Plan C – Exordium From SubTel Forum #100

Plan C – Exordium From SubTel Forum #100

Wayne Nielsen of WFN StrategiesBy Wayne Nielsen
May 21, 2018

Welcome to the 100th Issue of Submarine Telecoms Forum Magazine, our Global Capacity issue.

Anyone who has been reading SubTel Forum over the years may have noticed how we have updated the look every once in a while.  Some changes are small nuances, tweaks that might go unnoticed to the reader; some are major updates that might cause some pause.

For this our centennial issue we decided to throw the long pass and do a major re-design of our flagship industry product.  We started with some fairly heavy soul searching about what we wanted to talk about, and how best we could convey our particular view of the playing field.  We hired a new magazine experienced designer who promised a fresh new polished look and feel.  We hired a bunch of A-list models, who could open each article wearing the latest Ralph Lauren or Gucci – but then the estimates came in from their New York and London managers, so we dropped the models and decided to focus instead on the content.

Thanks to the excellent analysis and discussion from some very talented and experienced writers we are chockablock with some superb articles.  From datacenters in rural Virginia, to cables spanning the pacific and west Africa, this issue covers a myriad of issues and ideas.  And given where we are in this industry, one of the busiest times in recent memory, the vantage of ‘global capacity’ from a variety of players is a welcome addition to the ongoing conversation.

So, here we are, our 100th issue, and the start and/or reintroduction of something new.

My future son in law called me recently seeking career advice.  He’s in his late 20s and doing quite well but sees himself pigeon-holed by his current employer with limited growth potential.  He’s been approached by another company who have proffered him a handsome proposal, but he sees himself owning his own company one day sooner or later.  And there I am on the phone with him for 45 minutes or so while my late dinner cooled in the other room.  Do you stay where you are?  Or do you join the Borg?  Having once survived the corporate Borg I am especially sensitive to that, but I also don’t want to express my personal views or acrimonies.

Being asked for your advice is an honor.  It’s also a significant burden – especially when the requester is your daughter’s future husband.

So, there I am talking to him as logically and non-committed as I can muster, talking through the benefits and risks of option A versus option B, and I asked what about option C, to which he said he hadn’t even considered that.  Well, option C needs to be considered as well, I said, which then nearly doubled the ‘what ifs’ and the phone call as well.

The telephone call reminds me of the time when my old and honest-to-god best-ever boss, Rex Ramsden, was sitting around my kitchen table in our old house in Virginia.  He had just flown in from London for a week of meetings that I had arranged with various governmental clients in DC and beyond, and Peg and I were feeding him beer and dinner around our table with three young kids playing, eating, crying nearby.  In that brief, hectic and imperfect moment Rex would throw out an option that would change our lives forever: come to England and take over BTM’s Marketing Department.

I remember the many what if’s we considered, the advice we sought from business and personal friends and family.  I think we probably talked hours and hours before we decided on option A or option B.  And in the end, we decided, probably regretted it on more than one occasion, then moved on, knowing it would somehow work out.  I suppose that’s the best advice I could give my future son in law – that whatever you do it’ll work out in the end.

So, bring that all back to good ol’ SubTel Forum Magazine.  We made some significant changes to our magazine that we hope you’ll come to like and appreciate, and yes, I would love to hear from you on your likes and dislikes.

I figure if all else fails, it’ll work out in the end.

To read the rest of Issue #100 of SubTel Forum, please click here.