Appetite for change led to tough chance

Kieren Cooney, general manager of marketing at Telecom. Photo / Sarah Ivey

It could easily be described as the job no one would want - rebuilding Telecom's battered brand after the debacle of XT.

But after talking through the pros and cons with a couple of good mates, Kieren Cooney decided it was for him.

Even a last-minute restructure that saw his job title and responsibilities change from director of mobile, replacing American domiciled "Mr XT" Paul Hamburger, to chief marketing officer for Telecom Retail didn't put him off.

"I fully had an appetite for changes in that role as [they] occurred. I think you need to be in this industry. You need to not hold on to a job or a job title or even a function. You kind of get in there and move with where the opportunity is for the company," Cooney said.

Moving with the opportunity has seen Cooney work not only as an executive for competitor Vodafone, but also as chief executive for Telecom's dealer partner, Leading Edge, during the past 10 years.

The attraction of the Telecom job was it was free from the constraints of an overseas head office.

"There was no global roadmap that you were rolling out, there was no global agenda of which New Zealand was just a part of, there wasn't a short-term play to build it and sell it.

"For me, I could get to work in the best industry in the world, in the best place in the world and the decisions would be ours, so that opportunity was once in a lifetime."

But surely after a series of serious outages early last year, marketing Telecom's XT mobile network was not a dream job?

"In fact, it was the opposite because the actual fundamental network was great. There had been some outages, absolutely, and those were very, very real - but it felt like the expectations were dropped so that you could now start to say 'how are we going to make an impact?"' Cooney said. "In effect, if you're really trying to paint the silver lining around the cloud of XT, it resets everything. That's your disruptive event. If gives you permission to go and do things differently."

If Cooney's face or name rings a bell, it may be from his stint on Auckland-based music channel Max TV in the 90s where he shared the couch with flatmate Zane Lowe, now a London-based radio DJ- followed by Juice TV when Max folded.

It was a university job with a difference while he studied for his bachelor of science in computer science and maths. While he loved the music industry and being paid to talk about music, being in front of the camera wasn't the highlight.

Cooney had a recent stint on telly, appearing briefly in Telecom's "Pacman" ad holding the hand of son Quinn. Cute ads aside, he has a formidable task ahead of him as the company faces a competitive environment.

"The challenge for us is to not let our size or structure or any of those artificial things be the defining factor of how we are as a business."

Cooney said the Telecom business would need to be defined by creativity and innovation, something it would need to work at continually.

Kieren Cooney

* 38 years old.

* Telecom Retail chief marketing officer since June 2010.

* Former Vodafone executive and chief executive of Telecom retail partner Leading Edge.

* Partner Angela Tiatia is a presenter on Tagata Pasifika. Son Quinn, 7, appears in the Telecom "Pacman" TV ad alongside his dad.

* BSc, computer science, maths, University of Auckland.

* Paid way through university presenting on Max TV, then Juice TV.

* Listens to New Zealand music, including Eru Dangerspiel, Electric Wire Hustle and Ladi6.

* Reads books on mathematical theory and popular science.

* Fronted guitar band Salad Daze as a teenager.