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00:00:01
Thirty Days Later: A Reality Check For Telcos And Industry Analysts
45 Plays25 days ago
In this episode, I am joined by Amy Cameron, Managing Director for Research at STL Partners, to unpack the biggest promises and boldest claims that still make sense one month after the end of Mobile World Congress. Join us as we explore where telcos are genuinely advancing and where the hype may be outrunning reality. From network innovation to new business models, we discuss what comes next for the industry — and which opportunities are actually worth watching.
We also dive into the rapidly evolving role of AI in the enterprise world: where the real value is emerging, what leaders are getting right, and why the next wave of adoption will be disruptive.
Beyond technology, the conversation takes a more philosophical turn as we reflect on life, curiosity, and the importance of perspective in fast-moving industries. We close with a look at the journey of becoming an analyst today — the skills that matter, the habits that make a difference, and practical advice for anyone trying to build credibility in a world overflowing with noise and information.
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Transcript
Introduction to Telco Drift Podcast
00:00:01
Pablo Tomasi
So welcome back to the Telco Drift, a podcast exploring tech telecoms and other sci-fi stories. I'm Pablo your host. And in today's episode, I'm joined by Amy Cameron, Managing Director for Research at STL Partners. So Amy, welcome to the Telco Drift.
00:00:17
Amy
Thanks for having me.
Themes That Are Still Relevant One Month After MWC and Amy's Journey
00:00:18
Pablo Tomasi
So first of all, today we are going assess one month after MWC what really stuck with us, what sort of got lost in translations and what's going to happen for the rest the year. But we will also deep dive on what it means to be an analyst.
00:00:35
Pablo Tomasi
Almost a philosophical question. So let's start maybe with that. Know a little bit more about yourself. Can you share some interesting facts about yourself and also how you ended up becoming an analyst?
00:00:48
Amy
Okay, well, I think probably the most interesting thing about me is that I lived in China for two years and studied Mandarin at the time, and so I still speak some Mandarin, although it's very rusty, so 大家好! And and um so what happened is after I lived in Beijing, I came to the UK and I studied Chinese politics, like you know, what that's what you do, you do a master's. And I thought, I'm going change the world and work for risk control and do economic and political risk analysis. But I graduated in 2011 and eleven and um I did not have a CV stacked with great internships.
00:01:37
Amy
So nobody hired me to do that. However, I did find a job on the telecoms industry team for a broader like economic risk and industry research company, which was called BMI and is now owned by Fitch, the ratings agency.
00:01:57
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:01:58
Amy
And that's where I learned all about telecoms. And I was covering the Middle East and Africa, and then I was heading the team. So great opportunities as a young analyst and like everyone else in telecoms.
Unusual? Career Paths in Telecoms
00:02:11
Amy
You come and never leave because it's endlessly fascinating.
00:02:16
Pablo Tomasi
It's interesting because your path is like surprisingly, actually, didn't know, surprisingly close to what I did because I did study War Studies at King's College and I kind of wanted to go the same route that you were thinking, like political risk, countries and so forth.
00:02:35
Pablo Tomasi
um But then I needed to find a job and the first one was in the telecom space and I was like, well, you know job is a job, so let let's stick to that. So it's interesting.
00:02:46
Amy
Yeah, exactly. And you also are still in telecoms, so clearly find it endlessly fascinating too.
00:02:52
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, I think I think that that's part of the beauty of technology. I mean, to be fair, I do think that it is it should be as a less depressing market compared to political country risk and something where you
00:03:07
Amy
yeah.
00:03:08
Pablo Tomasi
you didn't You don't need to be so disappointed every time that some big persona makes some terrible decisions. So makes life a little bit easier and and definitely like it is it is fascinating.
00:03:19
Pablo Tomasi
So let's encourage younger analysts to pursue a career in telecoms.
00:03:22
Amy
Yeah.
00:03:25
Amy
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think that the joy is that it touches on everything, right? Like geopolitical tensions are significantly impacting the opportunities for the telecoms industry right now. So, um you know, it all comes back one day or another.
