Over 60 Business Activities Compared Among Peers: Telecom Operator Competitiveness Shifts from 'Spending Amount' to 'Spending Effectiveness' [A.T. Kearney]
A.T. Kearney has released its 'Global Competitive Benchmarking (GCB)' report for telecommunications operators. This analysis helps telecom companies enhance their competitiveness and optimize spending by comparing the effectiveness of their spending, not just the amount, across over 60 business activities against industry peers.
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- 📰 Published: June 9, 2026 at 11:00
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A.T. Kearney Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; Representative: Takefumi Harigaya) has published its 'Global Competitive Benchmarking (GCB)' analysis, which examines the P&L structure, spending, investment, and assets of telecommunications operators in comparison with their industry peers. GCB is a benchmarking framework applied annually to 50-100 telecom operators.
This report analyzes revenue, direct costs, commercial activities, investment, capital expenditure, and assets, centered around an 'Executive Dashboard' that visualizes the total cost and performance gap against competitors for over 60 business activities of telecom operators. Amidst increasing pressure on revenue, the focus for telecom operators is shifting from simply identifying 'which cost items are high' to discerning 'which expenditures are contributing to competitive advantage and transformation outcomes'.
Understanding Spending Structure and Gaps Across Over 60 Activity Units
The core of GCB, the Executive Dashboard, organizes the total costs of over 60 activities across all operations, from the access layer to HR, and indicates the performance gap against competitors for each activity. Furthermore, by using similar dashboards for revenue, direct costs, segment-specific commercial activities, and investments, it provides a holistic management perspective on the telecom operator's spending structure, rather than a departmental view.
The significance of this approach extends beyond merely identifying areas for cost reduction. With increasing revenue pressure, it is crucial to delve into the effectiveness of expenditures alongside controlling spending. GCB provides clues for identifying optimization opportunities in spending that lead to competitiveness, rather than focusing solely on the magnitude of expenditure.
Expanding to 50-100 Companies Annually, Benchmark Originating in Europe Goes Global
GCB initially began with major telecommunications operators in the highly competitive European market as its primary participants. It has now expanded globally and is applied annually to 50-100 telecom operators. In the telecommunications market, simply broadening the scope of comparison is insufficient due to differences in customer composition, deployed technologies, scale, business structure, degree of in-house vs. outsourced operations, and even technical details like climate, a key determinant of network power consumption.
Therefore, GCB harmonizes and standardizes the management accounting data and extensive operational data of each company, arranging them into a comparable format across countries and business types. Simple cost item comparisons cannot adequately explain differences in scale, outsourcing ratios, deployed technologies, or climatic conditions affecting network power consumption. To conduct meaningful comparisons, it is essential to define peer groups that functional leaders can relate to and align the premises of the comparison.
Meaningful Peer Group Comparisons Based on Key Differentiating Factors
The cost structure of telecommunications operators is influenced by multiple factors, including business scale, customer composition, deployed technologies, business structure, the extent of in-house vs. outsourced operations, and climate conditions affecting network power consumption. GCB defines comparison targets considering these differences and compares them with peer groups that are meaningful to functional leaders for each activity.
This point is also important for ensuring that benchmarking is not a one-off diagnostic exercise. By establishing a robust baseline for cost levels and peer-to-peer gaps, management can more easily discuss the root causes of gaps, cost issues, and transformation priorities. Furthermore, integrating benchmarking into financial planning and performance management enables the institutionalization of continuous improvement and operational excellence as a management system.
- About Global Competitive Benchmarking (GCB)
URL: https://www.jp.kearney.com/issue-papers-perspectives/global-competitive-benchmarking
- Supervisors
Takefumi Harigaya, Representative, Managing Director Japan, Senior Partner
Graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo. After working in sales planning, business planning, and service development at a major telecommunications company, he joined A.T. Kearney. With over 20 years of consulting experience primarily with telecommunications, high-tech, and media companies, he leverages his experience in driving cross-organizational business initiatives at operating companies to provide grounded and highly effective consulting services focused on digital transformation, overseas business strategy, new business strategy, business portfolio restructuring, and business turnarounds.
Kentaro Taki, Senior Partner
Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Department of Economics, The University of Tokyo, and joined A.T. Kearney. He has approximately 10 years of consulting experience. Focusing on telecommunications, financial institutions, and consumer goods, he has handled a wide range of management-related themes, from strategy, new business, and R&D to M&A, marketing, sales, operations, cost, and HR/organization, with a particular expertise in large-scale, company-wide digital transformation.
- About A.T. Kearney
A.T. Kearney (global brand name: KEARNEY) was founded in Chicago, USA, in 1926 and entered Japan in 1972. With its core strengths in advanced expertise, delivering tangible results, and close collaboration with clients, it now has offices in over 40 countries worldwide, with approximately 5,900 staff and a global network. Its primary clients include Global 1000 companies across all major industries, as well as major corporations and government agencies in various countries, to whom it provides consistent, high-quality services ranging from strategy to operations and IT. For more information, please visit our website: www.jp.kearney.com
This report analyzes revenue, direct costs, commercial activities, investment, capital expenditure, and assets, centered around an 'Executive Dashboard' that visualizes the total cost and performance gap against competitors for over 60 business activities of telecom operators. Amidst increasing pressure on revenue, the focus for telecom operators is shifting from simply identifying 'which cost items are high' to discerning 'which expenditures are contributing to competitive advantage and transformation outcomes'.
