We’ve been rebuilding, not just restructuring....

As many of you know Avaya has been in a Chapter 11 restructuring process for most of 2017, I’ve been asked on many occasions by customers and partners alike how difficult has it been?

Having been with the company for nearly 14 years and a Brit living abroad on a work visa I was rather fearful of what the future could hold, but, as we draw close to exiting Chapter 11 as a public company I have to say my experience has been anything but the doom and gloom painted in some quarters.

Our underlying business has always been solid and whilst FUD creates extra work for us, the adversity has only brought the Avaya team together and much closer to our customers and partners at all levels in the company.

While restructuring our balance sheet we’ve been quietly going about our business rebuilding our organization to better position us for growth as we exit the process. That was epitomized for me last week as I brought my mid-market team together for a few days of strategy, planning and professional skills development. 

I’ve managed sales teams for a good few years now but I’ve never experienced the energy, passion and commitment that the team brought to the meeting.

So why so much positivity for a company that outwardly has been struggling for a few years? I know the answer, it’s our people and they are genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead for Avaya.

As a leader in this company we’ve been given the empowerment to drive change and over the past year we’ve recruited fantastic talent into our organization. We added some new Channel Account Managers into the team, within a few months they were asking for more work and greater responsibility. We have Territory Managers who spend every day in front of customers discovering their customer’s business issues and solving them with digital solutions that were once only available to large enterprises. The latest additions are a couple of recruits straight out of college as part of our Sales Academy program, the diversity we have in our organization is fostering critical thinking and driving creativity.

As a colleague wrote the other day we’re exiting Chapter 11 and moving onto a new Chapter 1, the new Avaya! Talk to our people and experience how we are helping our customers and partners transform their businesses in the digital era. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the transformation we’ve quietly undertaken whilst restructuring.