00:03:45
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, everything is useful, I think, in in this in in this job. And I
AI Adoption in Companies
00:03:50
Pablo Tomasi
know like different analysts have different backgrounds, so from you know chemistry, physics. ah Some people actually like have a background in telecom, but no, that's not interesting enough. But I mean, that that's settled. So encouraging people to become analysts, that's point number one. We got it. Now let's let's sort of circle back a little bit more on on the market. So you went to MWC.
00:04:15
Pablo Tomasi
I suppose, right?
00:04:16
Amy
I did.
00:04:18
Pablo Tomasi
So what technology or what bit of the show impress you the most? and And I know there's going to be probably already like quite a few sort of post-MWC shows. So for me, what I would like to understand is really, okay, we are a month not ah a month after, maybe two months, whatever, after MWC. What do you think is still relevant, is still sort of hot in a sense?
00:04:44
Amy
I mean, I think that really trying to unpick how organizations are adopting AI internally and leveraging what they learn internally to
00:05:06
Amy
engage better with their customers or develop new services. And in that order, what they have learned internally that they can then use to help their customers grapple with the technology, those are the those are the bits which I think are fundamentally going to separate the companies in a few years from now that are successful and those that are less successful because this technology is like permeating everything that we do.
00:05:39
Amy
do it touches every company and for once, it's kind of interesting because tech companies and telcos alike are in the same challenge of how do I successfully use this technology within my organization and to improve how I engage with my customers and like tech companies Sure, they're maybe more technical than telecoms operators are in many domains, but it doesn't mean that they're necessarily better at figuring out how to make a cultural transformation as significant as what AI is doing. And so it's quite interesting that, you know, just to see how different companies are approaching that and what what they're doing with this. And I think that is that is probably the
00:06:33
Amy
the most interesting long-term trend that going to come out of MWC. And this is the first year, like last year, there was all this agenda, KI, blah, blah, blah, but it wasn't real.
00:06:43
Amy
And now there are some agents. And so there is something real to make an assessment and learnings on.
00:06:51
Pablo Tomasi
I like your take the last year it wasn't real because sometimes it happens you know it like sometimes you have that the beautiful plan right and then slow and steady you start rolling out but effectively you're saying some some companies are eating their own dog food is that how you say it in English better than others
00:07:08
Amy
There's lots of ways to say it. That is one of them.
00:07:13
Pablo Tomasi
Which is, it's it's I think it's iss the right approach. It's it interesting because some time ago in ah in a different life I used to cover IoT and they were like sort of a similar path in a sense.
00:07:20
Amy
Yeah.
00:07:24
Pablo Tomasi
Some companies were like first testing it internally for you know their own whatever campus applications, whatever. And then they were learning a little bit, okay, what works, what doesn't work and like how can that be solved?
00:07:36
Pablo Tomasi
the IoT market didn't really become as big as as people wanted but still you know some some people made made some money out of it and and are you optimistic on AI or pessimistic and I know it's it's kind of broad but
00:07:56
Amy
I think broadly optimistic. you know I think this has but more to do with like how somebody is by nature than necessarily how they feel about a specific technology. I'm quite an optimistic person. I think anybody who's seen me will attest that I'm quite lively and smiley. and I feel like...
00:08:16
Amy
i feel like Yeah, i feel I feel like an optimist. It doesn't mean that I don't think that there is a significant risk that we're gonna go through like a period of absolute chaos, um which you know and in technology terms, that might be like a period of chaos of like 10 years and that it'll get better afterwards.
00:08:38
Pablo Tomasi
over 10 years of...
00:08:39
Amy
But I like I don't know, there's a lot of chaos going on right now. And that's you know AI is only gonna make things more chaotic for a bit, but I think that there's a lot of benefits that that can come out of it and that will come out of it. And I am
AI's Impact on Technology and Society
00:08:57
Amy
fundamentally an optimist. So I think on like long-term horizon, I'm positive.
00:09:02
Pablo Tomasi
so yeah it's a matter of like ah people soldiering through the chaos and finding the the right to way of using AI or the right balance between AI and morality
00:09:12
Amy
Yeah.
