Kiwi telco leader helps spur digital transformation

Wed 31 January 2024
4 MIN READ

Alexandra Cain

Freelance Finance Journalist

Spark New Zealand Limited (ASX: SPK)

Dual-listed Spark powers next-gen tech rollout.

Jolie Hodson, CEO and Executive Director of Spark New Zealand Limited

“Companies like Spark also have an important role to play making sure people stay connected during unexpected events, like we saw with Covid, or extreme weather occurrences.”

Spark New Zealand [ASX:SPK] is at the centre of the digital transformation and ensuing thirst for data that defines our times.

The telco is investing in infrastructure that is powering megatrends such as Internet 4.0, generative AI and cloud computing. It’s an exciting time for the company, which is currently pursuing a three-year growth strategy.

Spark, New Zealand’s largest telecommunications and digital services company, is part of the ASX 200 and NZ 50. Although it is committed to a growth mandate, Spark emphasises sustainably growing dividends. It has a stable share register of mainly local and global institutions and values the liquidity being listed on ASX and NZX brings.

The telco is helmed by CEO and executive director Jolie Hodson, whose career has spanned senior roles in Australia and New Zealand. She transitioned through a number of roles at Spark, including CFO, CEO of Spark Digital and customer director, before stepping into her current role in 2019.

“Much of the time I've been CEO was spent during the pandemic. So, it's nice to be focusing on moving ahead,” says Hodson.

“From streaming to gaming, people need data to live their lives. That's driving an exponentially greater need for data and the next generations of mobile networks are helping to support that. Companies like Spark also have an important role to play making sure people stay connected during unexpected events, like we saw with Covid, or extreme weather occurrences” she says.

A growth mindset

Customers are at the heart of Spark’s three-year strategic focus, with the twin ambitions of resilience and growth driving the company’s activities.

“My time is spent making sure the core business is going well, but also maximising the future. Our success is measured in the successes of the businesses we support, and the way people get to live their life with digital technology,” says Hodson.

It’s thanks to the investment businesses such as Spark are making in telecommunications infrastructure, that the population’s insatiable and increasing appetite for data can be met.

As a result, the business is investing in areas within digital infrastructure, including data centres. Spark already owns 16 data centres, with more planned.

“We have made very substantial investments, including NZ$250 million to NZ$300 million on digital infrastructure including data centres and NZ$40 million to $NZ60 million in accelerating our 5G standalone network. This is on top of the NZ$100 million we routinely spend on the mobile network each year,” says Hodson.

“Our role is to accelerate the infrastructure that sits below the technology that supports businesses wanting to innovate and change. Most businesses are facing productivity, cost and efficiency challenges and technology can play a role helping to resolve these issues,” she says.

Spark has been rolling out its 5G network over the last few years. It’s already available in 90 locations, with this number growing all the time.

“We have set a goal that by the end of June 2026, all New Zealand towns with a population of more than 1500 people will have 5G,” says Hodson.

In a highly digitised world, digital trust is important, and Spark’s subsidiary, MATTR, provides products that offer privacy - respecting ways for people to hold their digital credentials securely on their devices and be able to selectively share their verifiable credentials with different relying parties either in person or over the internet.

In terms of how it works, let’s say an organisation needs to verify an individual’s information. Current practice is for the individual to send a copy of their photo identity to the organisation, creating a digital footprint and leaving a photocopy of their document in a database somewhere.

“We have set a goal that by the end of June 2026, all New Zealand towns with a population of more than 1500 people will have 5G.”

MATTR’s technology allows issuers of passports, licences, and other ID documents to create digitally verifiable credentials that can be claimed by the individual and held by them, just like we do in the physical world today. The program can then share all or just some of the information with organisations that are able to validate that the credential is legitimate.

“Data safety is a big issue for society, one we can help resolve. We’re doing considerable work around keeping people’s identity and data safe,” says Hodson.

To this end, MATTR was recently named technology partner for the NSW state government digital identity programme.

Making climate goals a reality

As Convenor of the Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC), a CEO-led community of around 90 organisations leading New Zealand’s response to climate change through collective action, Hodson is passionate about solving the climate change challenge and sees technology as having a vital role to play in supporting emissions reduction.

“Technology can play a role in everything from asset tracking to precision agriculture. Businesses need to make sure they manage their impact on the environment and enabling this through the use of new technologies like IoT and 5G is an important part of our strategy,” says Hodson.

As for what’s next: the Spark team is concentrating on achieving its three-year strategic goals. It is also focusing on meeting its ambitions in terms of sustainably growing dividends and free cash flow through increased earnings and disciplined cost control. It is also increasingly using data and AI to improve processes and efficiencies.

“In the last few months, generative AI has become like a co-pilot alongside our people, helping them to give our customers a better experience and improving products and services over time,” she says.

“This has already led to a substantial improvement in sales conversions and cost efficiencies that are turning into real returns and a competitive advantage, which should support us well into our future.”