Celebrating a year of innovation, resilience and opportunity: Reflections on 2022

As we race towards the end of another year, I can’t help but reflect on 2022.

It’s been a year packed full of memorable moments of collaboration, innovation and opportunity.

But it goes without saying that 2022 has also had its challenges for so many, with every sector feeling the impact of the cost of living crisis. We’ve all had to be more resilient than ever- a trait that will remain critical in 2023.?

At BT, we’ve a hugely exciting future ahead of us, as we embark on the next chapter of our business with EE as our flagship Consumer brand. It’s been incredible to be a part of the team creating the next iteration of our Consumer story to become the most Personal, Customer focussed tech brand in the UK. I can’t wait for customers to begin to see all that new EE will bring.

Creating world class customer experiences

In 2023, we will need to obsess about our customers and become more personal than ever. A big part of my role is supporting my teams to create the most simple, seamless and inspiring customer experiences in the industry. A key part of this is revolutionizing our retail, contact centre and digital channels to create remarkable, stand-out customer experiences bringing together cutting – edge technology with a highly engaged customer-focussed frontline team. Truly understanding what inspires our customers’ choices and how their priorities and requirements may change in 2023 will be critical to creating the world class customer experiences needed for success.

In the new year you’ll begin to see some of these new experiences come to life very visibility for customers in our retail stores. I started my career in retail, so I pay close attention to what’s happening on the high street, and it always saddens me to see any retail brand find themselves in difficulty - between Covid-19, the cost of living crisis and rising costs, this sector can’t seem to catch a break. That’s why I’m so keen to transform EE’s retail spaces to encourage all customers to get back out on the high street and give them a brilliant reason to visit. Research tells us every channel is important to our customers, so now is the time for all sectors to invest in the retail experience with as much urgency as we have done with digital transformation over the last few years. We have no time to lose.

Brilliant People

Together we’re serving the largest customer base in the UK, powered by brilliant people in our nationwide Sales and Service teams. In a year full of change, our teams have embraced every challenge with dedication and at a time when our customers need us more than ever before, they’ve continued to be truly personal and keep our customers at the heart of everything they do.

It’s been brilliant to spend time with so many of these incredibly talented frontline colleagues this year. Only a few months ago, it was a pleasure to welcome over 700 colleagues onto this year’s Aspire Development Programme. It’s always great to see passionate people growing their careers and it fills me with immense pride to follow their journeys.

I’ve also had the privilege of connecting with many people outside our business this year, from delivering the keynote to young women in tech at the world’s largest annual summit for Black women in Technology, to speaking to new graduates taking the first big step into their career through being an inspirational speaker at a number of graduations at Manchester Metropolitan University. The amount of talent I see coming into the workplace is inspiring. Let’s not forget many of these individuals have been developing their early careers through a pandemic and a global economic downturn and have had to become more resilient and adaptable than any previous generation, so I feel confident that the future is in safe hands!

I am lucky to work with some incredible people who are as passionate as I am about building a team where everyone feels like they belong, are included and able to be themselves, in particular through my role as co- sponsor of our Ethnic Diversity Network at BT, alongside my colleagues Marc Allera and Adrian Joseph OBE . This year, we partnered with the brilliant 10,000 Black Interns programme, to help transform the horizons and prospects of young black people in the UK. Earlier this year, we welcomed eight incredibly talented interns into my Commercial team, and they have done such a phenomenal job that we will be welcome a further 40 young people into Consumer in 2023.

I couldn’t finish my reflections without thinking about my incredible Commercial team at BT. I want to take a moment to thank you all. I hope you’re proud of all of your brilliant work this year and the amazing milestones we've achieved together. Not everyone will be celebrating Christmas in the same way, or at all, but I hope everyone gets some time to rest and recharge, because next year is shaping up to be our biggest and most exciting year yet.

Here’s to a brilliant 2023.?