00:09:17
Amy
Well, you know, I think it's actually, i think it's actually more fundamental than that. Let's, you know, we're, we're, we're having a philosophy session after all. um I believe, I believe that humans are fundamentally in the balance, like more good than bad.
00:09:30
Pablo Tomasi
oh
00:09:31
Amy
And so I think that, you know, things are going to like end up more good than bad. And that's, you know, I think that's part of being an optimist, but it is like, you know, the, the,
00:09:37
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah.
00:09:43
Amy
like at the end of the day technology evolves how human society makes it evolve and I'm not really a believer that we're gonna have this like AGI that's gonna like reset all of the other AIs or turn the entire world into paperclips or whatever it is but um so I don't I don't actually like I'm I'm not a believer that we're on the cusp of AGI and
00:10:07
Pablo Tomasi
so So you're not a believer in the Skynet type of scenario?
00:10:13
Amy
No, no. And I think that, like, I don't believe yet that the the technology is going to run us.
00:10:14
Pablo Tomasi
Okay.
00:10:19
Amy
I think that humans will remain fundamentally more powerful, the actors, than the technology. And that humans are fundamentally more good than bad. so that's where my optimism comes from.
00:10:29
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah.
00:10:31
Amy
Okay.
00:10:32
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, i mean yeah that's that's a good philosophical question. that Definitely I have a slightly more pessimistic view of the duality.
00:10:41
Amy
And yet you do it with a smile, Pablo. Yeah.
00:10:45
Pablo Tomasi
Because it's yeah you don't want to be like too negative, at least I don't want to be too negative in my assessment of the, oh how how should I say nicely, the weakness morality of mankind or whatever.
00:10:50
Amy
Yeah.
00:10:59
Amy
Yeah.
00:11:01
Pablo Tomasi
But no, I see, I see, like I want to be, I'm a little bit like, you know, X-Fies. I want to believe. I want to believe in the goodness of people and like the the the ability then to use different set of technologies to effectively bring a higher set of benefits to society.
00:11:13
Amy
Yeah.
00:11:18
Amy
Yeah.
00:11:19
Pablo Tomasi
So that's sort of, yeah, we can we can agree on that. i'm I'm forcing myself a little bit to to say this, but sometimes I need to kind of get out of my comfort zone and like,
00:11:29
Amy
Saying it out loud is half the battle.
00:11:31
Pablo Tomasi
yeah, then believing in it is something else.
00:11:33
Amy
Exactly. If you say it enough times, you might end up believing it.
00:11:37
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, yeah um I'm going to end up definitely believe like every morning I'm going to think about, OK, humanity is good. And then we'll we'll see you next time that we catch up.
00:11:46
Amy
You say your mantras.
00:11:47
Pablo Tomasi
yeah We can see how that is working. um Now, um again, back to MWC. So of all the companies, is there any company that for you stood out in terms of what they're doing, their their vision or how are they doing it?
00:12:08
Amy
I think on this piece, this AI piece that I brought up, for me, the The operator that I love their approach is Orange.
00:12:20
Amy
I think, you know, had the great pleasure of joining an analyst round table with their chief AI officer, Steve Jarrett. And
00:12:32
Amy
they've managed to build this live intelligence platform over the course of three years. And just, you know, hearing how Orange talks, they're very clear on how they want to use the technology, how they've built things out, how they've structured their team in order to make good use of AI in their organization and and with and with customers. And so I think that they're, i think they've done a great job so far and one when to follow. And like, I think an example that is like
00:13:07
Amy
useful for the broader industry because it's great to point to an SK Telecom, but let's be honest, no other telcos, except the East Asians, are going to be producing semiconductors.
00:13:24
Amy
You know, like it's just, it's a it's um it's a more, it feels more replicatable to the wider industry.
00:13:24
Pablo Tomasi
Yes. yeah
00:13:31
Amy
And so I think that is a nice example for that reason too.
00:13:35
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, I would agree with you. like First of all, like on Orange, they you know when we're talking about sort of the Soto morality angle, I think that is something that at least they they try to transmit quite a lot in there in their strategies, in what they want to do.
