Digital City

Innovation is easy

The Hard part is

Changing

27th December 2013

From all Innovations PROCESS

INNOVATION is the hardest

Process Innovation is to “do something

different rather than doing the same thing

better”

It involves people People don´t like change

27th December 2013

Innovation is easy.

Consider the light bulb.

Changing a light

bulb is hard

27th December 2013

Innovation is easy.

Consider the wheel

Changing a wheel is

hard W.T.F!

3 guys per wheel!

27th December 2013

• Our goal is for fiber to be treated as an essential service

• We are working to get fiber connectivity to be treated as

important and crucial as electricity, water and sewage

• If we get fiber as crucial as any utility then we have to

behave like an utility.

What has this to do with fiber?

The following may be considered to be essential services:

27th December 2013

•

• To changemake is to turn something 180º

and give it a hard look

•Consider practice of year’s end network freezing:

• You have heard that:

• “This is critical period for our business. We’re going to freeze the network” • But you have never heard that:

• “All leave for key personel is cancelled during critical period for our

business”

• If we have heard that we would have had the shortest freeze period in the

industry.

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Built for the INTERNAL customers

• 4 Project managers

• Three internal handovers

• 4 acceptances visits

• Freeze in December stops for a month

• Takes a year

FTTB FTTH

Built for the EXTERNAL customers:

• They want it now!

This freezes

No time for

freezing

here.

27th December 2013

• Network Freezing properly explained:

• In essence, no planned maintenance or upgrades will occur during the

predefined time period a.k.a network freeze.

• Importantly, however, all normal service restoration and service

installations should continue as usual

• Once the network freeze was put in place, the service installations people

jump into the bandwagon and now even the tea boys are frozen too !

27th December 2013

• The freeze is in place not because of the peak period.

• Nor for the benefit of the customers.

• The freeze is in place because there is no key people to manage the

operations properly. Because they want to go on holidays.

• Of course an essential change in the network could be done.

• That would require a higher level decision. But the high level decision

maker is away

27th December 2013

Why do we have freezes?

• Freezing was invented during the mobile boom years by Siemens Ericsson

and Nokia.

• When fixed line ruled, the political promises had to be fulfilled and there

was never a freeze at year’s end.

• Siemens Ericsson and Nokia managers and engineers wanted to spend

Xmas at home and created the freeze thing to fly out to their countries of

origin.

• The operators’ engineers and managers found that a good idea and

supported freezing com gusto.

• The so-called ‘network freeze period’ is an industry practice that is

observed during peak retail periods.

• That means during World Cup there is a freeze. So that the network folks

can watch football without having to worry about the customers

27th December 2013

• We should not put the freeze up and hide behind the freeze.

• That stalls projects

• Of course we would not swap the billing system at peak period.

• We don’t upgrade firewalls during same period.

• But the freeze become: “Don’t touch anything that is live.”

27th December 2013

• Freeze makes people concentrate all their holidays during a short time

span

• Many people going on holidays at once there is no one minding the shop

• People hearing about the freeze relax and block everything

• As network is in constant change, stopping in December delays critical

work

• Vendors knowing of the freeze slow down from December 1st to January

15th

•Lets have a look at this again:

•We want fiber to be treated as strategic asset

• We are working to get fiber connectivity to be treated as

important and crucial as electricity, water and sewage

Now establish relationship:

27th December 2013

Is 100 Shillings we earn at Xmas week more valuable than the one we earn

in say, third week of April? No.

Do our customers deserve more attention in December than they deserve in

April? No.

Do we give them a discount in April? Or do we charge them more in December? No.

Safaricom should deal away with the Freeze that occurs in

December.

27th December 2013

• In a nutshell process innovation a.k.a changemaking is this:

• You challenge the status quo

• You force people to think hard about what they think is the norm

• We take them out of the comfort zone