Leadership Mini Case - Turnaround at TDC Sunrise Summary from Turnaround at TDC Sunrise: The Exemplary Leadership of Kim Frimer - By George Rädler

1. LEADERSHIP MINI CASE
TURNAROUND AT TDC SUNRISE
Summary from
Turnaround at TDC Sunrise: The Exemplary Leadership of Kim Frimer
By George Rädler
SETYO BUDIANTO
www.setyobudianto.com

2. BACKGROUND
1. A struggling Swiss telecoms provider
• Sunrise began as a Swiss telecoms operator for fixed line and internet
services. In late 2000, it merged with diAx, another Swiss company
operating with a mobile/wireless license.
• The mobile division – normally the most profitable and promising
part of the business – was losing 9 per cent of its customers per
month.
2. In December 2000, Mr Frimer was asked to jump in as president and
CEO of Sunrise.

3. THREE YEARS LATER
• Between 2000 and 2003, Sunrise nearly doubled its subscriber base for
mobile phones, enabling it to regain the number two position in the
market, and it launched various product innovations for fixed line and
internet users.
• Sunrise had returned to profitability – a year earlier than expected – with
a net income of 8.8 per cent of sales.

4. HOW DID SUNRISE ACHIEVE SUCH IMPRESSIVE RESULTS?
Embedding a “get-it-done” system
• Weekly management board meeting
• Project board
• One-on-one
• Taskforces
Enrolling the front-line employees
• Set up two marketing boards
• Direct contact with front-line staff via “power breakfast” meetings held every
six weeks
• All employees were invited to the “EMT (executive management team) on
tour” event, , which took place twice a year at each location.
Maintaining discipline in the organization
• Business unit strategy review meetings, “what they were doing, what
challenges and issues they were facing”

5. THE KEYS SUCCESS FACTOR
See where the money
• Sunrise carefully scanned the competitive environment and tried to
understand how companies competed. How did they differentiate their
product offering? Where was money to be made?
• The company’s positioning as “the most human telecoms provider” was
distinct from its rivals.
The “get-it-done” system
• Implement a rigorous and systematic method of managing down,
managing up and managing external customers
Focus on the big issues of customer challenges and opportunities,
revenues and cost. This brought the company back to profitability with
increasing market share.

6. LEADERSHIP OF KIM FRIMER
• Simplify and adapt the business situation so everyone could understand
it.
• Personal style of adapting to various personalities. One on One
communication if needed.
• Optimistic beliefs of employees by publicly announcing that they would
beat their main competitor for mobiles.
• Continuing sense of progress: achieving goals, such as becoming the
number two provider for mobiles
• Have a system for diagnosis, influence, delegation and control, and he
embedded a set of methods that got results.