00:13:47
Amy
Yeah.
00:13:50
Pablo Tomasi
Soto, they really double down on that, at least Soto has a messaging point of view.
00:13:51
Amy
Yeah.
00:13:53
Pablo Tomasi
And then, yeah, I mean, not many people can go down and replicate what an SK is doing.
00:13:53
Amy
Yeah.
00:14:00
Pablo Tomasi
Probably maybe
5G and Industry Advancements
00:14:01
Pablo Tomasi
a couple of companies.
00:14:01
Amy
No.
00:14:02
Pablo Tomasi
is like It's kind of hardcore stuff.
00:14:03
Amy
Yeah.
00:14:05
Pablo Tomasi
like
00:14:05
Amy
And also that most telcos just don't want to do that. Let's be honest, they don't want to do that. So it's not a good example.
00:14:11
Pablo Tomasi
and and and I think they shouldn't because they won't have the capabilities or the market or the conditions to be successful so it would be kind of a and nightmare for them and speaking about nightmares then what failed to impress you at the show
00:14:13
Amy
Yeah.
00:14:19
Amy
Yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:30
Amy
You know what I was so, so, so disappointed by There was like virtually zero demo of anything slicing related. And it's like such a shame because we have nice industry proof points from Singtel.
00:14:48
Amy
from T-Mobile, from Telstra, how to bring 5G standalone capabilities to market. And the operators are rolling out their 5G standalone networks, but there was just like really very little in that domain.
00:15:06
Amy
And I feel like that's, I just hope it's coming later in the year. I think there've been a couple of announcements since MWC, but... I just really wish that operators would excel more in their core capabilities.
00:15:27
Pablo Tomasi
so So they're not... it's So is it because slicing or connectivity is not sexy enough? Do you think that could be part of the reason or they don't see enough money
00:15:40
Amy
think i don't I don't think that's it. I think it's that
00:15:46
Amy
you're selling something different. You have to think differently about how you sell something, right? You sell, like you're using, you're used to selling like a ah mobile subscription,
00:15:58
Amy
um with a handset and that's like 85% of your business or maybe you're used to selling some enterprise solutions as well and in some pockets and some domains but still a large part of your enterprise business is still connectivity solutions and that's that's different to that's different to like selling an outcome to you know, a first responder customer selling an outcome, what you have to think differently.
00:16:25
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:16:28
Amy
and And, you know, Telstra is really good at this about thinking like, what what are we going to sell? We're going to sell as products. We'll sell latency, location, bandwidth, et cetera, et cetera.
00:16:44
Amy
and we have to sell those products. We're not selling just a connectivity. But that's like a, it's like a whole, you have you have whole sales organizations and businesses that are used to selling one thing.
00:16:58
Amy
And to make money out of out of a more flexible and programmable network, you have to sell something different.
00:16:59
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:17:04
Amy
And I think that that is like really challenging for operators to like begin turning the ship in a different direction.
00:17:18
Pablo Tomasi
I think, yeah, did that makes sense. It'll be like a you know a big cargo ship. you know When you want to turn it, it does take a little bit of time. You don't probably have that that agility too to switch and change things, change course towards greener fields.
00:17:29
Amy
Yeah.
00:17:32
Amy
Exactly. Yeah.
00:17:35
Pablo Tomasi
But it'd be interesting that that was something that did not did not impress. I mean, for me, when I'm thinking, I went there sort of with with my other hat. One day, I wonder if I would go to an event actually as a as a podcaster.
00:17:44
Amy
Yeah.
00:17:48
Pablo Tomasi
I wonder what what that would be like, more journalist-like maybe? have no idea. well
00:17:54
Amy
I don't know. Maybe you just like get to spend your time filming the pretend robots lightsabering with the real robots or something.
00:18:03
Pablo Tomasi
Probably we spend a lot of time, that you know, just ah that that sort of like ah deep, you know, analytical type of videos. That is part of it.
