Strategic Foresight - Insights in Business and Technology

 IBM a Tech Giant - How it Lost its Way Key Indicators  Market Cap – $129.39Bn EV – $173.4Bn Debt - $57.5Bn, Cash - $17.9Bn  P/B – 8.57  P/E (Trailing) – 60.44 (Growth)  P/E (Forward) – 14.3 (Div. Centric,  No Growth) Economic Moat: Narrow (under threat)   Where is the Growth How it Lost its Way IBM a more than 100-year-old company that used to be a trendsetter in the technology space has become a laggard and is struggling to get its Mojo back. It is facing headwinds, and it is not clear how it will modernise its business. Today, IBM has 3 business segments, Infrastructure, Software and Consulting, and all of them are declining YoY. There are multiple reasons why IBM's revenues are declining except for the minor surge in 2021, and 2022. Let's look at the key reasons. Unlike its peer group players like Salesforce and ServiceNow which specialises in providing packaged application software in the Cloud (SaaS), IBM has no application software to offer...

 Aussie Broadband's  (ABB) FY23 Results and Why it's Emerging as an Acquisition Target NBN Consumer 2019, 100K customers, unprofitable.  2023, 700K customers, NPAT of $37Mn. 65% of Revenue from the consumer segment. 12% of NBN customers are on >  $100/month plan and 40% of Aussie customers are in this segment. Aussie acquires more than half of all new high value subscribers to the NBN. Business & Govt Business segment grew by 8% to $90Mn Rev. EE is adding to margin growth >800 new deals – SMB is driving it  Both segments utilise wholly owned fibre and an internally built cloud platform to generate 50% GM against residential GM of 30%. As those segments grow, profits will disproportionately rise. Smallest telco to build its own fibre backhaul. Built in house software to manage data loads, billing and other core functions. Wholesale business offers white labelled telco services to 3rd parties like Origin, was its fastest growing segment and a genuine sur...

TPG Heading for a Challenging Future  HY23 Results - Key Takeaways - The merger with Vodafone was a necessary remedy to the NBN, but it hasn’t lived up to expectations. TPG’s plan for the Vodafone merger was to do what it has always done – cram lots of users through a fixed asset base to raise profits. It hasn’t worked out that way. Selling off the wholesale Fibre Business can be likened to relinquishing a fortress, where the installation of the fibre requires minimal capital and new customers translate to higher margins and earnings, with the capacity for expansion being remarkable. This decision can be interpreted as a demonstration of TPG's weakness, rather than one that emanates from a position of strength. The business cannot sustain an expensive multi-brand strategy as it shifts towards a pure RSP play. Hence abandoning it. The emerging trend of choosing Prepaid mobile over post-paid is reemphasised (MVNO Play). Post-paid ARPU increase primarily from price rise in Jan and Feb...

 Eight Steps for Every CFO to Apply in Recession - Prioritisation - Make a prioritised list of the trade-offs in your budget with a reason for why. Cloud - Accelerate movement to the cloud, while paying attention to shifting pricing strategies from software providers as prices rise. Business Process - Radically challenge workflows and processes to make them faster, simpler, and more agile for the long-term. Leverage and Cost Arbitrage -  Fundamentally rethink the way your company leverages humans (locations, hours, part vs full time, in-house vs outsource). Digital Talent - Clarify your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) so you are positioned to attract and retain the right digital talent. Aggressively source key digital talent that will shake loose and help accelerate your digital plan Digital Investment Roadmap - Develop a future vision of the customer and employee to accelerate the right digital investments for 2025. Automation - Invest in predictive and autonomous digital...

  Source: CIO