Yesterday Sensis announced it would restructure for digital growth by sacking staff, offshoring and “accelerate its transition to a digital media business”.
The directory division of Telstra has been in decline for years, a process that wasn’t helped by then CEO Sol Trujillo embarking on his expensive “Google Schmoogle” diversion.
A decade later, Managing Director John Allen has announced another 650 jobs to go from the remaining 3,500 workforce.
John’s comments are worth noting.
Until now we have been operating with an outdated print-based model – this is no longer sustainable for us. As we have made clear in the past, we will continue to produce Yellow and White Pages books to meet the needs of customers and advertisers who rely on the printed directories, but our future is online and mobile where the vast majority of search and directory business takes place.
Carol King put it best – it’s too late, Baby. These are words that should have been said a decade ago.
It is too bad for the 650 jobs being lost. My blog is about stopping the exporting of Australian jobs, and in my humble opinion it should not be these employees who are leaving.
The outsourcing aspect of Sensis’ announcement is interesting. I thought they had sent most of the back office jobs offshore long ago.
It seems to me though that offshoring like this is the mark of desperation and it’s done without any strategic thought at all.
Thanks for the reminder! I’d forgotten about that whole Sensis as a search engine thing. Did they seriously believe that they would unseat Google in Australia? Do you remember the ads where people turned up to a bottle shop and ordered two slabs?
Telstra have done a great job of maintaining the massive revenues of Yellow Pages during a decade of decline. That said, they are now at their lowest point, and it is unlikely that they still have the team to work their way back up again.
I’m not sure Sensis’ staff did, but certain managers and Telstra executives did. That diversion cost Sensis five years and untold amounts of money at a time when they could have re-engineered their business.