Telefonica Creates Strategy Unit

Pushing on with a transformation plan, Telefonica combined parts of several units to create a strategy and development department. It will be led by former O2 UK CEO Mark Evans.

The Strategy and Development Department brings together existing leaders from its corporate strategy, M&A team and digital units, who retain current responsibilities. Its remit is to lead the technological transformation process and promoting the consolidation of the new Telefonica. The so-called new Telefonica is the umbrella term used for the vision of the company when it completes a  restructure.

Telefonica’s new unit will also be charged with promoting further internal efficiencies. “The new organisational structure is an accelerator in the transformation of Telefonica both to be able to take advantage of all the opportunities offered by the fourth industrial revolution...and also to consolidate a company with state-of-the-art technology units,“ Telefonica president and CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete said.

The move is the latest in a number of large structural changes by Telefonica, which has been selling and merging a range of assets, alongside creating divisions charged with pushing core and emerging group-wide business strands. Part of its revamp is a merger of its UK mobile operation with Liberty Global’s fixed unit in the country earlier this year.