Project 42 is a fun piece of research that addresses topics we rarely discuss at work. The opinions of our piers are always interesting but not at the cost of our own beliefs.

1. Project “42”

2. What is Project 42?

3. BUT WHY? My name is Blayne Jackson and I have been running my own company, Harmony Telecoms for over five years as an Independent Telecommunications Recruitment consultant. I have been very fortunate to have travelled the world with Harmony and have met some amazing people. The diversity of cultures, nationalities and personalities has always been fascinating and I wanted to find out what people really think outside the “standard” business questions. I have managed to interview seventy one Telecommunication professionals who on a confidential basis shared their expertise, knowledge, experiences, hopes, fears and above all their honesty. The interviews were conducted face to face, over the phone or by way of a written return. Unfortunately I have not been able to express the tone of voice, the initial gut responses (replaced with a calculated response) or the passion in this survey as displayed by my contributors. Project 42 is the title of this survey and was inspired by the Radio Play of 1978 written by Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Project 42 is intended to solely be used as a piece of light reading and the views expressed accordingly are there for the enjoyment of the reader. I can confirm that all contributions have in no way been changed and hope that the information presented answers the questions we never asked but always assumed!

4. The Questions When did you enter the Telecommunications industry in a professional manner? If at university, did you know Telecommunications was your desired field? What was your biggest break? Luck or Hard work? What have been the biggest changes you have experienced since starting your career? Has trust played an important part in your career? Where would you like to see yourself in the next ? years? Have you ever had a mentor? In what scenarios did you ever feel uneasy? In hind sight, was there anything you didn’t need to feel so anxious about? What would be your pearl of wisdom? What has been the largest cause of stress at work? Did you ever feel you could have done with extra support/ training but felt uneasy to ask? Has seniority really lived up to assumption? What question would you like to ask and had always assumed the answer? Has career or money been the main driving force for you? Your best moment – prepared or adlibbed? Best company you have ever worked for? Secret of success in the present day? What has been the most rewarding/ frustrating part of managing? If you had the chance to be 16 again, what would you do? ?

5. When did you enter the Telecommunications industry in a professional manner?

6. If at university, did you know Telecommunications was your desired field?

7. What was your biggest break? “Managing to change worldwide marketing policy early on in career.” “Having potential recognised and given a chance.” “Having children.” “IDENTIFYING A FLAW IN PROCESS.” “Moving from a public to a private company.” “Working with people and technology.” “Starting own business.” “Focusing on the transmission in the wireless environment vs. IP networks.” “Day I gave engagement ring back to Fiancé and thus travelled and worked abroad.” “Liking the sound of "Ground Communications.“ “Gaining Telco scholarship but strengthening application by chance as a fellow yacht member was on the evaluation committee.” “Getting extensive paid training.” “Just hard work.” 22% Getting involved in the Mobile industry 14% Meeting husband or wife 12% Working abroad 4% Promotion / Pivotal role 11% Working for a specific company 5% Don’t know 4% Closing a Deal 4% Chance 3% Moving from a vendor to an operator 3% Job after working in the forces

8. Luck or Hard work?

9. What have been the biggest changes you have experienced since starting your career? Remember, 71 Global professionals with over 1,500 years combined experience! RESULT 65 different answers and 6 N/A!!!!

10. What have been the biggest changes you have experienced since starting your career? Processes have killed creativity. Processes driven by Insurance companies instead of good corporate governance. Email and increase in politics. Globalisation - which has enabled us to transcend culturally. Ability to telecommute. More efficient processes and thus the reduction of people. Increase in accountants and fashionable Management practices. Increase in accountants reducing entrepreneurial spirit. Engineering being run by accountants. Too many poor consultants getting the wrong job and badly effecting projects as well as fellow consultants. Lack of skilled labour in favour of cheap workforce. Increase in younger executives. De-skilling of professions/ more multitasking. Move to equality. Shift away from the "slavery" type work ethics in the sub continent. Evolution of compensation and benefits. Communication within HR organisations. Pace of business with very few experts anymore. Staff more vocal and question management decisions more. Cost of cheap labour reducing even further, relative newcomers leaving industry compared with old school professionals.

