Hayward widthdraw resignation

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 14 July 2007

Steven Hayward has reviewed his decision to leave Telkom. The proverbial dog has returned to its vomit.

Hayward who resigned as Managing Executive for Retail Marketing at Telkom at the beginning of last month after 13 years of service, has decided to stay on at Telkom. He ‘…had gone on leave for about ten days, and held discussions with various people whom he respected, and this led to his decision to withdraw his resignation’ (Telkom exec u-turns on quitting, Belinda Anderson, July 2007).

Will he remain in the position of Managing Executive?

Yes, but…

‘He will remain in the position of managing executive, but with a broader, more strategic role than before which cut across the different channels; like retail and wholesale. This was in line with Telkom changing its business model to accommodate convergence’ (Telkom exec u-turns on quitting, Belinda Anderson, July 2007).

In other words, this time around Hayward will focus on both retail and wholesale aspects of the company where strategy is of a concern.

Why did he decide to leave in the first place?

Please correct us if wrong, but by the sound of it we assume he was worried about Telkom’s ability to move forward in an environment that’s getting tougher by the day.

‘Telkom faced considerable challenges, but he was confident that he could add value and had a clearer picture in his mind now of how the company would move forward and be successful than prior to his various discussions’ (Telkom exec u-turns on quitting, Belinda Anderson, July 2007).

In other words, we can assume Hayward was previously not confident about Telkom’s chances of success in an environment that’s getting less and less favourable for the telecoms giant.

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) is not as confident as Hayward about Telkom’s chances of success. Crawling back to Telkom might be one of the biggest mistakes he made in his life (at least where moral standards are of a concern).