Understanding Spending Structure and Gaps Across Over 60 Activity Units
The core of GCB, the Executive Dashboard, organizes the total costs of over 60 activities across all operations, from the access layer to HR, and indicates the performance gap against competitors for each activity. Furthermore, by using similar dashboards for revenue, direct costs, segment-specific commercial activities, and investments, it provides a holistic management perspective on the telecom operator's spending structure, rather than a departmental view.
The significance of this approach extends beyond merely identifying areas for cost reduction. With increasing revenue pressure, it is crucial to delve into the effectiveness of expenditures alongside controlling spending. GCB provides clues for identifying optimization opportunities in spending that lead to competitiveness, rather than focusing solely on the magnitude of expenditure.
Expanding to 50-100 Companies Annually, Benchmark Originating in Europe Goes Global
GCB initially began with major telecommunications operators in the highly competitive European market as its primary participants. It has now expanded globally and is applied annually to 50-100 telecom operators. In the telecommunications market, simply broadening the scope of comparison is insufficient due to differences in customer composition, deployed technologies, scale, business structure, degree of in-house vs. outsourced operations, and even technical details like climate, a key determinant of network power consumption.
Therefore, GCB harmonizes and standardizes the management accounting data and extensive operational data of each company, arranging them into a comparable format across countries and business types. Simple cost item comparisons cannot adequately explain differences in scale, outsourcing ratios, deployed technologies, or climatic conditions affecting network power consumption. To conduct meaningful comparisons, it is essential to define peer groups that functional leaders can relate to and align the premises of the comparison.
Meaningful Peer Group Comparisons Based on Key Differentiating Factors
The cost structure of telecommunications operators is influenced by multiple factors, including business scale, customer composition, deployed technologies, business structure, the extent of in-house vs. outsourced operations, and climate conditions affecting network power consumption. GCB defines comparison targets considering these differences and compares them with peer groups that are meaningful to functional leaders for each activity.
This point is also important for ensuring that benchmarking is not a one-off diagnostic exercise. By establishing a robust baseline for cost levels and peer-to-peer gaps, management can more easily discuss the root causes of gaps, cost issues, and transformation priorities. Furthermore, integrating benchmarking into financial planning and performance management enables the institutionalization of continuous improvement and operational excellence as a management system.
- About Global Competitive Benchmarking (GCB)
URL: https://www.jp.kearney.com/issue-papers-perspectives/global-competitive-benchmarking
- Supervisors
Takefumi Harigaya, Representative, Managing Director Japan, Senior Partner
Graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo. After working in sales planning, business planning, and service development at a major telecommunications company, he joined A.T. Kearney. With over 20 years of consulting experience primarily with telecommunications, high-tech, and media companies, he leverages his experience in driving cross-organizational business initiatives at operating companies to provide grounded and highly effective consulting services focused on digital transformation, overseas business strategy, new business strategy, business portfolio restructuring, and business turnarounds.
Kentaro Taki, Senior Partner
Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Department of Economics, The University of Tokyo, and joined A.T. Kearney. He has approximately 10 years of consulting experience. Focusing on telecommunications, financial institutions, and consumer goods, he has handled a wide range of management-related themes, from strategy, new business, and R&D to M&A, marketing, sales, operations, cost, and HR/organization, with a particular expertise in large-scale, company-wide digital transformation.
- About A.T. Kearney
A.T. Kearney (global brand name: KEARNEY) was founded in Chicago, USA, in 1926 and entered Japan in 1972. With its core strengths in advanced expertise, delivering tangible results, and close collaboration with clients, it now has offices in over 40 countries worldwide, with approximately 5,900 staff and a global network. Its primary clients include Global 1000 companies across all major industries, as well as major corporations and government agencies in various countries, to whom it provides consistent, high-quality services ranging from strategy to operations and IT. For more information, please visit our website: www.jp.kearney.com
FAQ
How will the competitiveness of telecommunications operators be measured going forward?
Competitiveness will be measured not just by spending amount, but by the 'effectiveness' and 'competitive advantage' generated by that spending. GCB comparatively analyzes this against industry peers.
What kind of analysis does the GCB report specifically provide?
It visualizes the total cost and performance gap against competitors for over 60 business activities using an 'Executive Dashboard', analyzing the spending structure from an overall management perspective.
Why is the analysis of spending effectiveness becoming important in the telecom industry?
Amidst increasing revenue pressure, it is crucial for sustainable growth to identify which expenditures contribute to strengthening competitiveness and transformation, rather than merely reducing costs.
How does GCB enable comparison between telecom companies in different countries?
By harmonizing and standardizing company data, and considering differentiating factors like business scale and technology, it enables cross-border comparisons through analysis against meaningful peer groups.
How can the results of this analysis benefit the management of telecom operators?
By establishing a baseline for cost levels and gaps, it facilitates management's identification of gap causes, discussion of cost issues, and prioritization of transformations, leading to continuous improvement.