11. What have been the biggest changes you have experienced since starting your career? How we address without respect anymore and the lack of privacy. Mergers and Acquisition have reduced business progress . Centralisation . Telco Organisations becoming privatised and international. Deregulation and the subsequent opportunities. Competition and technology advancements. Corporate policy limiting growth . Everything is commoditised . Health and Safety, positive and negative impact. Reduction of quality but ethically more professional . Travel/ Mobility. More investor based management instead of knowledge based. Writing with a pen and wearing casual clothing. Speed to market. Too much speed and not enough planning. Growth of outsourcing. Downturn in the economy of business. Depreciation of loyalty. Delegation of Duties and much more empowerment.

12. Has trust played an important part in your career?

14. South Sea Island beach.

15. On any beach!

16. Sailing a fishing boat.

17. Running a fishing boat for tourists.

18. Flying planes.8%

19. Where would you like to see yourself in the next ? years? 4% Involved with LTE or high end technical business. Don’t Know 6% SAME 11% “Already living the dream” 15% Retired “Love my job as if it were my hobby!” 6% In Sweden or another country. People Development. Running own business. Or semi retired unless I win the lottery. Sailing round the world on my sailing boat.

20. Where would you like to see yourself in the next ? years? 3% NGO work in Africa/ Government or UN 17% CONSULTING/ OWN BUSINESS “In the garden” “Semi Retired” 19% CAREER COO VP “Where ever the sun shines” Small Entrepreneurial Environment. Something completely different. Being in control. Sustainable role where I can make a difference. Financially comfortable. 10% VARIOUS 10 years 5 years CEO/ GM

21. Have you ever had a mentor? 8% Assigned 8% Unassigned 5% Many 1% Requested “They have also been the people who recognised something in me and gave me the opportunities”

22. In what scenarios did you ever feel uneasy?

24. Seniors managers who lack self confidence.

25. Sailing a $500m ship at 21.

26. Running a department in a shrinking business environment.

27. Telling senior and older people they have made mistakes and lost money.

28. When people in positions of responsibility evade decisions.

29. When vendors and operators cut a deal and handover to PM's to sort the mess out.

30. Corporate violence.

31. People failing to understand objectives.

32. People escalating risk with no control to effect.

33. Pushing Business Development.

34. Being compromised due to not being given the full facts.

35. Don't know but I know that I should.

36. Everything.

37. Finance mainly as it does not excite me.

38. First Board meeting.

39. Arriving in countries known for kidnapping and Cannibalism.

40. Visibly being let down by team.

41. Arriving in new countries with family.

42. Having to fire board members.

43. Having to justify something not of my doing.

44. Having to upgrade a client to a new software version that hadn't been fully tested.

46. In hind sight, was there anything you didn’t need to feel so anxious about?

48. Me.

49. Presenting bad news.

50. Worrying about the future.

51. Being too keen to be liked.

52. Ability to plan and get it right.

53. Getting a son.

54. Tried too hard and should have taken it more easily.

55. I’ve never been a worrier. Of course we have all dreaded a meeting that turned out to be not so bad.

56. Implementing changes that I didn't agree with.

57. More responsibilities.

58. Worry about being CEO but just a process.

59. Having to justify something not of my doing.

60. Making 400 people redundant as they understood it wasn't personal.

61. Learning new skills.

63. Do what you love and love what you do.

64. Do work hard, do communicate, do not be afraid to get dirty, and do not blindly trust others.

65. Don’t waste time on worrying. You usually can sort anything out if you keep your nerve.

67. Stay clean in all you do especially in countries where there are immoral opportunities.

68. Stay flexible. Separate private from business and don't expect to find the perfect job.

69. Surround yourself with better people.Kis for: Keep moving forward Keep the dream alive, keep the faith and stay flexible. Know all the other elements and progression is assured. Mis for: Many things in life will catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart, pursue those.

