Letter to a friend Letter to a friend from Jean JeanDevos Devos
My preferred banker friend My dear friend Bob,
My Dear Friend
It has been a long time since I last heard of you. Actually I have not heard of any of my friends in the finance community for quite a while. No more brilliant and sophisticated papers in the last conferences I have attended! After “Botany Bay” ignominiously exiting the submarine cable segment, II suppose yourecently are exercising your skill in some other published a modest novel, whose title “cash cow” area. Frankly speaking and don’t feel It isnews the for place Australia where is Botany insulted, thisBay. is good me!inThis gives me the Alcatelitsestablished hope that our industry has recovered self-control a and is now prepared to mastersubmarine its destiny again, cable facand return to its original culture: Technology at the tory in 1989 as part of service of the community. its contract for the If my memory is correct we first met in 2New-York Tasman link. In this for the Gemini project “road show”. You were bay, where two at that time a key player in thesame development of private cables and the entrepreneurial emergence centuries before the of the carrier’s carrier model.French This model was expedition the new gospel, the new vision, claiming “Urbi et “La Pérouse” made of Orbi”:”Wealth for everyone on earth”! two ships, La Boussole
was impressed andwas came outin of everyone’s this reassured in Warrior event still memory. It theislong term profitability of my supplier’s business. for these reasons among others that STC (UK) I was damn wrong: This methodology bears an rejected Alcatel‘s suggestion to come inherent riskthe of over investing: Where there is a with a good case for one cable between A and B, nothing joint bid, to offer a “European” solution. prevents 4 teams to raise funds and build 4 cables One of the winning factors has been the in the same timeframe based on the same business Port-Botany cable factory.has Such a factory was a plan. This is what our business done! Building farstrong too many cables on the “thick” routes, and not requirement from OTC (now Telstra) and enough on the “thin” ones. the Australian Government. Alcatel was 5the most motivated. A few years later with colleagues, we made ourSuch a mind to develop a much need project landing in Pacific factory could expand its influence in the India. An obvious one! We thought we were in good where the three otherBob, players were historically shape when your company, one of the most pre-eminent banks, accepted to join our project. well established in this region, which represents Weahad a highly recognised management team, a this large part of their market. They saw good business case, a signed supply contract, the factory as akey risk for their support of some customers, andexisting a partner facilities! was bringing at his full risk the necessary seed money; SubOptic ‘87 in Versailles came at the right time. But you drove us crazy in your exhausting process It is where the Australian teams discovered the and procedures, legal issues, various “road shows” model, a close andFrench you finally left brutally ourcooperation table…and the between submarine business. Alcatel and FT, exactly what they wanted to esin as their Mytablish dear Bob, you country. understand, I have bad taste in My friend, things are changed since, but my mouth. Weone boththing have been by the new staysmisled true: When you dominant offer something, culture. The mere reality is that building the the reader can see between necessary global infrastructure is athe dutylines not aif you are business! or not genuinely motivated and sincere. Then your offer becomes really attractive and this opens the route to “Botany Bay.”
I was there to tell the finance community all kind of good things about the project, the technology, and l’Astrolabe, landed 1788 to discover the supplier’ seriousness, theinquasi-absence of realthat risks, the easiness of the implementation schedule. Captain Cook was already around bearing the It was my very first exposure to the finance British flag. So Botany Bay is now for me the community, a strange planet speaking a kind of symbol of a dream a reality! foreign language – to mewhich at leastbecomes – and I was not comfortable in my shoes , since I did not wanted my Tasman 2 has been yet another chapter customer to fail in his attempt to raise their much in this long ItAnglo-French needed money! was so importantcompetition! that, very muchThe awardmy towill, Alcatel out asto aenter big in surprise against I hadcame been forced a two to days rehearsal exercise in the city of London prior many, including inside Alcatel. Everybody was coming to New-York! naturally expecting the British to win that batI found myself sitting to you, Bob, at at thethat dinner tle, and such an next expectation was time kindly hosted by the Gemini owners at the end of very logical. See you soon. Jean Devos that session. You were kind enough to explain to me There were so many difficulties and Submarcom Consulting the complex and heavy process which was needed to reach a possible investment decision. Thanks to you, misunderstanding between Australia and I was learning a new one music: Debtthe or Equity, France, the main being FrenchReturn presence Submarcom Consulting on investment, Info memo, Business case, Risks in the Pacific area, the worse the assessment, pricing strategy, venturebeing capital etc.nuclear I bomb experiment in Tahiti! The sad Rainbow
Jean Devos
Jean Devos
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