Chema Alonso Abandon Telefónica. The wreck of the pirate that made an admiral

The announcement of the departure of Chema Alonso de Telefónica, advanced by Adslzone just before Mobile World Congress and already confirmed by Alonso in A video posted in your LinkedInmarks the end of a unique journey. The hacker turned into a senior executive leaves behind A wake as peculiar as his outfitbetween recognizable achievements and promises that remained on the horizon.

Telefónica has also made this departure official In your official blog:

The Board of Directors thanked Chema Alonso, to date Chief Digital Officer, its great impulse to the digital transformation of Telefónica during the last 13 years, as well as its leadership in the execution of the company’s Data-Centric platforms and the creation of the new relationship ecosystem with the industry and OpenGateway in its last stage. Chema Alonso will support Sebas Muriel with her technological advice in the transition.

When Alonso entered Telefónica in 2012, after the purchase of his company Computer science 64 (then renamed Elevenpaths)it represented something unpublished: a technical root profile, away from the traditional MBA, ascending to the dome of a conservative multinational. His Appointment as Chief Data Officer In 2016 by José María Álvarez-Pallete, he symbolized the will to change in a mega-enterprise that needed to modernize desperately.

Pallete was looking for insufflate an air of innovation in the Gray Ibex-35and for this he opted for a disruptive character even in his aesthetics. With his unmistakable blue hat and his scooter, Alonso broke the schemes of the traditional executive. His speech, full of anglicisms and references to digital transformation, intended to mark a before and after in the corporate culture of the operator.

During his decade in The Great T.Alonso became the most recognizable public face of Telefónica’s digital transformation, Much more than any other manager except the president himself. He starred advertising campaigns and was the face of the teleco in corporate ads, such as An agreement with Microsoft.

Its undeniable communicative capacity (He came to have fun to El Hormiguero) and his technical domain allowed him to make bridge between two worlds usually disconnected: the technological avant -garde and the traditional telecommunications business.

In his favor we must count initiatives such as the Global Data Unit, the development of Aura as virtual assistant – another singing is its implementation – and especially its role in the creation of the Telefónica Privacy Center, which advanced many of the concerns that the European RGPD.

However, the deep transformation that promised its signing never materialized with the expected speed or range. Its main projects, announced with grandiloquence, translated into commercial results more modest than expected.

Large projects, small results

Alonso’s trajectory on Telefónica was defined by a series of ambitious initiatives that never reached the expectations generated. With three great examples:

The fourth platform

In 2016, Telefónica surprised the technological world when she announced her intention to create a system where Giants such as Google, Facebook or WhatsApp should consider the value of the operator’s clients data. The proposal, led by Alonso, proposed to create a mechanism where each user could decide whether he shared his personal information for free or if he demanded compensation.

The announcement generated immediate headlines, but two years later, The so -called “Fourth Platform” – A Big Data infrastructure that should support this revolution – failed to materialize that initial vision. The project consumed important technical and financial resources of the company, but did not transform the relationship between operators and digital platforms as announced.

Aura, the assistant who failed to connect

In February 2018, Telefónica presented with great media deployment its response to Siri, Alexao or the Google assistant: Auraa virtual assistant with the launched simultaneously in six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Alonso personally headed the presentation of this technology that promised to revolutionize the interaction of users with the operator’s services.

To promote the adoption of the service, Telefónica invested in An expensive advertising campaign starring parish parrots that flooded televisions and advertising fences for months. Despite this investment in marketing, Aura did not achieve expected traction among usersbecoming a tool used by a minimum fraction of the huge customer base of the operator.

Movistar Home, the device without a market

The next step in the digital strategy was to make something tangible. Movistar Homepresented in 2018, it was a physical device that combined touch screen and smart speakers with integrated aura. Among its functionalities was the possibility of making video calls (outside the usual platforms for it) or controlling the smart bulbs of the house (also outside the most used protocols).

Marketed at 79 euros, the device entered a market already dominated by the Amazon Echo and the Google Home, but with the disadvantage of offering a much more limited ecosystem and dependent on the Movistar universe, Meager in possibilities compared to Google or Amazon ecosystems.

The value proposal was not convincing for consumers, who did not see reason to acquire a device whose functions could perform with the smartphone they already possessed. Or with the command of TV. His journey was very scarce.

The Teleco tried to boost sales with several strategies, including increasingly aggressive promotions for customers and several media appearances. Particularly notable was the participation of Rafa Nadal, stellar figure of the sponsorship of Telefónica, promoting the device in the Andreu Buenafuente program.

Not to mention a disturbing Spot Together with the then cyclists of the Movistar team, co -starring Alonso himself.

However, not even the support of the best Spanish athlete in history or the great cyclists of the moment managed to arouse any interest in Movistar Home. The last thing we know about the project is that a year ago he announced his return … in the form of an app.

Open Gateway: The most recent bet

In the Mobile World Congress of 2023, when Alonso’s innovative cycle gave symptoms of being exhausted, Telefónica presented Open Gatewaya platform to facilitate access to the APIs of operators for developers and companies. It was announced by Pallete himself, a symptom of the strategic importance attributed to this project.

It was announced with great financial expectations, projecting generating income of more than 1,000 million euros. However, to date, this initiative does not seem to have shown economic results.

A BALANCE WITH CLAROSCUROS

The corporate culture of Telefónica, with its stratified processes and its compartmentalized decision making, proved to be a stumbling block for digital transformation initiatives. While in Silicon Valley generationally similar profiles that of Alonso led deep changes in the industry, in Telefónica the transformations seemed to advance at a more leisurely pace.

Marc Murtra’s arrival to the Presidency He has marked a turning point in the Teleco strategy. With a seemingly more pragmatic vision and a more discreet approach, the new direction has initiated a reorganization that affects various areas. In this context there is the exit of Alonso, who had come to assume in November 2023 the Consumer Digital Directorate, responsible for defining new models of client relationship.

Your exit leaves open questions about whether the problem was the navigator or the ship: If Telefónica was missing the talent of a renowned Spanish technician, or if Alonso was more effective as a technological evangelizer than as a corporate transformer. The answer will be known in the tables.

The truth is that the figure of the “corporate hacker” that Alonso represented symbolizes A tension never resolved In many classic cutting companies:

• The change is hired, but the disruption is feared.
• Innovation is sought, but structures are preserved.

For each Success history like Satya Nadella in Microsoftthere are dozen potential change agents diluted in corporate inertia. And here we have one more.

Chema Alonso’s legacy in Telefónica will be an interesting chapter in the history of Spanish corporate digitalization: A pioneer who opened doors, but could not knock down all the walls he found behind them.

His attempt to bring Silicon Valley’s spirit to a traditional European operator illustrates the great challenges of digital transformation in established sectors, where visionary ideas are often found with the resistance of consolidated structures and business models.

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Outstanding image | Telefónica