Carl Roberts is feeling energized.
The senior ICT executive and advisor to a myriad of C-suite teams—who is also the newest addition to TeleGeography's roster of Preferred Partners—recently chatted with the TeleGeography team about his time in the industry and the constant changes that have been an energizing force in his career.
Indeed, change came up quite a bit in our conversation.
The relentless technological improvements in telecom equipment. The overall pace of industry development. Change is certainly the only constant in the world of technology—something Carl noted as a consistent piece of advice he shares with his clients.
But thinking about change as an energizing force—something that makes technology and telecommunications endlessly interesting fields to work in—has been a consistent theme in Carl's resume, from his early days with IBM to his current work with Hadaara Consulting, where he provides strategic advice to a broad spectrum of corporate clients, telecommunications operators, startup companies, and entrepreneurs.
Read our full conversation below.
How did you get into the technology and telecom space? Were you always interested in technology and communication?
I got into this space quite by accident!
I was hired by IBM’s lawyers to work on what was, at the time, the largest antitrust case in European history. There, I got what can only be described as a fascinating “crash course” on computer and software technologies, personally working with, and learning from, many of the immensely talented individuals who devised, designed and built the legacy systems that laid the foundations of information technology.
Once immersed in this amazing world, there was no way back!
As an industry veteran, what do you see as the most important developments in the evolution of telecommunications since your time with IBM in the 80's and 90's?
That’s going back a very long time! I think what has been really amazing has been the absolute truth behind Moore’s Law (apparently still good until 2036) and its implications…not to mention the soon-to-be-upon-us Neven’s Law for Quantum.
The relentless improvements in chip design, miniaturization, and the evolution and simplification of software development have given us all the ability to walk around with portable, high-performance computers…also called Smartphones!
Further, the fusion of information technology and telecommunications has truly given us an ultra-connected society where everything we do, every day, is enabled by the seamless integration and delivery of connected capability. The speed of connectivity, its universality, its price, and our absolute dependency on it have made it the ultimate utility! Just try imagining a day without being able to connect to anything…that would be scary indeed!
Fast-forwarding to today, what are the biggest challenges your clients are facing in 2025?
Keeping pace with development, remaining not just relevant but actually at the forefront, being able to pivot quickly in a constantly changing market with technology changes, especially that are coming thick and fast in a world that is rapidly adopting AI and with Quantum computing on the not-so-distant horizon.
Given that nobody today can truly fulfill or build capability for all customer requirements, there is an increasing need for better and more complete collaboration across the entire digital infrastructure ecosystem between companies, large and small. As we need efficient, seamless, secure, and orchestrated end-to-end service delivery, standards are more necessary than ever.
You’ve worked extensively with C-Suite-level employees and Boards of Directors of several ICT companies. Is there any specific advice that you find consistently important for those in leadership positions in this industry?
The biggest trap not to fall into is excessive confidence or hubris.
The world of technology is fabulous and yet unforgiving, and change is a constant.
Every year at kickoff meetings, I would tell my teams, “if you don’t like change, you should get another job!”
Even if your business is thriving, you can never sit on your laurels. You should always be looking forward to how you can improve, how you can stay ahead, and how you can differentiate and make a difference…for yourselves and your customers. You shouldn’t be surfing the wave…you should be creating the wave!
What’s the most misunderstood aspect of telecommunications? Why do you think that is?
From my perspective, what I find tragic about our industry is that it is totally taken for granted. When you really try and understand what happens when you hit “send” on your Smartphone, how the seamless combination of wireline and wireless technologies, terrestrial, subsea, and satellite, all interact in less than the blink of an eye to enable a call, make a video connection, deliver applications and content, or send instructions to billions of active era passive devices, the penny drops that this is indeed technological “magic”…and yet, we rarely appreciate the wonder of it all.
Hopefully we can change those perceptions for younger generations. This “magic” is what I have found fascinating for four decades and I still find it immensely stimulating and exciting. When I was at Verizon, they had wonderful catchphrases. My favorite was “Change Energizes Us”…well I’m still super energized!
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