71. Take risk, be different and don't plan ahead too much.

72. The only true competitive edge is for your employees to learn faster than the opposition.

73. Treat people at the top and the bottom the same.

74. Trust your gut. Don't buy on credit. Buy property and not a lifestyle.

75. Try and find your natural rhythm. Accept you can't always be the best.Wis for: When changing jobs expect the role to be 80% of what was advised. Work hard, know end goal, listen to your heart and don't compromise yourself.

77. Be honest and deliver if you really can.

78. Be prepared for the worst and expect the best.

79. Be honest, reasonable and consistent in everything you do.

80. be humble, flexible and listen.

81. Be mindful of your impact on your environment. Strive to make a difference.Pis for: Plan well, look for the pit falls and work with your team.

82. What has been the largest cause of stress at work? 3% Corporate and industry politics 4% Being away from family 11% Ill informed decision makers 3% Don’t get stressed! 21% Achieving targets (Budget variations) 4% Redundancies 4% Employees personal problems more than business 4% Being let down

83. What has been the largest cause of stress at work? Chauvinism. Board of directors. Having to fire people. Accountants influencing engineering. Balancing work with family. Family members of staff passing away. Dealing with un-educated, ill informed morons who happen have been lucky to be in a more senior position than me. Lack of structure. Working with specialists who have minimal knowledge of soft sciences (humanities, sociology, political economy, political sciences). Business Development being too good and not being able to deliver. Dealing with unreasonable bosses. Different objectives when all should be in line. Exclusion due to cultural differences. First CEO role - scope of responsibility. Lack of team work & focus on short term benefits rather than long term solutions. Working in a thankless job in a soulless place. Losing business opportunities. Job you don't want to be in and looking for the next job. Continuity of worth. Initiating a project without the proper resources. Meeting deliverables whilst understanding cross cultural boundaries. Low quality workmanship. Malicious agendas. Trust.

85. No but could do with cross cultural training.

87. Has seniority really lived up to assumption? 39% YES 28% NO Not in a small company Not in a small company 13% Yes/ No As stressful as imagined but not as rewarding. Accept and behave Always respected seniority Key is delegation Seniority is in the eye of the beholder and ego must not manifest to affect the dynamics with colleagues. But don't like managing From a responsibilities point of view Overwhelming responsibility Respect experience Much harder See everybody as equals Lonely and lack of trust More hard work Responsible for more people and problems More operations than technology in a technical role Not as easy Takes fun out of job and lonely Takes fun out of job and lonely Rarely It’s easier to make money at a senior level - its less physical work, you produce more cash for less physical input. I thought I’d get above the humdrum administrative duties but that’s never been the case. The discretion to set targets and control resources is good. The downside is that more people than ever seem to expect access to you. I don’t really pursue “seniority”. For me it’s more about the opportunity. That said, there’s a lot more stress in senior positions – money compensates for this to some degree – but there are days when I wish I had a job that I could switch off from at 5 o’clock. More senior roles take up a larger Proportion of the work/life balance.

