Jansen’s successor will have the challenging task of protecting the telecoms giant’s market dominance
When Philip Jansen took the reins at BT, he was unequivocal about his priorities: “Build like fury”.
While predecessor Gavin Patterson had led a faltering move into sports broadcasting, Jansen proclaimed that full-fibre broadband was now the name of the game. He has led a £15bn charge to lay miles of cable while also beating a retreat in the world of sports.
Less than five years later, however, Jansen’s fury has abated. On Monday, BT confirmed the chief executive would stand down at an “appropriate moment” in the next 12 months.The departure opens up a vacancy for one of the toughest jobs on the FTSE 100.BT is battling to maintain its dominance in the broadband market in the face of heated competition from start-ups and established rivals alike.
Sky-high inflation has sent the cost of its upgrade work soaring and forced Jansen to announce sweeping job cuts. And a collapsing share price has left the former state monopoly increasingly vulnerable to a takeover bid.”The fact of the matter is BT is under significant attack,” says John Karidis, a telecoms analyst at Numis.Karidis says Jansen has done as much as he could have done to advance BT’s goals, “it’s just that in my view they are fighting a losing battle.”