rest of us, however, were at the mercy of the cable and satellite companies, and virtually every satisfaction study conducted shows that customers have not been happy with these providers for a very long time.
