Nobody in Telecom Is Paid to Innovate

Let’s be brutally honest:

Telecom isn’t broken because of bad technology.
It’s broken because of bad incentives.

Fiber rollouts? Upgraded routers? Expanded coverage maps?

All important but none of it solves the real problem.

The real problem?

Nobody’s paid to fix what actually matters.

Who’s Incentivized to Shake Things Up?

Take a look at any org chart in telecom and ask one question:

“Who here is rewarded for innovating?”

Here’s what you’ll see:

The CEO is laser-focused on home-passed targets, EBITDA, and expansion metrics. Innovation? That’s a distraction from the next rollout.
The COO is measured by operational efficiency, ticket resolution time, and cost containment. Their job is to keep the machine running not question whether it’s the right machine.
The CTO is knee-deep in core router upgrades, IPv6 migrations, spectrum management. They’re hired to modernize infrastructure, not reimagine the experience.
Sales leaders? They’re paid to hit the number. Period. Not to fix broken CRM flows or reduce churn just to close.

So who, exactly, is tasked with asking:

“How do we make customers actually love us?”

Nobody.

That’s How You Get the Worst NPS in any Industry

Telecom has the worst Net Promoter Score in any consumer-facing industry and the highest voluntary churn rates.

Coincidence? Not even close.

Here’s what happens when nobody has skin in the innovation game:

Disconnected CRMs that can’t see the network status
Agents using 7 tools and 12 tabs to solve a simple problem
No proactive outreach only reactive damage control
VIP customers treated the same as late-payers

And worst of all:
No one internally is rewarded for fixing these things.

What Gets Measured Gets Done. And That’s the Problem.

Here’s the kicker:

The industry fired tens of thousands of workers from 2023–2024.

If people didn’t challenge the status quo before…
They’re certainly not going to now.

In today’s telecom companies:

Taking risks can get you fired
Playing it safe gets you promoted
Disruption is a liability, not an opportunity

So teams stay quiet. Innovation dies in silence.
And customers quietly walk out the door.

No Incentive = No Innovation

It doesn’t matter how many AI webinars you attend.
It doesn’t matter how modern your fiber map looks.

If you don’t pay people to fix broken workflows, reimagine customer journeys, or pilot new models…

You will keep bleeding customers.

You can’t optimize your way out of irrelevance.

Here’s What Needs to Change

If you’re serious about growth, here’s how you rebuild your org for innovation:

– Create incentives for retention improvements (NPS, upsells, churn saves)
– Give teams permission to test radical ideas without career risk
– Build a system where internal disruptors are promoted, not punished
– Reward people for solving real user pain, not just hitting rollout milestones