BT and Virgin Media are the sole suppliers of fibre optic broadband connections to homes and businesses in the UK and, while Virgin Media connects for its own business, other companies such as Talk Talk, Sky and Vodaphone are forced to use Openreach and have been spending years arguing that it should be separated from BT’s other businesses – a view that UK regulator OffCom agrees with. Last week BT announced that it intends to separate OpenReach from its other businesses by creating its own board, although retaining ownership. You’ll want to think about the consequences.
My (somewhat dystopian) view of 2017 – it will be a year of modest growth despite major social, political and economic changes which will make doing business more complicated. To make the most of the opportunities suppliers should launch Blockchain and virtual reality offerings, look to oil-producing countries for growth, replace their (increasingly irrelevant) marketing themes, restructure to address core business and manage profitability more than revenue growth. I encourage you to build stronger corporate and social responsibility (CSR) strategies, which should include where and how much corporation tax you pay; you should try to emulate the large Japanese corporations who include their workers and families as stakeholders alongside their owners and shareholders.
