Two CFOs, both winners of the first European CFO Excellence Awards, tell their stories. I t all seems obvious now.
Telecoms is a hot sector.
Mobile phones were cumbersome to carry, not to mention expensive and technologically disappointing. Many analysts doubted whether there was room for another player. And yet, Orange, then called Microtel, decided to enter the fray as a fourth network provider. Not only was the market small, but Orange was relying on a new and unproven technology - the 1800 GSM standard. Few in the industry paid the firm any attention.