00:18:13
Pablo Tomasi
um But I think for for me, it ah what I seen then obviously that probably failed a little bit to me is the, ah kind it's it's kind of absurd, but it's the lack of concrete steps that I would probably say the industry's
00:18:33
Amy
What kind of concrete steps?
00:18:35
Pablo Tomasi
um Money.
00:18:37
Amy
Okay, like like and like investing in something.
00:18:40
Pablo Tomasi
No, like making making money.
00:18:42
Amy
Oh, making money.
00:18:42
Pablo Tomasi
it Yeah.
00:18:43
Amy
Oh, making money.
00:18:44
Pablo Tomasi
That would probably be like you and and I know not necessarily the place where you want to show that, right? Because that's more about, okay, this is the technology solution.
00:18:52
Amy
Hmm.
00:18:54
Pablo Tomasi
This is the vision that we have. But i always think like it. If I'm going there and someone is telling me, look, that's that's that's a big chunk of you know dollars that I made with that solution, for me, it would attract me more than someone showing me robots fighting each other.
00:19:05
Amy
Yeah.
00:19:12
Amy
Yeah.
00:19:12
Pablo Tomasi
Because I would think like, oh, that's actually, you know,
00:19:13
Amy
I mean,
00:19:16
Amy
there was a little bit of that. There was a little bit of that. I was at a Singtel Digital InfraCo event on the Sunday, and they were very much like, cha-ching, we're making loads of money.
00:19:29
Amy
wants to buy our platform and deploy it in another country?
00:19:33
Pablo Tomasi
Okay, and that's the Paragon platform, I imagine.
00:19:34
Amy
so not No, not just Paragon, like their whole InfraCo, they have like a data center business um and they have their systems integrator, NCS.
00:19:42
Pablo Tomasi
Okay.
00:19:46
Amy
They've got Paragon for the connectivity and compute orchestration.
00:19:49
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:19:49
Amy
And they've got like a REAI platform thing that runs across the board. And so it's like a whole like AI solutions, digital infrastructure business.
00:20:01
Amy
So that as a whole is like Paragon is a part of it.
00:20:05
Pablo Tomasi
Okay, nice, nice. I'm gonna sort of check check some some news about that. it's It's good to see because at the end of the day, yeah it's kind of lacks imagination in a sense, but it's good to see that because at the end that is gonna sort of foster further R&D and further solutions and anything.
00:20:20
Amy
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
00:20:22
Pablo Tomasi
And
Future of AI: Physical vs. Agentic
00:20:23
Pablo Tomasi
I had a point on my notes on asking anything about AI, but I think we have, you know, covered that quite extensively unless there is like any additional... agentic AI versus physical AI, which one is more important?
00:20:38
Amy
Well, now, agentic. Because, like, physical AI, um,
00:20:44
Pablo Tomasi
You really don't like robots, do you? mean...
00:20:48
Amy
No, it's just that it doesn't really like exist yet. And i like i mean I haven't thought about it enough to debate like
00:20:59
Amy
to debate like which one is more valuable ultimately. And I think there is a strong argument that physical AI is more valuable over the long term, which is what you know a lot of people are saying.
00:21:02
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:21:10
Amy
But we're just not there yet. right That's the whole reason why Yann LeCun is... like left and set up his own business is to train the models for physical AI, but it's going to take a long time to train those models.
00:21:23
Amy
And you can see like in a country like China, where you can put the gloves on to people's hands in a factory and you can have millions of people with the gloves on and doing all the different things. And you have that labor and that like top down, um,
00:21:37
Amy
organization to train those models.
00:21:38
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:21:39
Amy
Okay, yes, we'll have models to to train physical AI, and you can see it already in the robots that they have in China, but it's going to take a really long time for them to come to life.
00:21:50
Amy
Like, just look look how that long it's taken to get autonomous vehicles on the road, and they still don't know how to navigate a crosswalk, which is apparently one of the biggest barriers to them being deployed in a place like London is, because that's so, like, dependent on eye contact between the drivers, and it's like a it's like a little dance and the autonomous robot car vehicles don't know how to do the dance so just see how long it's taken us to do that so I don't think that physical AI is like is like coming tomorrow we have our hands full with agentic in digital systems so not that you shouldn't dream and it's great to see it's great to see some of the some of the players dreaming about this future but do I realistically believe it's happening in five years no
00:22:10
Pablo Tomasi
quick Who stops?