89. How do you know when to let go of a project, bid or strategy.

90. How much more time or money do you need to deliver?

91. I would ask Google if they ever dreamed they would get to the size they did or was it planned?

92. I'd ask a CEO how are they able to present bad results in a positive way?

93. I’d ask Motorola if partnering with Siemens in 1989 was a wise move for a European foothold?

94. If it were your own money would you make the same decisions?

96. Have you succeeded in life?

97. How can I make a lasting impact and leave a legacy?

98. How did you win that contract?

99. Does it get any easier?

100. Is it easier being No.2

101. How do you make an idea work - success criteria?

102. How much do you want?

103. What is the most important thing in your life?

104. What is the right balance between people interest and Job requirement? (Demands of people and business)

105. What is your source of happiness?

106. What will you be doing 10 years from now?

107. What would make your job easier?

108. What's my next challenge?

109. What's the difference between me or a younger person who starts at a higher level?

110. Did I make a difference?

111. Am I any good at what I do?

112. Am I guilty of hypocrisy?

113. Are you comfortable with the efficiency of processes and procedures?

114. Are you happy and have a good insight into your company?

116. Jesus has come to chat with you now, do you have a list of questions?

117. Was I polite enough and did I treat people in the right way?

118. When shall I retire?

119. Why did I not move to another line of work 15 years ago?

120. Why didn't you buy property sooner.

121. Why do decisions get made that go obviously against common sense?

122. How much is shared with staff in the decision making process?

123. With new innovations how do you manage the challenges.

124. Would you have performed better if you started from the bottom up?

125. Did I find the right work/ life balance.

126. Do you get the right support?

128. Your best moment – prepared or adlibbed? 3% Too many to mention! Vacation. Fire fighting. Getting a patent. Promotion, GM at 27. Birth of my daughters. Winning is about hard work. Adlibbed, preparing never works. Speech at World Mobile Conference. Running own company. Won international award. Seeing my three sons born. Navigating $500m of ship through Pearl Harbour. Made manager of the year for a major Global Vendor. Adlibbed - Getting recognition by the CEO and from the locals. Launching a mobile operator. Adlibbed - Was expecting a call whilst on holiday for confirmation of an order worth £5m. The customer actually placed an order for £14m! Birth of my children and marriage. 52% Prepared 41% Adlibbed

130. Secret of success in the present day? Know your way around, have good connections and be polite. Hard work, enthusiasm, passionate, perseverance and strive to make good relationships. Look after the metrics, look after your staff and don't price yourself out of the market. Building lasting relationships. Education and experience are the pivotal points. Element of luck and who you know not always what you know. Being able to admit you are wrong but lead and make decisions. Passion is what people recognise above all else, passion to succeed, passion to improve. Striving for it to be a pleasure for the people you do business with. Plan your work and work your plan. Keep a positive attitude and offer solutions no matter how bad. Passion, care for other people, know when to cut losses, listen and be flexible.

132. Hard work and dedication.

133. Earn multiple passive incomes and live life!

134. High IQ and EQ. Make sure others achieve around you.

135. Do a good job and be recognised.

136. Clarity of mind, time to self, own leader and ability to say no.

137. Due diligence.

138. Be transparent and honest.

139. Get the job done, politically savvy and play safe.

140. Be goal focused and a little ruthless.

141. Be confident and aware.

142. Be patient and accept change.

143. Work hard and be lucky!

144. Delivery of objectives backed by a strong personal network that you can ask for advice.

145. Consistency, deliver on promises, trustworthy and honest.

146. Networking - External and internal.

147. Keep an open mind, luck, bit of BS and respect others.

148. Follow up on all you do.

149. Innovative and process everything

150. Tell me when you find out!

151. Price, cost, delivery.

152. Think you are alone and everyone is out to F*** you.

153. Willing to get involved from the bottom up.

154. Keep a check on your ego.

155. Be a generalist rather than a specialist.

156. Being flexible and understand which battles are worth fighting and which aren’t.

157. Also the importance of working the back channels to obtain cross-functional buy-in for new initiatives. This is important so that issues are understood by stakeholders up front and any concerns can be addressed before going to official sign-off.

158. Have humility. Discern whom is the right mentor.

160. What has been the most frustrating part of managing? 12% Out of my hands! Not able to get buy in to make the desired change which seemed most appropriate. Not having freedom to take decisions. Having to work with policies. Having decisions overturned. Restraints from management Forced to make changes. Managing companies expectations. 16% Managing or inheriting incompetent, lazy and non performing staff. Down sizing and losing good people. 9% Individuals not reaching their own potential. 18% Having to manage people. Lacking vision to recognise potential. Not delivering to their hype. Not listen or debate. Not see the value in learning. People who will not take good advice. 4% Bad Management.

