TECHNOLOGY SPECTATOR: Finding Australia Post’s missing piece
The appointment of former Optus executive Maha Krishnapillai to Australia Post could be a catalyst for structural change at the government-owned enterprise, although a rush into becoming a telco is not on the cards. Meanwhile, IT services outfit CSG keeps its cards close to its chest on the mystery $340 million takeover offer it received around two months ago, iiNet boss Michael Malone makes no secret of his desire to buy Adelaide-based ISP’s Adam and Internode and Microsoft is rumoured to be preparing another bid for Yahoo.
Australia Post
The head of Optus government and corporate affairs Maha Krishnapillai has found a new home at Australia Post and the news of his appointment got pulses racing, albeit briefly, about the possibility of the government-owned postal service company making deeper inroads into the local telco sector.
News of Krishnapillai’s appointment was first reported by Comms Day, which chose to put quite an aggressive twist on the appointment, hinting at a major assault on the telco industry. However, though still interesting, the reality is somewhat tamer.
Krishnapillai may have grabbed the attention in the last couple of years as Optus’ voice at the NBN negotiations but the talented executive, who spent a decade at Macquarie Telecom and was the former Optus Victorian manager, is seemingly quite happy to take a breather from the regulatory side of things and dive back into the hurly burly of retail services. He is now set to join Post’s retail services division in a role that will see him focus on the postal company’s existing telecommunications business.
That doesn’t automatically imply that Post is getting ready to become a telco, just as the appointment of former NAB star Ahmed Fahour as chief executive in late 2009 didn’t see the postal company turn into a bank. Post actually has a presence in both the banking and the telco space, where it provides prepaid mobiles and broadband services. It doesn’t actually provide any services of its own but the talk is that it may now try to leverage Krishnapillai’s experience to package itself as a reseller of services on the NBN.
Article source: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Australia-Post-Optus-Maha-Krishnapillai-telco-bank-pd20111128-NZV9S?opendocument&src=rss
I feel sorry for Maha Krisnapillai joining Australia Post, an organisation top heavy with under achievers and nepotism.
His first task should be to visit an actual retail post office and try to find a happy worker, I guarantee he won’t, most divisions of AP are understaffed and overworked with unrealistic targets.