EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Mobile And Fixed Network

The mandate

The mobile and fixed base spans diverse customer segments with varying service needs and value perceptions. Some customers prioritise coverage and service reliability; others are price-sensitive at renewal; some hold overlapping products whose combined value is unclear; and a portion require clearer propositions that resolve underlying needs. Portfolio teams propose bundles and retention offers while network and service evidence remains in separate functions.

The EVP – Strategy and Portfolio will define a customer and household strategy that joins proposition, experience and economics. The remit includes corporate strategy, segment and portfolio architecture, convergence, pricing principles, retention investment, strategic partnerships and selected portfolio transactions. Commercial leaders own execution, network and operations own service, and finance validates value. The EVP must frame choices, test assumptions and ensure the organisation does not mistake delayed cancellation for recovered loyalty.

This planned replacement does not come with a requirement to push every customer into a converged bundle. Combining mobile and fixed can simplify the relationship and reduce churn when both services perform. It can also increase frustration and switching difficulty when one fails. The executive will determine where convergence creates genuine value and where modular, transparent propositions are more appropriate.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in London, the role influences approximately 1,675 employees and material partners across the United Kingdom and a wider international region. A compact strategy team will work with consumer, enterprise, network, service, digital, data, finance, regulatory and regional leaders. The EVP must use real customer and operational evidence and avoid becoming a central planning layer.

The base includes individuals, households, small businesses and customers with different contract, device and access combinations. Churn measures can be distorted by product migration, household consolidation or involuntary disconnection. The strategy must define the unit of relationship clearly enough to understand behaviour without inferring household identity beyond authorised data.

Competitive response varies by geography. A price move in a well-served area has a different effect from one where installation lead time or congestion is poor. Portfolio decisions should reflect network and service conditions, but they must avoid discriminatory or opaque treatment. Fairness, accessibility and regulatory rules will shape segmentation and offers.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will rebuild the churn fact base. The EVP will examine voluntary and involuntary churn, save offers, tenure, price, usage, service incidents, coverage, installation, repair, contacts, device and household relationships where consented. Customer interviews and lost-customer research will test the reasons recorded in operational systems.

The executive will then define portfolio roles by customer need and service capability. Propositions may distinguish essential connectivity, high-usage households, flexible mobile, fixed-first homes, small business and premium service, but the final architecture will follow evidence. Each role will state value, price logic, network dependency, service promise and retention approach.

Convergence will be evaluated through incremental behaviour and complete economics. The team will compare households with genuinely connected journeys against those receiving a simple multi-product discount. Benefits such as unified service, installation coordination, shared data or resilience will be tested. A bundle that increases switching friction without improving experience will not be considered loyalty.

Retention investment will be redesigned. Service recovery should precede price concession when failure caused the risk; price-sensitive customers may need a right-sized product rather than indefinite discount; and vulnerable customers require fair, clear support. Save offers will have authority, duration and post-offer economics. The EVP will ensure frontline teams can act without creating inconsistent or misleading treatment.

By year-end, the board should have approved a simpler portfolio, stopped several low-value offers and redirected retention spend towards clear causes. Priority cohorts should show improved churn and contribution with service evidence. Strategy will track operating sponsors and update the thesis when behaviour differs.

Leadership responsibilities

The EVP will run portfolio and strategy forums where customer, network, service, regulatory and financial evidence appears together. Decisions will present alternatives, assumptions and named sponsors. Segment labels and lifetime-value scores may inform, but may not replace judgement or customer rights.

The executive will support partnerships in content, devices, wholesale or adjacent services where they create proposition value. Agreements must include customer experience, data, economics and exit. The EVP will resist partner offers selected mainly for promotional novelty.

The role will build strategic capability across commercial and regional teams. Leaders should be able to diagnose churn, distinguish reversible tests from lasting portfolio complexity and make stop decisions. The EVP will develop a small strong team and credible successors.

Measures of success

The board will review churn and retention by cause, cohort and geography, save-offer durability, service recovery, contribution, price realisation, product migration and household relationship where authorised. Network and contact evidence will accompany commercial results. A customer retained only until a discount expires will not be counted as durable recovery.

Portfolio progress includes fewer overlapping propositions, clearer service promises, reduced unmanaged discount, faster stop-or-scale decisions and investment concentrated on priorities. Convergence will be measured through experience and incremental value, not multi-product count alone. Forecasts should reconcile customers, revenue, service cost and cash.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring 22–28 years across strategy, commercial leadership or general management in telecommunications, subscriptions, utilities, media or another recurring-revenue service. They must have made accountable portfolio, pricing and retention choices across mobile and fixed or comparable products.

The board will seek examples of separating service-driven from price-driven churn, removing a save offer that delayed rather than prevented exit and choosing not to bundle products despite an attractive headline case. Candidates should understand network experience, customer care, recurring economics and regulation.

The successful EVP will combine analytical precision with customer empathy. They must challenge commercial discounting, network averages and attractive bundle stories and communicate difficult choices clearly to the board. International and regulated-market experience is preferred.

Compensation and appointment terms

The anticipated base is GBP 250,000–340,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation linked to customer and enterprise value. Final terms will reflect relevant portfolio scale, integrated-service judgement and current arrangements. Relocation or responsible treatment of forfeited awards will be addressed during final discussions.

Confidentiality

The provider is unnamed because churn patterns, pricing, network gaps and portfolio decisions are sensitive. Detailed customer and strategic information will be disclosed only after identity, conflict and confidentiality checks. Applications must anonymise customer cohorts, pricing, network evidence and unreleased propositions from other organisations.