In his lively DLD24 conversation with journalist Franziska Reich, Indian-born telecoms manager Mallik Rao (o2 Telefónica) shares insights from his journey through the world of technology and different cultures.
Before moving to Germany to become the CTIO of telecoms giant o2 Telefónica Germany, Rao had lived in six other countries, including Singapore, Sweden and the U.S.
While he’s impressed with the German work spirit and his team’s willingness to retrain and upskill, he also criticizes the country’s lengthy bureaucratic processes. “There’s a lot of regulations, right?”, he says.
“Time to build in this country takes significantly longer compared to any other place on the planet”, Rao notes. And “because of the complexity, we waste a significant amount of money, resources.”
Building a resilient digital infrastructure is essential to a modern economy, Rao says – and also very hard.
“Mobile network is life. Life is not perfect always”, he notes. “It’s a living and breathing technology which is touching people every microsecond. It’s 24 by 7. So, obviously, there are challenges.”
Collectively, the big telecommunications companies invested almost 45 billion euros over the past five years, and this has made a big difference, Rao says.
“We should be proud of the improvement that we made in this country. We made significant progress.”
Watch the video to find out why Rao believes that “everything which has the capability to get connected, will be connected” and what is needed to successfully manage the ongoing digital transformation – be it on a personal or on a corporate level.
