Globe Telecom President and CEO Ernest Cu is the only Filipino executive to make to it to the Global Telecoms Business Power 100 for 2014. Power 100 is the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most powerful people in telecoms worldwide.
This is the second year in a row that Ernest Cu is receiving the recognition. Cu made it to number 64, two notches higher than his previous ranking in 2013. Global Telecoms Business is the only magazine and website dedicated for senior executives of telecommunication companies worldwide.
“The business gains we have achieved over the past several years by positioning Globe as a challenger brand proves that the company is now a trusted brand recognized globally. We will continue to take on the challenge of constantly innovating products and services to provide the easiest and fastest means for our customers to communicate,” Cu said.
Global Telecoms Business noted that under Cu’s leadership, Globe Telecom emerged as a mighty challenger in the Philippine telecommunications industry. Since taking the Globe helm in 2008, Cu has been driving sweeping transformation, mainly by modernizing its network and IT infrastructure, underpinned by service-oriented culture -- all to deliver the superior customer experience, anchored on his primary advocacy: customer first.
Globe Telecoms Business further noted that the Philippine telecommunications company gained over 10 percentage points in wireless revenue share, while trailblazing game-changing customer-focused innovation, such as personalized postpaid plans and customizable prepaid offerings, alongside unprecedented OTT-collaborations such as Free Facebook.
After leading Globe to restore its network in areas heavily affected by devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan, Cu announced a pioneering deal with Facebook, giving its customers access to the world’s most popular social networking site at no cost, the magazine said.
Importantly, employees are motivated by Cu's vision, marked by an increase of more than 4 percentage points in their employee satisfaction index (ESI) from 2009 to 2013 where their employee engagement is now rated strong in the ESI benchmark across industry standards. Significantly, Globe employee participation rate has consistently risen to almost 98% to date.
At the end of the first half, Globe Telecom’s total mobile subscriber base reached a fresh record high of 45 million at the end of June this year, driven by the success of its innovative offerings and value-for-money promotions. The company ended the first six months of the year with record-level revenues of P47.7 billion, a 7% rise from a year earlier, fueled by solid growth across all business segments following robust increases in the mobile telephony and broadband subscriber bases.
Global Telecoms Business named Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Facebook, as the most powerful person in the telecommunications industry worldwide as judges decided to recognize the power of Facebook and other over-the-top companies in compiling the Power100.
Completing the top 10 most powerful technology executives are Lowell McAdam, President and CEO of Verizon; Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank; Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix; Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T; Jong-Kyun Shin, President and head of IT and mobile communications business, Samsung Electronics; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; Neil Stevens, corporate vice president product and engineering at Skype/Microsoft; Ren Zhengfei, President of Huawei; and Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson.
Cu was also nominated for the second straight at the 2014 CNBC Asia Business Leaders Awards, which recognizes remarkable leaders in the Asian region for their continuing commitment to excellence, developing best practices and innovative strategies.