Polemic.

Execution is Job Number 1

Jeff Atwood's recent blog post about the importance of cultivating teams rather than ideas drives home a point that has been repeating many times:

...instead of worrying about whether the Next Big Idea you're all working on is sufficiently brilliant, worry about how well you're executing

In more traditional industries you would probably say "...instead of worrying about whether your marketing budget is sufficient...". This shouldn't be clearer to Telecom by now. The shocking performance of their new XT network was, of course, preceeded by a marketing campaign that portrayed the network as fast, reliable and ubiquitous. The combination of raised expectations and dismal execution have only worked to further disillusion their customers.

There are shadows of Ferrit here. Telecom's foray into online shopping was a text book example of how ugly, difficult to use and largely unneeded website can defeat even the most exhorbitant television spend. Frankly, if your online product doesn't sell itself, it's not worth selling at all. Telecom should take a hint.