Top operator gets call

By Richard Braddell

WELLINGTON - Telecom's new chief executive, Theresa Gattung, admitted this week that she had achieved her teenage ambition to become the head of a top New Zealand company.

But her appointment came to some as a surprise.

Theresa Gattung was always cited as a front-runner to replace Dr Roderick Deane as CEO of Telecom. Yet sceptics had abounded, levelling charges that she was too young, too inexperienced and, to judge by some commentary, a woman to boot.

One charge was swiftly dealt with when she said that at 37 she was the same age as the Treasurer, Bill English.

She might also have said that Dr Deane himself had no hands-on telecommunications experience when he became chief executive in 1993.

Notwithstanding, Theresa Gattung has the one characteristic indispensable in a telephone company head: charisma.

This attribute may in the end have won out over the man often regarded as her strongest rival, Telecom's chief financial officer, Jeff White.

It may also have been helpful that she got on with Dr Deane, who seemingly recognised a kindred soul in his words describing her as having "huge brainpower and skills".

That Theresa Gattung was on the way up was hardly in doubt from the day she started with Telecom four years ago, if only because she soon became a guaranteed presence at key company announcements.

Her position suffered none when she took over some of the responsibilities of the former networks general manager, Ken Benson, who quit after a falling-out with Dr Deane late last year.

And if there was any doubt that she was a first among the equals who reported directly to Dr Deane, the revelation this week that she was responsible for half the company's 8000 staff and 90 per cent of its $3.4 billion in revenue would dispel that.

A frequent, off-the-record refrain from her competitors has been that they would welcome her appointment, if not because she was out of her depth, then because her determination and aggression would lead her to overplay her hand in a regulatory environment which is already beginning to look less attractive.

If Theresa Gattung is aggressive, she did little to dispel the notion when her appointment was announced on Thursday.

"I don't beat around the bush. I do tend to call a spade a spade," she said.

Other descriptors she applied to herself were along the lines of blunt and competitive.

But that is only one side of Theresa Gattung. She also views herself as a good communicator. "I really like involving people and shaping things and how we should move them forward."

Those who know her suggest that the hopes of competitors that she will fluff the job are likely to be misplaced.

Andy Allison, the managing director of public relations consultancy The Presence, was a communications adviser to her when she was the chief manager of marketing at the Bank of New Zealand. That was a demanding time when the bank was rebuilding its market identity and making huge internal adjustments after its acquisition by National Australia Bank.

"She was there to do a job and she relied on extreme intellect and enthusiasm and ability to take the team with her," said Mr Allison.

"She was a superb operator. She has a style all of her own in as much as she doesn't appear to have modelled herself on any other person."

While Theresa Gattung set almost brutally high standards, she would be extremely encouraging, particularly where she had identified talent.

Ambition she has in buckets. But as Mr Allison said: "She has got every bit as much ability as she has ambition and when you combine those two with her energy and enthusiasm, you've got quite a dynamic."

While a succession of upward moves in Theresa Gattung's career can each, in themselves, be seen as meteoric, her tenure at the BNZ may be regarded as the one where she made her corporate bones.

The ultimate test of her success at the BNZ may be that when she moved to Telecom in 1994, a number of her senior staff followed her.

For all her intellect and drive, Theresa Gattung still had to beat off what Dr Deane said was an exceptionally high-quality short list of candidates drawn from a global search.

Telecom had good reason to appoint from within its ranks if it could. The company is facing ever-intensifying pressure to make the shift from a defensive incumbent, focused on cost-cutting and exploiting a monopoly position, to an outward-looking organisation, intent on attacking new markets and offering new products and services. Too often it has been accused of merely matching competitors' innovations.

The die has, in many ways, already been cast. Telecom is constantly articulating its vision to lead New Zealand online, with its leading equity stake in the $2 billion Southern Cross cable a clear expression of that.

Theresa Gattung's appointment has a key advantage in that she is already imbued with Telecom's culture and is of like mind with both Dr Deane and the outgoing chairman, Peter Shirtcliffe, who has decided to remain on the board.

The watchful eyes of a duo well versed in the ways of Telecom could have been a daunting prospect for an outside appointee.

Indeed, it is clear no dramatic changes will be made in management style with the old guard firmly in place, not only in management but on a board which has shrunk from 10 to six members, with a third member, John King, a long-server who has been on the board since 1990.

Should Theresa Gattung be appointed to the board, as seems likely, the like minds will be even greater in number.

The question also remains of just how much of an executive role Dr Deane will retain in retirement.

"Never," he exclaimed when the question was asked if he might informally put the word "executive" in front of his chairman's title. "Why do you think I want to retire?"

Meanwhile, Theresa Gattung does not anticipate any great changes in the management thrust, though she does see a need for Telecom to become more nimble and to market itself harder, particularly in what should be high-growth areas such as data. This, she says, needs to be turned from a "cottage industry" into a mainstream activity.

There will be a change in style.

"In terms of style, I'm younger, I talk even faster than Roderick," she says.

"I'm very, very direct as a person and I really want to build a strong internal culture of team work because I think we need to move quickly and nimbly as things change."

In one respect, she may have to move faster than she would like. Jeff White, the disappointed rival candidate, is regarded in the investment community as a chief financial officer par excellence. As Dr Deane agreed on Thursday, he may well choose to leave the company.

That would leave a big hole for Theresa Gattung to fill.

Is she equal to the challenge of her new role? One person who has had a lot to do with her, Bill Trotter, of Credit Suisse First Boston, is in no doubt. "In the context of the challenges of managing the shift from voice to data, from fixed wire to mobile and the move to go online, and from continuing to create shareholder both strategically and structurally, then they've made a good choice."