Globe-trotter leading mobile assault

Paul Hamburger. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

Telecom's Paul Hamburger is calling from a cab in New York spiriting him to LaGuardia Airport after a meeting with a mobile roaming partner.

We've spoken before. That time he was in Israel, juggling the celebration of his son's bar mitzvah with the release of customer pricing for Telecom's XT network.

The air miles clocked up by Telecom's head of mobile services put those of the XT network's brand spokeswoman, fashion designer Annah Stretton, in the shade.

British-raised Hamburger splits his time between New Zealand, his family home in Florida and the global network of vendors that supply technology and services to the company.

The time difference in Florida means Hamburger logs on at 2pm when he works from home, firing off emails to New Zealand work colleagues at 6am our time.

It is testament to his abilities that Telecom has allowed someone charged with taking on Vodafone and new player 2degrees to mix work and family to this extent.

But it was the challenge of clawing back a share of the market where Vodafone holds the upper hand that brought him to New Zealand.

While Telecom is the dominant player in its fixed-line business, where it has an 80 per cent share of phone and internet revenues, its mobile business has less than half of the more than 4.5 million mobile connections.

More importantly, Telecom's share of the revenue garnered from those customers has been shrinking and now stands at around 37 per cent of the $2 billion spent by Kiwis on cellular services.

"Taking on Vodafone and getting us back to the number one spot is what it's all about," says Hamburger. "It's a challenge and an opportunity."

He was also drawn to Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds' customer-focused approach to business.

"If you have the right people in place, which I think at the senior level there's some great people in Telecom, then if you have the right tools which I think we've built with the XT network and then if you have the right approach which is all around our absolute focus about putting the customer at the centre of what you want to do, it's a very compelling story and that's the reason why I joined."

Hamburger - dubbed Mr XT - is accountable for all the mobile products and services Telecom runs.

This includes setting out the overall strategy for mobile services, nailing deals with device manufacturers and content providers, working with technology partner Alcatel Lucent to develop the path to the high-speed wireless technology LTE and setting up roaming deals.

"It actually works in Telecom's favour in a way, that I work where I am, because having worked around the globe I get to meet and keep in touch with a lot of retailers, a lot of networks, a lot of handset manufacturers and bring back that experience for the benefit of customers in New Zealand," says Hamburger.

After 15 years in telcos, most recently as chief commercial officer at Cable & Wireless responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean, Hamburger says being at the cutting edge of technology excites him.

"I get to work on some very cool things that customers can use so they can get more out of their phones."

A marketer by trade - his first job was launching Prozac - he has made a speciality of turning around mobile businesses.

For Cable & Wireless he ran sales and marketing for fixed-line, mobile and broadband businesses across around 40 countries.

Cable & Wireless was the number two telco in 18 of those countries when he joined in 2005, but reduced that to just one country where it trailed the market leader by the time he left last year. He says his experience in the Caribbean is particularly relevant to his job in New Zealand.

"They'd under-invested for many, many years and they hadn't put the customer at the centre of everything they did," says Hamburger. "So when an alternative came about those customers, now having choice, voted with their feet."

He recognised it was all well and good to talk about customer focus but that experience had to be delivered.

"The biggest influencer is word of mouth and actual experience," Hamburger says.

"The user experience has to be incredible because people will then use it, experience it, they'll love it, they'll evangelise it for you and they'll be your best advocates."

Do the opposite to that and things can go wrong very quickly, he says, which was the problem when he joined Cable & Wireless.

Hamburger's boss, Telecom Retail chief executive Alan Gourdie, reckons Paul could sell snow to Eskimos.

"Apparently he trained in the Arab bazaars of Jerusalem," said Gourdie.

"I've seen him in action with a number of suppliers and he's highly effective. He never takes no for an answer. He uses his personality and charm on one hand with his grasp of the facts and figures on the other to often get a very good result."

Gourdie says that without Hamburger, Telecom would not have successfully launched the XT network.

Over a calendar month Hamburger spends around two-thirds of his time in New Zealand.

"As a technology company you've got email you've got phone, you've got video conference and you use all of those technologies," he says.

Gourdie says regardless of the time zone you'll always find Hamburger working. "It's hard to catch him asleep," said Gourdie.

In fact, Gourdie admits to sometimes wishing Hamburger had some sort of "off" switch.

During school holidays his wife, Wendy, and four children, aged between six and thirteen, join him in New Zealand.

Outside of work he can be found shooting basketball hoops with his son, shopping with his daughters, running - he completed the Miami marathon this year in 3 hours and 53 minutes - or playing football.

Hamburger admits his Australian wife would be more than happy to make a move to the Southern Hemisphere but for now, with his children in Jewish schools, he will be continuing to beat a regular path between Auckland and Florida.