If she is the best of the bunch available as a CEO and stays, then her package should be cut by 50%

Theresa has responsibility for the culture of arrogance at Telecom and the lack of respect for its customers.
Clean the slate.

In a corporate structure, The Board makes the policy, sets the direction. That's why The Board is made up of Directors. The CEO carries it out The Board's directions.

If anybody in Telecom needs to fall on their sword then it should be The Board who set the policies, rather than The CEO who acted as directed.

The whole arguement still comes back to the question "Why should Telecom share that which is theirs with competitors?" I feel that Theresa has done a pretty effective job of implementing her Board's policies which understandably are significantly protective of their assets.

She'll be pleased we let her go!

No way! Theresa has fulfilled well and beyond her job description as a CEO. Most importantly to the shareholders, she'd need to deliver a steady, constant, and relatively high rate of return on their investment. Theresa Gattung has done exactly this. Her "criminal offences" in the public appear to her own, yet one most not forget, Telecom is one of NZ largest companies. She is simply making statements on behalf of her Business Analysis, Marketing... etc. departments.

As we all very well know, appointing a top quality staff is almost a mission impossible without extreme amounts of money, time and effort. So, if shareholders still want their return on investment, then keep Theresa at her seat.

Ronald Lam suggests that Theresa Gatteng's first responsiblity is to her shareholders. Logic would say that without customers, there would be NO shareholders. Those disturbed by her recent statements "Our customers knew that we were playing games with our pricing" are leaving. One asked me for advice: which is better, Slingshot or Ihug?

Nobody else wants the job!
It's a poisoned chalice until the lines and the Telco are split up.
Don't blame Telecom or Theresa. They've doing what they thought best for their shareholders.
Disssembling and prevaricating.
Blame succesive governments for initially, not keeping the infrastructure when Telecom was privatised, and subsequently, not fixing that initial ballsup long ago.
Same for the power infrastructure.

Ms Gattung has done an outstanding job for her employers in the face of mounting criticism. If you had an employee who consistently returned increasing profits what would you put on his/her assessment? Certainly not that he/she should stand down.

The latest criticism of how Telecom performs towards its customers is probably justified but what corporate monopoly cannot be criticised for something it does or does not do.

The copper monopoly handed to Telecom was created not by Telecom but by our politicians who performed miserably in not understanding what the downstream affects would be in handing anyone the rights to both control the copper and provide services. Now we must wait (how many years?) to find out if our politicians have the guts to correct the mistakes to which they have not yet admitted.

Shades of a certain MP who was instrumental in selling our electricity industry and claiming that power prices would come down. Government had to re-legislate to stop the monopolistic generating-lines-retail companies holding the country to ransom. Will politicians never learn?

As someone else said, I don't think it would make the slightest bit of difference if Theresa were to stand down. Theresa herself is not the issue here, it's Telecom in general. It's about time that the Government stepped in - they've been getting away with their monopoly tactics for far too long. It's time NZ joined the rest of the world in terms of Broadband availability.

As the media blindly focus on download speeds, the more "in the know" users realise the real issues are Data Caps and uploads speeds. 10MB+ download speeds are nearly useless in the future if it is accompanied by a 10 gig cap and 128K upload speed.

Having said that Telecom's networks is failing to keep up with only 3.5 MB download speeds as many users are finding out (many experiencing worse than a 256MB connection). This indicates a serious under investment in there network which is EXTREMELY short sighted. Theresa Gattung's needs to go. She must of known a sheez storm was coming but choose to collect her healthly bonus cheque and sallary each year at the exspence of telecom share holders in the future!.

Theresa Gattung Quote: Our customers knew that we were playing games with our pricing."No kidding"!!.

Treating your customers with contempt for the last 5 years, does implicate you in the crime of ignorance and arogance regarding broadband uptake.

Honestly!,how could you sleep at night charging $600 for 7mbps and 1gig cap per mth??.And this was only last year.

Theresa Gattung Quote: The Government would be too smart to do a dumb thing like that [regarding unbundling].

No Theresa,your dumb for expecting Kiwi's to put up with a third world internet service.Treating us like moron's and then using extortion to improve your bottom line.

Go to jail,do not pass go,do not collect your 3 million dollar salary.

Well... She hasn't exactly done enough of a job to earn her salary in my opinion. Yes, she has protected her monopoly quite well, but at the expense of long term gains for investors. I reckon she was too focussed on the immediate issues to see what the future held.

She's gotta go.

I don't think she should be given the push, or stand down.

A CEO's position description is primarily to ensure the company provides a return to shareholders and maintains profitability. Based on that, I think she's had a reasonable performance - not stellar, but not bad either.

Most comments here relate to unbundling; comparing NZ broadband to countries with a far denser population; ecommerce; email addresses. These are all well and good, but many of these cannot be directly related to Gattung's performance.
Unbundling: what sane CEO is going to essentially donate an asset to a rival?
Ecommerce: not Telecom's responsibility.
SME Email addresses: not Telecom's responsibility.
Broadband speed: perhaps more could have been done here. However, significant investment would be required to match a country like Hong Kong, whose slightly larger population lives in an area 268 times smaller than NZ. Considering that the unbundling issue has been on the cards for at least the last three years, who could blame Gattung for not investing substantially more in the infrastructure when there was the possibility it could be seized by the government.

