{"id":8920,"date":"2012-04-02T16:12:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T14:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=8920"},"modified":"2012-11-14T16:47:23","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T14:47:23","slug":"vodacom-and-mtn-mum-on-knott-craig-taking-over-at-cell-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/8920\/vodacom-and-mtn-mum-on-knott-craig-taking-over-at-cell-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom and MTN mum on Knott-Craig taking over at Cell C"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Knott-Craig<\/a> joined Cell C <\/a>as CEO, effective 1 April 2012. The former Vodacom<\/a> CEO has big plans for Cell C, planning to grow the mobile operator’s market share to 25% in three years.<\/p>\n

Knott-Craig said that that the saturated South African cellular market needs a new approach to grow the business, and that he will change the \u2018old rules\u2019 to grow Cell C\u2019s market share to 25% in three years.<\/p>\n

Knott-Craig argued that it is just too difficult to beat South Africa\u2019s two cellular giants at their own game. \u201cWe have to play a different game. We can\u2019t play the same game they [Vodacom and MTN<\/a>] are playing, they\u2019ve become experts at that game,\u201d said Knott-Craig.<\/p>\n

The new Cell C CEO said that he plans to boost Cell C\u2019s distribution, and change the way the distribution channel works. Knott-Craig added that he will ensure that Cell C has a top-notch network, excellent customer support and products which consumers want.<\/p>\n

Knott-Craig is one of the most-respected mobile CEOs globally, and with his vast knowledge and established relationships in the industry, he is sure to have a big impact on the company.<\/p>\n

Vodacom and MTN must be concerned about losing market share to Cell C, and if their reactions to questions about Knott-Craig are anything to go by, they are worried about Cell C operating under Knott-Craig.<\/p>\n

When asked for comment on their former CEO starting at Cell C, and Knott-Craig\u2019s plans to grow the company\u2019s market share to 25%, Vodacom spokesperson, Richard Boorman<\/a>merely said that \u201cit is difficult to comment on other companies\u2019 plans and strategies to deal with the changing environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boorman even added the textbook PR response, \u201cwe\u2019d rather focus on what we are doing than comment on others.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTN did not to respond to questions about losing market share to Cell C, or to Knott-Craig taking over at the Cell C.<\/p>\n

In recent days, Knott-Craig candidly spoke about the mobile industry in South Africa and the changing telecoms environment, which will favour a small operator like Cell C.<\/p>\n

Knott-Craig said that Vodacom and MTN have more to lose in a low-margin, high-volume environment dominated by data \u2013 especially if voice over data services start to become popular.<\/p>\n

The freedom with which Knott-Craig discussed the industry and Cell C\u2019s competitors – and the comparative lack of freedom from Vodacom and MTN to do the same \u2013 clearly illustrates the position which Cell C enjoys as a smaller, non-listed company.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Telkom-KT Corp deal bad news for Vodacom and MTN: analyst<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Changing the rules<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Price is not a strategy: Alan Knott-Craig<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cell C’s main competitors are not willing to comment on Knott-Craig joining Cell C as CEO, or on Cell C’s plans to take market share away from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[43,42,26,28,1755,27],"class_list":["post-8920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-alan-knott-craig","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-richard-boorman","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8920"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26548,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8920\/revisions\/26548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}