Communications Driven by Innovation IN ASSOCIATION WITH
LIBERTY GLOBAL
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
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Communications Driven by Innovation
www.l i be rt y gl o b a l. com
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LIBERTY GLOBAL
Julie Fedele, VP of Emerging Business Activation at Liberty Global, on emerging business, venture partnerships and opening new markets
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iberty Global could be the biggest enterprise you’ve never heard of. It’s not really a household name, though the household
is where it is to be found in the guise of its much more recognisable European brands Virgin Media, UPC and Telenet, and in the Netherlands Vodafone 04
Ziggo. Liberty Global is among the largest converged video, broadband and telecommunication companies, with annual revenues of US$11bn, 11 million customers and 20,000 employees. This company has grown since its foundation in 2005 by means of a canny and active M&A strategy, riding the crest of the wave of transformation as telecoms has evolved through technology – a process serially documented in these pages. Its latest announcement, the creation of 4,000 jobs by merging the UK operations of Virgin Media and Britain’s largest mobile operator O2 (owned by Telefónica) is at once creative and aggressively competitive. Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries is keen to seize opportunities in the dynamic markets of Europe: “When the power of 5G meets 1 gig broadband, UK consumers and businesses will never look back.”
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LIBERTY GLOBAL
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Clearly a company on the move
“I quickly saw the parallels with the
determined to lead in the emergent
healthcare industry, having worked
telecommunications field, Liberty
inside across multiple roles during my
Global’s appointment of Julie Fedele
10 years at Bupa’s” says Fedele. “Both
to the position of VP of Emerging
sectors have seen sustained growth
Business in June of this year 2020
and rapid disruption. This disruption
was an imaginative move. She had
means that traditional sources of
little direct experience in telecoms
growth become challenged and finding
apart from an early stint as a con-
new sources is something that really
sultant with Telstra in her native
excites me. There is a tremendous
Australia but she came with a track
opportunity to reimagine capabilities
record of value activation, a quality
and partnerships by leveraging our
that’s perfectly timed with this com-
core assets like network, customer
pany’s current direction.
base and product platforms. We are
“ When the power of 5G meets 1 gig broadband, UK consumers and businesses will never look back” — Julie Fedele, VP of Emerging Business, Liberty Global
essentially an infrastructure-based, consumer business that monetises this infrastructure with integrated services. As 3rd parties evolve their services, we become a meta-aggregator, simplifying experiences for the consumer. Coming into this role, I asked: how can we leverage our assets at pace to develop new value – and break long development cycles?” Fedele learned the advantages of breaking technology down into microservices that enable rapid change and flexibility. 07
E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Julie Fedele Title: VP of Emerging Business Company: Liberty Global Industry: Telecoms
Location: London
Julie Fedele, VP of Emerging Business Activation at Liberty Global, is a true value activator. Achieving an MBA from the University of New South Wales (2009 to 2012), her first foray into start-ups was an online enabler called Popping Up, helping online businesses take advantage of empty retail space and move ‘from clicks to bricks’. Since joining Liberty Global, Fedele has been appointed a Board Member of nonprofit organisation Women in Cable Telecommunications. Viewing life as a continual journey of learning, Fedele stated, “My goal is to improve how I understand the world and my place within it every day.” www.l i be rt y gl o b a l. com
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LIBERTY GLOBAL
“ What we aim to do with the Emerging Business team is to create revenue optionality at pace” — Julie Fedele, VP of Emerging Business, Liberty Global
Bringing that principle to her current role, she’s in favour of over-the-top, or plug-and-play services. “What we aim to do with the Emerging Business team is to create revenue optionality at pace,” she says. “This is what differentiates emerging and new business. Emerging business is identifying completely new revenue streams. For example, launching a new business under the Virgin Media brand or a new brand, that taps new margetmarket segments.“We don’t
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need to explore the whole pool – but we can widen the swim lane!” A business the size of Liberty Global generates a lot of ideas. And an important part of the Emerging Business teams’ remit is to advance some of the best, the ‘activation’ part of her job title. The team consists of squadspods directed to look at, say, e-health, e-sport or consumer energy, Fedele explains. “With the team, we then scope out what this means, set parameters – for example when considering healthcare we split out ‘lifestyle wellness’, a very busy field, from ‘e-health, and concentrate on the latter.” From there on they operate like a
Entering the Gigabit Era CLICK TO WATCH
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0:50
11 separate business unit to define the
right, enabling families to stay in con-
opportunities and partners they might
tact and individuals to avoid isolation.
work with. These tend not to be start-
“I am deeply interested in how we can
ups, she says: though early-stage
create an ecosystem in the home,
businesses are her passion, it’s hard
based on peace of mind, safety
for a large enterprise to work with
and healthcare and every aspect of
them. “We look for Series B/C part-
people’s lives, through our enabling
ners and beyond. We want confirmed
services,” she says.
growth, sound management and a clear path to scale,” she says.
Content, it has been said, is king, and though Fedele fully expects the corporation to continue its M&A
CREATING AN ECOSYSTEM
growth, she focuses her team on
Covid has emphasised the central
partnership. She thinks there’s a
importance of connectivity, which
real gap in healthcare services to
has been elevated to a basic human
the home: “I am not talking about www.l i be rt y gl o b a l. com
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LIBERTY GLOBAL
2005
Year founded
$11.bn+ Revenue in US dollars
20,000 14
Number of employees
15
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“ There is a tremendous opportunity to reimagine capabilities and partnerships by leveraging our core assets like network, customer base and product platforms” — Julie Fedele, VP of Emerging Business, Liberty Global
flooded markets like e-fitness or digital yoga mats, but how we can play a role in the home when someone is facing a health event whether it’s a fracture, a diagnosis or a need for something like physiotherapy or even psychotherapy.” Fedele is passionate about activating new revenue. Her background includes running innovation labs and managing an accelerator programme for start-ups and she was impressed after joining Liberty Global to find that
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it took an expeditious approach to
many moving parts and multiple things
onboarding new partners. She feels at
changing every day, which can be a
home, though admits to not being
challenge getting alignment over video
a typical corporate animal.
calls: I am really keen to show the rest
“We work in a very flat structure and
of the business how a ‘digital native’
personally l love the flexibility of work-
team works and demonstrate how a
ing remotely, though it has to be said it
large corporate like Liberty Global can
does have some downsides, especially
be nimble and activate new ventures –
for the younger team members who
even during a pandemic!”
are deprived of the chance to learn by osmosis from the rest of the team,” admits Fedele. “They are on my mind a lot – we work in an agile team, with www.l i be rt y gl o b a l. com
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