It is unlikely we will see someone of the calibre of Rod Deane at the helm of Telecom for a while, and to follow in his footsteps is surely a difficult job not made easier by the uncertainty caused by the government over LLU. So, based on the scorecard of profitibility in an uncertain environment, could anyone else have done any better?

It's easy to imagine her gone but not so easy to imagine what here replacement would do. Would he/she be much different ? Is it part of the organisational culture ? I have encountered a number of very helpful, honest, earnest people working for Telecom but the top management seem to have a jaundiced view. It is said that she has looked after the shareholders but, I think, in the process has alienated the customers, which has landed Telecom in the present position. Not a good outcome. She should go !!
Misty

Completely un-informed as I am, it does seem as though Telecom is heading towards a brand new business model, so why not a brand new CEO...???

Tough call. Telecom searched for a new CEO for at least 6 months before appointing one of their own managers - Theresa Gatting.

Telecom is a bit of a political whipping boy and is easy to pick on. Nevertheless Telecom under Theresa's leadership has been unspectacular. The forays into Australia in particular have been disasterous.

Ultimately A CEO stands and falls on the success of their company. The faults may lie elsewhere but I'm inclined to think she should move along.

I have followed the broadband issues for a long time now ever since I left high school in 2000 and from what I have seen the broadband market in nz has not changed one bit.After my holiday trip from hong kong and my friend wo went to japan we can see clearly that broadband is way behind over here.When telecom announced that our speed is gonna be upgraded to 3.5mbps I waited patiently for isp to release their new plans but I was extremely shocked that the old plans are better than the new plans.
Theresa has had her time.She has had her chance to sort out the broadband issue but has been ignoring new zealanders.She earns all the profit and return them to the nz market.I was shocked when I read that there 1.3 million users still on dialup.Comeon seriously who uses dialup these day overseas?Its slow and a pain.We need competition in new zealand otherwise the broadband in new zealand won't keep up with other places in the world.
I miss my 10mbps connection uncapped at a month fee of $20 in hong kong:(

As CEO, Theresa's first allegiance is to her shareholders. In that respect, one could argue that she has not done a very good job of it. This is not to say that the playing of a monopolistic environment by Telecom was not done well. But, in the end, you underestimate the lengths politicians goaded by public outcry and international ridicule would go at your peril. She has consistently done so in under delivering wholesale broadband products and has paid a hefty price ($1b -that's the number with the 'b' in it!) for it.
Will we be better off for it? Well, that depends where you had your money invested last week.

If think Theresa needs to throw in the towel and let someone else run Telecom. One would think that with all the money they make in profits each year they would make some decent changes with the infrastructure etc instead of using it to line their own pockets excessively.

I have been following the broadband debate for the last 4 years and especially since I had one of their broadband products for 6 months and decided it was too much for oh so little.
Yes she will be seen as the "fallgirl" from the result of the Governments decision to unbundle but lets not forget Teresa's been at the helm of Telecom for the past 6 years at a salary of $2.9 million per annum, made up of $1.1 million base salary and the rest in bonus's and incentives, so I don't think she'll be too hard done by where she ends up.
I think shes done a great job for the investors of Telecom, holding back the telecommunication's industry growth and I don't hold her responsible for that, I blame the NZ Govt. for taking so long to wake up and see how far the rest of the developed world has moved ahead of the sleepy kiwis, its no wonder shes done very well apparently she has close friends in Parliament.

If she is a genius,as one would expect for two million,it eludes me.

I've got mixed feelings about the question. She's run one of NZ's largest corporates for a long time, successfully. She's not paid to make friends - she's paid to make money for her shareholders. The company is still profitable, and despite this serious glitch of share price plummeting, Telecom continues to provide a reliable all-important telecommunications service to New Zealand.

I just wouldn't want to be in her shoes right now.

If nothing else Theresa's collosal arrogance in saying that only the regulator wants unbundling warrants her resignation: "This isn't being driven by the regulator. This is pretty much a manufactured grievance. You know that's the case because the only people marching in the streets about it are our competitors, not customers."

Given her slowness in departing she must be leaving via a Telecom capped 128Kbps upload.
I am back in NZ after 16 years overseas. Was (and still am) shocked at how far NZ lags behind northern hemisphere countries when it comes to Broadband. Ecommerce barely exists. SME/Companies still have xtra in their email address. Usage is capped. Upstream speeds are only double that of dialup. The local loop isn't unbundled yet.... The governments actions are for the greater good of the economy/populace; but don't go far enough. As other countries have found, it is only natural for a monopoly to abuse its position - and Telecom has abused its position superbly. Competition is the cure.
(don't get me started on mobile phone costs/services)