Telco industry shocked at Digi official's quitting

Friday April 9, 2010

Why did Johan Dennelind quit since he was doing well at DiGi? That is the question being asked around at many lunch tables on Thursday

IT has come as a big shock to the industry that Johan Dennelind has called it a day at DiGi.Com Bhd.

That means those who are used to this soft-spoken man will miss him. He is the sort that would not kill an ant.

But why did he quit since he was doing well at DiGi? That is the question being asked around at many lunch tables yesterday.

Has it anything to do with Telenor’s 49% stake in DiGi or was it about career advancement? Whatever, he has chosen to remain silent and is away on holiday with his family.
May 17 is his last day at DiGi after clocking in two years.

Dennelind has done a lot in the past two years while at the helm of DiGi. He is credited for the operational efficiency, something needed since margins in the cellular business is thinning. He also was instrumental in charting the future course of DiGi when it got the 3G spectrum in 2008. He understood perfectly well what the 3G spectrum could do for DiGi and how to tackle the Malaysian broadband market that had suffered downtime.

The 1 Low Flat Rate to all networks across prepaid, postpaid and business segment is a plan which is the envy of many operators. And under his leadership DiGi managed to become the most admired company for innovation for the third year running, an award that came from Wall Street Journal Asia.

Johan Dennelind

Where he is headed is unclear, but there is something about DiGi’s CEOs. They often get snapped up by international firms. Years ago Richard Shearer, the chief operating officer of then DiGi Swisscom Bhd was snapped up by a British telco and Dennelind’s predecessor Morten Lundal got into Vodafone.

Soon enters Henrik Clausen at DiGi. He is from Telenor Denmark and is said to have vast knowledge of the broadband business and that is just apt given the fact that DiGi is pinching market share in the broadband area in Malaysia. He has his own credentials and let’s hope he scores marks the way Shearer, Lundal and Dennelind did.

DiGi as a company has done well, be it in profits, market position or its share price, and Telenor as an investor has stayed true to the market even at times when it failed to get spectrum from the Government.

What Dennelind and Lundal have done for DiGi is phenomenal. Lundal, credited for having destroyed the old culture and created DiGi’s own innovative culture and Dennelind for operational efficiency.
The stakes are therefore high for Clausen. His challenge is to ensure that DiGi continues to shine and retain or expand market share, but at no cost, should the culture of innovation be changed.
Broadband is an area that needs to be further developed in DiGi’s bid to grow non-voice revenues at a time when fast speed fixed line broadband is creating waves. Skeptics say profits there may be but hope the culture of ploughing back into the business be retained and the interest of minorities taken care of.
This is nothing Telenor does not know about but the skeptics will have cause for concern since the resignation of Dennelind has come as a shock.
l B.K. Sidhu is deputy news editor. She picked up two Norwegian words – farvel and velkommen – and takes this opportunity to wish Dennelind “farvel” and “velkommen” to Clausen.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/9/business/6019692&sec=business