Euro phone, broadband giants are the 1% – yes, single-digit growth. Wow

After six years in the dark, Europe’s telecoms providers see a light at the end of the tunnel. According to a new report commissioned by industry body ETNO, the sector should return to growth in 2016. The association's Annual Economic Report claims telecoms services revenues were 4 per cent lower in 2013 than the previous year …

[Fintan]

Why is less than 2 digit growth looked on as failure?

So growth of 1% seems to be pedalled as a failure? In the super competitive world we have, shouldn't growth, however small be seen as a success and not a failure?

The year i was made redundant from one of the leviathan companies in IT, the arguement was that growth for the "quarter" did not meet projections and only provided around 18 bn USD net.

It sounds like priority is not about a company staying open, viable and keeping people employed, its about how many more ivory backscratchers the majority shareholders can afford, and if its less than they want, then its a failure. What an age where 18 bn USD net profit is a failure!

(I get shareholders need to see return on investment, but I think expectations are getting a bit rediculous at this stage)

[Andraž 'ruskie' Levstik]

Re: Why is less than 2 digit growth looked on as failure?

Sad but true... now-a-days a lot of companies are burn through whatever you can to get the most profit then ditch and start fresh.

And to add on top of that... very few companies will bother to try and pickup the pieces as well. There is a company here that recently got their primary production assets seized by the tax agency because they couldn't pay worker benefits for a while. Why couldn't they pay them you ask? Because the state owes them a lot of money.

What did they do? They grabbed the old machines and in a day they were back up and working aiming to get all their orders sorted so they can keep the 200 or so people employed. This is missing in a lot of companies. The drive to keep it going, to keep people employed.

[Charlie Clark]

Smells like

According to the study, the EU is lagging behind the US in terms of investment…

I think that tells us a lot. Given the parlous state of US telecoms (years of cosy monopoly depressed investment and innovation) that's hardly surprising even if it's also pretty misleading. The unbundling of the local loop in Europe spurred a heap load of investment and innovation that the US is yet to experience (and with the proposed merger of TWC and ComCast is even less likely to get).