How Telkom plans to cut costs

·26 Sep 2013

“The need to continue cutting costs remains as urgent as ever,” reads an internal communication attributed to Telkom chief financial officer, Jacques Schindehütte.

In the message sent to Telkom staff, Schindehütte said that the best way to reduce costs at the company was to cultivate a company-wide culture of cost-consciousness.

“I again want to call on you to work smarter and to go about your job with a mindset of keeping expenditure to a minimum,” Schindehütte wrote.

The internal document suggests that Telkom had previously cut its subscriptions to newspapers and the buying of bottled water from the budget.

Schindehütte said that in addition to these measures, Telkom has identified two other areas where costs can be cut:

Telkom will no longer contribute towards employees attending year-end functions. “Employees who choose to participate in year-end functions will have to carry the costs themselves,” the document states.
Telkom will no longer contribute to gifts and flowers sent to employees on special occasions such as the birth of a child.

Schindehütte thanked those that submitted cost-cutting proposals and said that they are in the process of evaluating them. He invited employees to submit their ideas for cost cutting to an internal Telkom e-mail address.

“I want to reiterate that all these actions form part of a wider programme that aims to improve Telkom’s financial performance,” Schindehütte wrote.

He said that the cost-cutting programme is “absolutely critical” to shape a sustainable future for Telkom and its employees.

“Your cooperation can and will make a difference,” Schindehütte said.

Telkom did not provide comment on questions asked with regard to its cost-cutting programme by the time of publication.

This article was first published on MyBroadband.