Telemedia boss got there by thinking global

By Richard Braddell

"It's a $100 million company," Telemedia chief executive Chris Jones exclaims, looking at the latest trading figures from Sydney.

According to a printout before him, Telemedia, which issued at $A1, ($1.25) is trading at $A1.86, and comfortably above the expected range when 27 per cent of the equity was floated for $A16 million a week before.

Mr Jones has every reason to be pleased, if not surprised. He still owns more than three-quarters of the company he founded three years ago, even after taking $A1 million out in the float.

But what makes Chris Jones interesting is not just that his company has done well, but that he is a New Zealander who has made good in the knowledge economy by supplying telecommunications solutions around the globe.

Among the niches he has targeted are call-centre equipment - an initial joint venture with Ericsson in Thailand turned into a global partnership - and prepaid cellular packages sold to The Warehouse, Telstra New Zealand and a deal just signed with a Japanese second-to-third tier carrier for pre- and post-paid cellular.

There is an entrepreneurial feel about the Sale St premises in Auckland where most of the company's design, engineering and production are still done.

The chairs in the boardroom may squeak "because they were cheap but look good," and the art on the walls is good but leased.

Mr Jones appears to embody the skills that made Bill Gates and other knowledge types successful. He is market driven. As the Singapore-based regional sales director for American multinational Atlas Telecom, and Televox International before that, he became well acquainted with customer needs - and made contacts who became his first customers.

Out on his own, he brought together the technical people, the software engineers and the salespeople who could design the systems, fit them on to off-the-shelf hardware and sell them around the world.

As he puts it, he knows how to identify talent and he is the chef who combines the ingredients and bakes the cake.

Mr Jones rejects any suggestion that it is easy. Although he has no formal qualifications, his experience came the hard way.

Telemedia chooses the battles it can win. Its prepaid package is targeted at customers such as The Warehouse that not only want to sell mobile phones but want a slice of the air time, too.

Telemedia's solution is to provide switch, software and billing systems that can hang off an incumbent such as Telecom's infrastructure, leaving control of the customer with people such as The Warehouse who want to leverage their own large customer bases. Value-added services such as voicemail can boost their revenue 30 per cent.

Mr Jones says the float, and moving offshore, have always been part of the blueprint he drew up when he formed Telemedia. The float not only brings capital; it brings credibility and enables him to reward skilled people with the stock options they demand.

The float, and deals such as the landmark one just signed in Japan, also make it much easier to buy the "road warriors," the super-salespeople who travel light, spend much of their time in the air, and may earn in excess of $US400,000 ($785,000) a year.

Sadly, while Mr Jones plans to keep Auckland as his home, he never intended Telemedia to remain a Kiwi company, even if he believes New Zealanders should take pride in his success.

To keep Telemedia here would have required substantial changes in the support environment for research and development, along with capital markets that understand his business.

He says that for the knowledge economy to work, the Government will have to pick winners, even if that means upsetting some industries.

Meanwhile, Australia provides Telemedia with the capital and recognition it needs.