161. What has been the most frustrating part of managing? Havingto keep your temper when you see an individual’s work is very low quality. Lack of feed back, blame shifting. Lack of understanding of business Managing people's egos Not being appreciated. Placing your utmost trust into an individual who then for some reason implodes on you and makes themselves look like a complete arse. Politics. Spending time delivering results- not developing the next generation. Suggestions not being considered due to stubbornness. Spending too much time at work and not with my family. Working hard and not being able to give a bonus. Performance suffers due to time settling in. Control freaks, managing egos and seeing people destroy their career. Cultural ethics.

162. Travel and be more patient. Specialist in astrology. More Property investments. Spend more time sailing! Save more. Investor. Get trade, buy flats, employ PC user for my office. Get some financial backing and acquire mobile phone licences. Too Many things to note! Property 14% SAME 4% Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything Golfer Basket Ball Player SPORT I’d hate to be 16 again…so it’s quite likely I’d be wishing I was 50+!!! Jockey Tennis Player 14% Plan more, earlier on Dancer Athlete CHANCE £1M Ice Hockey Player. Cricket To Hire ARTS “Often wondered about what I would do if I went back to certain points in my life and could make a different decision. I’ve come to the conclusion that not much would change as we are the same person and react to pressures and influences in the same way.” Find an industry that I can make a big difference in CUMULUS IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO BE 16 AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Politician or Arbitration Lawyer CUMULUS “Wouldn't change anything. What has happened has happened and this makes me the person I am and if you change anything you change who you are. We are the sum of those events and experiences we have lived through, although being a porn star might be good fun and a lot less stress.” STUDY SECOND CHANCE Professor Telecoms READ I can't think of anything I'd do at age 16 that I didn't do. I was very involved in my school. I had a job. I dated and was popular and I got my drivers license. I guess if anything, I would have been nicer to my sister's and my Mom. More volunteer work and focus on the indirect impact I make. Learn more languages. 13 % Use my brain more than my balls. Harmony NO VISITING TRAVEL 10% Leisure To Hire Have Another GO Travel the Silk Route. Travel Writer. Fly planes, eat sushi, travel and live in Africa Back Packing. Go round the globe. Take a year out. Travel and play more golf. £1M Have more fun, leave all the worries of the future, dance, sleep and travel.

163. Anecdotes On a flight with Ugandan Airways some time ago I was shocked to see smoke coming from the overhead locker. I thought it would be a good idea to point out to the Stewardess this quite alarming situation before take off and called her over. “Don’t worry Sir, it has been doing that for a few weeks now! On the same flight it turned out that the drinks trolley was a blue cool box which was passed around and retuned to the Stewardess!!” “ Whilst working in Nigeria, one of my construction managers told the Nigerian site workers that he wanted the site hut painted Orange to conform with the local aviation H & S regulations. When he returned to site several days later, he found that the guys had painted the hut green! Construction Manager - “Why have you not done as I asked” . Nigerian Worker - “Sir, we have painted the hut orange” . Construction Manager - “Are you colour blind……………….. that’s green”. Then the Nigerian Worker held up a local orange and said - “Sir, it is the same colour as this orange”…………………………….. (all Nigerian oranges are in fact green in colour).

164. Anecdotes “In the early days of mobile we were building a site in a notoriously rough area in Liverpool. Security at the site was pretty laps to say the least and each evening the local youngsters would use the tower as a climbing frame. BT were under a lot of pressure from the local Police to up the levels of security at the site so a chain link fence became a chain link fence with barbed wire became a palisade fence......... Eventually we agreed to install a "state of the art" microwave security fence at the site with a link back to the main control centre so the Police could be alerted when the fence triggered. As we were breaking new ground here the site survey attracted lots of BT's top brass.....and me. The representative from the Security Company ADC who were selling us the Security Fence were judiciously answering increasingly stupid questions from BT's senior management. "What is the sensitivity of the fence, will it trigger if a man breaks in?" Answer "Yes of course" "How about a boy?" Answer "Again yes" "How about a small animal such as a rabbit?" Answer "No, a rabbit will not trigger the alarm" I asked my question. "How about a man dressed as a rabbit?" ..................................no answer.”