00:22:23
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:22:37
Pablo Tomasi
Okay. to to To be fair, I'm not big on on AI myself, so yeah I take the word for it. But I do, I mean, when I'm when i'm hearing your your timelines, it does seem, that's sort of what I would imagine. It's like, especially when you talk about robots, you can't imagine less than five years.
00:22:56
Amy
Yeah, yeah.
00:22:57
Pablo Tomasi
And in my mind, I imagine robots way more sophisticated than the robot arm or whatever it is, but that's,
00:23:03
Amy
Yeah, yeah. I mean, but don't lie, Pablo, if there was a robot that was going to bring here Deliveroo from the from the entrance over to you and just like bring it to your coffee to you now or whatever it was to you now in the middle of your podcast and you would take it right that might be in within five years yeah
00:23:21
Pablo Tomasi
it Yeah, kind kind of a house robot.
00:23:27
Amy
or yeah I mean I'm in my office so maybe it would come to my office I'm not sure how it would do with the stairs in the middle but
00:23:34
Pablo Tomasi
I would feel strange having like a house robot to be honest. Well, possibly because my my flat is very tiny. So it would take too much space. And then it would be just a little bit kind of an awkward living situation in a sense. It's like there is someone else. And I already have two cats as well.
00:23:53
Pablo Tomasi
So like i would I would have to ask them what they think about a robot.
00:23:53
Amy
Okay, yeah.
00:23:57
Amy
It's better to train them to carry the coffee tray.
00:24:00
Pablo Tomasi
yeah Yeah, or the robot would carry stuff for the cats. That's more likely the the scenario.
00:24:05
Amy
All right, okay. you can
00:24:09
Pablo Tomasi
But, ah okay, we we have covered robots as well that was not on the agenda, which is really, really good because ah you probably, I don't know if you know if you're following, but I'm trying to bring this podcast more into the sci-fi territory.
00:24:20
Amy
All right, okay.
Value of Panels and Events for Analysts
00:24:21
Pablo Tomasi
um But your reaction, I see that you're not really following, but... ah
00:24:27
Amy
No, and i mean, I have not followed closely, I'll be y'a'll be honest, but I did hear your introduction, of course, where you did mention sci-fi.
00:24:34
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, okay. That's a good save, definitely. But let let's let's now cover the second part of the episode. So we we have sort of discussed a little bit and MWC, what was there and not. and But you you were also there like speaking and moderating and and doing a bunch of of stuff. So first of all, how how did it go? How was that experience? And then again, if how important you think that is for like...
00:25:03
Pablo Tomasi
analyst life.
00:25:08
Amy
ah Yeah, it was good. I enjoyed it. um I think some people find it like really super nerve wracking to moderate a panel or join a panel. um I really enjoy it. I think it's an environment that I personally thrive in. So, you know, hence why also said yes to join you on your podcast.
00:25:26
Amy
um
00:25:26
Pablo Tomasi
Am I at the same level as an MWC speaking gig? Is that how...
00:25:31
Amy
Don't put yourself down, Pablo.
00:25:33
Pablo Tomasi
Yes, that's optimism there, absolutely.
00:25:34
Amy
oh
00:25:37
Amy
um But yeah, you know, I think it's really important because and
00:25:46
Amy
from a from a personal standpoint, when you're on these panels, so whether you're moderating or you're participating as a speaker, it forces you to really think like, what is the point I want to get across?
00:26:00
Amy
What do I actually believe in? What is the point worth making? And I think that it forces you to crystallize your thoughts a little bit the same way when you're actually like, you know, putting your research on paper or, you know, making a presentation or whatever it is.
00:26:13
Amy
And I think that that focusing of the mind is good for like thinking about whatever topic you're meant to opine on
00:26:19
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:26:24
Amy
um It's also great for meeting people, well especially at and MWC, the kind of people who So on panels are pretty high profile people. So um you get to speak to them and meet with them and hear what they're thinking and you know maybe open an openum opportunity to get to speak to them again in the future.
