“If you’ve got the wrong culture, you can’t develop your people or navigate change…” David Cornwell is Director of Technical Services for SMEs at Virgin Media O2 Business. He is reflecting on the technology journey embarked upon in 2021 when two giants of the telco space merged. A new opportunity was seized to support businesses with the secure, reliable and efficient integration of new technology.
The Virgin Media O2 Business technology journey
“The journey we’ve been on throughout this telco integration process to becoming one company has been characterised by the need to share technology,” notes Cornwell. “There’s so much technology deeply ingrained in the way we do things across the organisation. It’s tied to a million other things, it’s almost impossible to turn it off or to change it. When some of these technologies were implemented, they were a massive enabler; over time they can become less useful. So, there’s been a huge process of rationalisation and requalifying what we need to unlock efficiencies. It’s a technology journey our customers are on too. We understand the challenges inherent in that. As a customer-first organisation, we’re well placed to support them bringing mobile and fixed connectivity services together in one place.”
Continuous Improvement
When it comes to managing change on a huge scale, with an ongoing technology integration, Cornwell is “a big advocate of continuous improvement”. What is his guidance for his team? “I’d rather take 100 small steps than one giant leap. A giant leap will take too long to prepare for and then you’re set on a path you can’t change. When you take smaller steps, you can always pivot. Communication is vital.” That ability to pivot is something Virgin Media O2 Business is able to offer SMEs with effective and affordable telco services on its mission to ‘upgrade the UK’.