165. Anecdotes Location: South Pacific, in a remote jungle location, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The Opportunity: Try to combine sites-on-air with a sales road-shows for any local festivals / events. Scenario: Difficult and challenging environment by which to expand 'footprint' of coverage and distribution as minimal infrastructure. THE CHIEF OF THE VILLAGE APPROACHES………. Chief: 'What is this you have? What does it do? Salesman: ' Well Chief, it’s a mobile phone and it allows you to talk to your 'wontoks' (friends or family) and can make your life better'! Chief: How does it work? Salesman: For a man of your standing you will find it easy Chief. It works on a battery and when you have entered your wontoks number's you can select his name, press this button and you can talk to him! Chief: OK, I understand . How much is it? Salesman: Kina 20 ( $10 USD approx) Chief: What! Kina 20 !!!! I can feed my family for 5 days on that. If I want to talk to my wantok then I just walk a day or so to the next village! What happens when the battery runs out? Salesman: Well Chief you just plug the charger in the phone and the electric socket and it recharges. Chief: What a waste of money! Well we don’t have electricity in my village and this is just a gimmick it will never take off!!!! ..... And the morale of the story; Cultural awareness and acceptance is a 'key' element is developing countries. Ensure you fully cover all the permutations of customers needs - I learnt form this and introduced alternative charging methods such as solar power chargers etc. Not everybody in your researched addressable market needs a mobile (at the moment).

166. Anecdotes “On a project in Vietnam, I was wandering around one of the local markets in Hanoi. One of the items on my list was to buy light bulbs. At one stall, I saw a large cardboard box full of light bulbs, but with no wrapping. On inspection, it was clear that the bulbs had blown and were useless, but many people were still buying them. I couldn’t figure that one out, I just could not think of another use for broken bulbs. So on the way into the office the following day I asked the driver why Vietnamese people buy broken light bulbs. He told me, it was because they were very cheap compared to working light bulbs. After telling him not to be facetious (and then having to explain that word), he informed me that people take them to the office and swap them for good ones, so the company pays for everyone’ light bulbs. Easy really.” “Whilst working in Thailand my wife received a phone call informing her that her father had been taken into hospital with a heart attack. She in turn called me and I asked our local admin assistant "I need a flight ticket immediately, where can I get one from?" She looked very strange at me so I asked again only a little louder this time "I have an emergency and need a flight ticket ASAP, were can I go to get one?" She replied "KFC“. So I said to her "KFC?" She said “Yes Mr. Mike you want FRIED CHICKEN?" “During a business development trip to Western Siberia in the early 90’s my colleague and I were handsomely entertained by the local oil baron who wanted a mobile network set up in “his” town. After a few days of discussions and bearing in mind the political upheaval and ongoing financial crisis in Russia, we came to the crucial element of how this network was going to be paid for. He escorted my colleague and I to a small office. There were no special security features, just a normal key lock and no signs on the door. The room was full, top to bottom of US dollars. I could not imagine how much was there. “Why”, I asked,” is all this cash in this office? This amount of cash should be in a bank.” “What banks there are,” he said, are not safe, and are largely controlled by the Moscow based government. The government was not aware of how much oil was being sold outside the quota system run by Moscow. Hence we can only stockpile the cash we raise from these back door sales.”

167. Recommended Reading&Contributors Quotes “Moral Compass”, William Bennett “The Leader's Way”, The Dalai Lama “The Diamond Cutter”, Geshe Michael Roach It's not the black or white but how you manage the grey. Gut instinct, streetwise and intuition. Where would we be now in engineering if H&S was prevalent in the 1800's? Accept the best you can do. Recognise how other people view other things and you. Only 1:20 people are effective. Human beings never grow up! People are looking for a type of business mum or dad - looking for leadership. Once in a VP position life is a home run! If you have to be told that you are not performing you have issues. Always be mindful how decisions you make impact on families lives.

168. THE END Blayne Jackson www.harmonytelecoms.com blayne@harmonytelecoms.com +44 7730 986 530