00:26:45
Amy
um that is That is a great opportunity. So it's it's always it's it's always nice.
00:26:50
Pablo Tomasi
Thank you.
00:26:52
Amy
I think that our value as analysts, a lot of it comes from what we're able to learn from the experiences of those who are trying to implement the strategies and the technologies that we are writing about.
00:27:11
Amy
and and so you need to learn from them. And it's a great opportunity to build the relationships to do that or to do that live while you're on the panel.
00:27:22
Pablo Tomasi
So would you say that sort of if you're like a junior analyst or like someone that wants to get into this line of business, would you say this is sort of essential at a certain part of the development progress?
00:27:38
Pablo Tomasi
the Development but progress doesn't sound right, but I guess you know what I mean.
00:27:40
Amy
Yeah, well,
00:27:45
Amy
I think that, look, look
00:27:50
Amy
different companies have have different things that they that they look for in their analysts, but I think that certainly it has benefited me a lot in my career and I definitely encourage the analysts on my team to do it and to put themselves out there and you know, I think that we all have to step outside of our comfort zone sometimes.
00:28:16
Amy
And I think that for a lot of analysts, it is outside the comfort zone and that's why they don't want to do it.
00:28:20
Pablo Tomasi
yeah
00:28:22
Amy
But to like, fine, like you you might find it uncomfortable. You might find you could have done a better job of it, but you you will you will take that lesson and and do a better job of it next time. and Like, yeah, long story short, I do think it is important.
00:28:41
Pablo Tomasi
and and do you have a preference like personally moderating or speaking
00:28:55
Amy
No, I think they're both good.
00:28:57
Pablo Tomasi
equal equal doesn't it does not like you sort of a preference in terms of because I remember when I first started that i prefer moderating because i i found it easier in a sense
00:28:58
Amy
think they're...
00:29:12
Pablo Tomasi
you you are less exposed if you want from a content perspective or like how how much knowledge you have right because you're kind of orchestrating that but then later on I found out that if I'm presenting I have more freedom in saying whatever I want because no one else is there to stop me in a sense
00:29:17
Amy
Hmm.
00:29:32
Amy
Hmm.
00:29:32
Pablo Tomasi
So you have just 20 minutes and I can make my but whatever message I want to convey in in in whatever way i I want to sort of.
00:29:43
Pablo Tomasi
If I wanted to be funny, I could be funny, right?
00:29:45
Amy
yeah
00:29:46
Pablo Tomasi
If I want to be, don't know, more whatever, obscure references, which I think probably that's the case, that's the way that I can do it.
00:29:56
Amy
You don't think you can do that when you're moderating?
00:30:00
Pablo Tomasi
I would say less because you you your your job is is not to show off in a sense, it's to enable your panelists, I think, to express themselves as best as they can.
00:30:01
Amy
plus
00:30:13
Pablo Tomasi
You can bring some of your own point of view, but people are there for the for the panelists, I think.
00:30:19
Amy
Yeah, you are there for the panelists, but also you're there for the audience. And I think that it's important as a moderator to push your panelists a little bit, right?
00:30:31
Pablo Tomasi
Hmm.
00:30:32
Amy
And you can push them in the direction that you think is important and in the direction that you think that the industry may not be addressing enough. And
Advice for Aspiring Analysts
00:30:43
Amy
you know how it is that you say, you' like, well, you moderate this this panel and you're given a subject and you're given some bullets. And at the end of the day, you're moderating. You could ask whatever you want.
00:30:54
Amy
And I think depending on how you do it and you prep the panel for it, then if you if you're a little bit more, if you have a strong view as an analyst and you want to hear like industry representative engage with that in a serious fashion, then being a a moderator is is a good way to do it, providing that you have a panel who can take it
00:31:22
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, I think that that's probably the the key element there, right? You need to have people who want to play ball with you and that if you're like pushing or challenging in a certain way, they don't get defensive, but they're actually embracing that and like, you know, kind of giving back to you.
