KEY POINTS:
Ten years after leaving high school Scott Bartlett has already led change to a local business sector.
The 27-year-old chief executive of the internet service provider turned telco Orcon has been an evangelist for change in the telecommunications industry.
"I've been accused of being on a mission from God over Telecom," says Bartlett from Orcon's offices on Auckland's North Shore.
Now owned by Kordia, Orcon last week became the first to offer an alternative to Telecom's fixed-line phone and internet services.
This country's youngest telecoms executive - he has a surfboard in his office - Bartlett is already a veteran of the battle of the latest bid to remove Telecom's dominance of the sector.
After years of lobbying politicians and joining industry bodies, Bartlett is chuffed that Orcon is the first to establish its own independent network where customers have no relationship with Telecom.
But he is sceptical the legislated split of Telecom and new regulation will ensure it is past its anti-competitive ways. "Leopards don't change their spots," he says.
"What we have is better than nothing. But Telecom is a monopolist."
Telecom chief executive officer Paul Reynolds is the blameless new face as the telco enters a new era of competition. The former BT executive is untarnished by the company's anti-competitive behaviour under predecessor Theresa Gattung.
Bartlett says: "Paul Reynolds is charming and talked the talk. He has been there before [heading wholesale operations at British Telecom] so he knows the game. He has said the right things. "I've said 'it's very encouraging to hear this Paul - but what we need to is action. Give us fibre-optic cable - allow us to compete.
"There was an element of desperation because if nothing happened internet service providers would have gone under because of low margins on Telecom deals."
So what prompted him to lobby politicians rather than find another more lucrative sector?
"At 16, I made up my mind that I wanted to lead a high-growth company, something that was not boring. Telecommunications has potential and Orcon can grow fast.
"Two or three years ago, it was almost like an adrenaline kick to make sure the ebit for the company went up every month. I was almost an obsessive compulsive.
"I have mellowed a little bit but I am still a bit of a ebit freak."
Bartlett has always been business minded - as a schoolboy in Hawkes Bay selling bags of feijoas from the roadside, organising charity events and starting a school magazine - he called it Te Paper.
Bartlett won a scholarship to Oxford University from high school but stayed less than a year.
He returned to New Zealand and completed his business degree at Waikato University.
Within weeks of joining a small web hosting company, he sold it to another firm - business-based ISP Quik - and became its operations manager.
Quik was sold to ihug because Telecom's dominance made it uncompetitive.
He joined Orcon at a time when it had been bidding to buy ihug but lost to Vodafone.
This prompted the sale of the company to state-owned Kordia, as Orcon had to consider how it would cope given the capital available.
"Within 24 hours, we had to change strategy," Bartlett says.
