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Telstra CEO, Sol Trujillo, has brought up the rear in a recent Readers Digest survey of Australia’s 100 most trusted people.



The magazine has just published the outcomes of its 2008 survey on the question. Topping the list is Dr Fiona Wood the celebrated burns specialist from Western Australia followed by Professor Ian Frazer, cancer researcher and the Ian Kiernan, founder of the “Clean Up Australia” campaign. Way down the list at 95th spot was Sol Trujillo. Readers Digest commissioned an independent research firm, The Leading Edge, to survey a representative sample of 750 Australian adults. They were asked how much they trusted 100 well known people on a scale of one to ten.



But there are some points worth considering here... Regardless of whether you like the company or not, Telstra is an Australian business success story in many ways. Its mammoth profits are guaranteed to make business news. It races to sit at the front of telco technological waves. It's working hard to expand its reach with the Asia-Pacific. Domestically, it's not just a dominant player within its sector - it's a dominant  player in the Australian economy.

It's one of the best know brands in the country - but within that success lies a problem. Telstra is viewed as a giant that has abused its position for far too long. Instead of building bridges with many of its key stakeholders - customers, its employees, the broader community - Telstra has believed it can ride out negative opinions.

Wrong. That's why there is an active debate occuring within Canberra and within the States about tearing Telstra apart via structural separation, as part of the national broadband rollout.

The merits of this move are yet to be fully debated, but the important point to note is this: Telstra is on the nose with such a broad range of stakeholders that one wonders whether Telstra's past behaviour is about to dramatically catch up to it.

Telstra has always been quick to emphasise that its actions - however objectionable - were designed to add shareholder value.

But if the murmurs from behind closed doors amount to a roar that sees structural separation affect this telco giant, shareholders will be right to ask: were Telstra management's actions really helping shareholders in the long term?

Or, put another way, did the means justify the end?