00:31:28
Amy
yeah
00:31:31
Amy
Yeah.
00:31:36
Amy
Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:40
Pablo Tomasi
like because because And that depends. some Some speakers may be a little bit... afraid in a sense if you're like a little bit too if you provide too much constructive criticism let's
00:31:54
Amy
But I think the overall, the industry has become like a lot better at admitting areas of fault and trying to take those on seriously.
00:32:04
Pablo Tomasi
okay okay that's sort of the industry maturing then you know
00:32:04
Amy
Like, I think it's better than it was five years ago.
00:32:14
Pablo Tomasi
it No, because in my mind it it it sounded a little bit depressing. It's like, yes, you know, we failed. But, you know, we know that we failed and then next thing that we failed again. But no, that is just me. the Positivity needs to kind of...
00:32:28
Amy
There are some people who fail and then succeed afterwards, Pablo, you know?
00:32:29
Pablo Tomasi
i
00:32:33
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, that's a beautiful story. I'm sure I'm gonna find some people that that did that. But last question then related to this, um what recommendation would you give to someone wanting to be an analyst?
00:32:56
Amy
to force yourself to really, really, really rock your brain. Like, I remember when I was, I first joined STL and I came from, you know, this like,
00:33:11
Amy
research firm where we were like tracking ARPU data and subscriber data. It was like so superficial in terms of visibility. And then i came to STL and, you know, writing deeper research.
00:33:23
Amy
And it was like, my boss kept saying, we need to write on blockchain and telecoms. We need to write on blockchain and telecoms. was me and two other analysts and nobody was putting their hands up. And eventually I was like, fine, I'll write your blockchain in telecoms paper for you. I was like, I'm taking the hard one. And I just remember like, just like this technology is so complicated to explain in plain English. And like, what is it for? And I don't understand the inner workings of telecoms. And like, but you, put by forcing yourself through racking with those difficult, with those difficult topics and trying to like answer a question that somebody hasn't answered before. Like,
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:34:05
Amy
yeah, there's loads of things that got wrong in that report, but
00:34:09
Amy
I also like got better got got like more resilient as an analyst and more comfortable taking on different difficult topics. And I think that that is... like and it's like it's it's It's hard. I remember at points thinking, like I really wish I had a job that was like less thinky and more doey
00:34:30
Amy
And I have a much more doey job now and I do wish I had more time for thinking. So these things and as ebb and flow. But as an analyst, I think that pushing yourself to your analytical boundaries is a good practice.
00:34:44
Pablo Tomasi
Okay, so you you need to kind of, i don't want to say suffer, but like work hard.
00:34:49
Amy
Work hard. Yeah, I think that applies any job.
00:34:50
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah.
00:34:53
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, and unfortunately, yes, that's what I'm finding with this podcast. I'm trying to swing it past, but like there are like a lot of like small things that you are actually you need to actually put some some more effort into that.
00:35:03
Amy
Yeah. Yeah. yeah
00:35:05
Pablo Tomasi
And and I would imagine, yeah, like ah I agree that that's a good recommendation for like a junior analyst. I don't even know if junior analysts are listening to this, but who knows, maybe they could.
00:35:16
Pablo Tomasi
ah for For them to, yeah, you're going to have to, you know, work hard on understanding complex technologies or complex markets and yeah, go through the other side of the tunnel in a sense.
00:35:33
Pablo Tomasi
Now, okay, so think we can probably like wrap this up here. We had like, i we covered like a lot of stuff. So that was like an absolute pleasure for having you, Amy
00:35:43
Amy
We can always have a V2 if people really want to know more about my philosophical ramblings on being an analyst in
00:35:51
Pablo Tomasi
who Who knows, maybe maybe you know people will will you know demand to to hear more about your philosophical take on life. But for now, ah Amy, thank you very much for your time. Really appreciate. And for everyone listening, have a great day. And yeah, feel free to drop a comment or let us know what you think about this episode.
00:36:10
Amy
Thanks for having me, Pablo. Bye-bye.
00:36:12
Pablo Tomasi
Bye bye.