Sol long and good riddance

Yesterday saw Sol Trujillo the CEO of Telstra resign to go and join his former exec mates (Greg Winn and Phil Burgess) back in the US of A. So come June 30, all of the 3 amigos will have left the country and resigned from their positions.

It will have been 4 years to the date when his last day at Telstra occurs. Let's take a look at what he's achieved in that time:

• Taken a company that had a shareprice above $5.06, to hover now around the $3.68 mark. (Shaving of over 25%)


• Earnt $13.4 AUD million dollars last financial year, and likely walk away with a golden handshake of $20AUD million dollars.
  


• Managed to be pig-headed over the NBN, and ultimately ensured the joke of a proposal Telstra submitted was thrown out. Sol by his own admissions, claims it probably cost the company around $2 AUD billion dollars.
  


• Consistently fought with the ACCC and both Liberal and Labour governments on regulation issues. The management style used in the states of bullying governments into submission didn't rub well with Australian federal politicians, and worked against Telstra in the end.
  


• Used their monopoly against competitors at the detriment of Australian consumers; with lock outs of Telephone exchanges (so they could install their own equipment), delayed the rollout of ADSL2+ (left equipment sitting there for at least 18 months), anti-competitive pricing of back-haul charges across the country, and over inflated prices at both wholesale and retail levels.
  


• Clashed relentlessly with the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union on his way to sacking 10,143 employees (he's still got 3 months to go, expect more heads to roll before then. He stated 12,000 to go in 5 years, and he's been pretty much on target there, not ideal in the current economic climate. Industrial action since Sol came on board has been ongoing. The majority of call centre staff and IT staff are now outsourced from cheap labour countries like India.
  


• Over simplified the business transformation process which will grossly exceed budget and stretch out for at least another 3 years. With the departure of the 3 amigos, the job they commenced will not be finished, and some poor bunny will be left with egg on their face when the true details of the projects emerge some years later.
  


• Disregarded a vote by shareholders at an AGM not to raise company execs salaries. They rose them anyway.

Surely we can find someone as dreadful in Australia to run this country and don't need to import another 'know-it-all' yank who thinks he knows what's best for us.

I wonder what Jodee Rich is doing these days?!
(Answer: Working on PeopleBrowsr)