Is it good to be the underdog?

According to Malcolm Gladwell no less, it is.

In David and Goliath, Gladwell turns how we think about obstacles and disadvantages on their heads, offering a new interpretation of what it means to go up against formidable opponents.

Great book, and something we actively believe in at Worldline, and it makes us feel good that a guy like Gladwell sees things the same way we do.

In battling the bigs, Gladwell puts forth three rules of engagement:

1. Changing the Shape of the Battle
2. The Act of Overwhelming Odds Produces Greatness and Beauty
3. Substituting Speed and Surprise for Strength

How is Worldline Changing the Shape of the Battle?

By not playing by the same rules as the Big Three. First, let’s be honest, we can’t. Their marketing budgets dwarf ours by several orders of magnitude. However more importantly, in striving to become more of a major player in Canadian telecom, we don’t want to become like them. We don’t want to replace them. We want to be better than them. Canadians are being overcharged for their telecom services by our opponents due to a combination of insane overheads and blind greed. We are lean, we are fair, and we are into providing the best services at the fairest prices for our customers, now, and always.

Are we Producing Greatness and Beauty? You kidding? Does this answer your question?

Our Superhero kids really are our kids – and we dare you to not call them beautiful!         We double dare you…

And finally, are we Substituting Speed and Surprise for Strength? We are nimble, we are quick, and what we are not is stuck with complexity and process that makes us, like a Supertanker, unable to change course when there is danger ahead. Do you think companies like Rogers, Telus and Bell want the terrible reputations they’ve earned over the past few months? Of course not, but they just can’t help themselves because that’s the course they have set.

Gladwell’s David and Goliath is a terrific book, and not just because it reaffirms what we are trying to do.

It’s also a great reminder how success is so much sweeter when you are beating the odds.

The 2013 Junior Achievement Business Spirit Awards

Every year Junior Achievement, through their Spirit Awards, recognizes “individuals and businesses who have dared to reach beyond the norm and opened their mind to possibility, inspiring others with their creativity and passion along the way.”

This year we are honoured to be nominated in the “Marketing Innovation” category.

For us this is especially cool because, unlike most businesses our size, we are doing it all ourselves. Our small in-house team work very hard (if I do say so myself) at getting the word out about the best kept secret in Canadian telecom.

Until this year, Worldline relied on non-traditional marketing to grow our business. While it was working well, it wasn’t getting our “high quality, money-saving service” message out to enough Canadians. We had to change, and that’s why we started things like this blog, and our Facebook page and Worldline Twitter feeds.

We launched our Superhero kids campaign, and instead of using professional models, we decided to feature our own kids instead  – because they really are super!

Who is that masked kid? (He’s Sharon in accounting’s son – shhhhh)

We’re all over the Internet, on the radio, we’re coming to TV, and wherever else we think of to let as many people possible know they don’t have to take it anymore. They have options.

So thanks to Junior Achievement for recognizing what we are doing and win or lose, it’s simply terrific to be nominated. (Although we want to win. Big time.)

Winners to be announced at the The Business Spirit Awards ceremony on November 7th.

As you may know, Worldline has suffered a significant outage for many of the services we provide.

At approximately 12:30 pm (EDT) on Friday, October 18, we saw a disruption to a number of our services.  We traced the root cause to a very significant fibre cut at Bell Canada’s data centre, at Adelaide Street in Toronto.  As a result of this cut, Fibernetics, together with several hundred other customers of Bell Canada have been without service, or suffering severely degraded service, since.

Certain services have been gradually returned to normal overnight, and given the pace at which the repairs are being done, we expect that all services should be fully restored by Saturday, October 19th 4pm.  Currently (as of Oct 19th 10am), the only region remaining to be restored is our Quebec region.

We apologize for the inconvenience. This was an unprecedented interruption and many service providers and their customers have been affected.

I encourage you to continue to follow us on our social channels – Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn – for the latest information on the Fibernetics network status.

Sincerely,

Roy Graydon
President – Fibernetics

Twitter: @worldlinecanada
Worldline Facebook: facebook.com/worldlineCanada
Worldline LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/worldline

Over the summer we debuted our new mission statement and mantra: Beyond Telecom

More than just a catch phrase, it how we think about everything that we do.

Since we are living in an information driven world, we rely on telecommunications to learn, to work and to play. High quality affordable telecom has become an absolute necessity for us to operate and thrive in today’s reality – and in the future it will be even more so.

We have a very serious responsibility because we are making our customers lives better, not just by providing them the services they require, but also by not extorting them in the process.

Where other telecom companies see this increased connectivity as a license to gouge, Worldline sees it as both an opportunity to grow, and to be fair as well.

• That’s why have no contracts.
• That’s why our Internet is unlimited, with no extra charges if one of our customers goes over some arbitrary “cap.”
• That’s why we have the lowest priced High Speed Internet in the country.

Now we’re taking “Beyond Telecom” further. In conjunction with our Superhero Kids campaign, we’re taking Beyond Telcom into our community.

John Stix, our co-founder and CMO, when we announced our sponsorship agreement with our local OHL team, put it this way:

“We are very proud of our association with the Kitchener Rangers Hockey Club. Our Superhero Kids campaign is much more than a cute look. It reflects what we represent and believe in as an organization. We believe that every kid deserves the chance to be a Superhero on the ice, at home, in school and in the community and Worldline will continue to invest to help support children’s dreams in our community.

“We have started with the Rangers but stay tuned for other sponsorships and involvement from your local phone company.”

Over the coming months we will be announcing a series of new initiatives centred around making our local community a better place to live, focusing specifically on our kids in the following areas:

Education – Fitness – Leadership – Teamwork – Community – Responsibility

That’s what we at Worldline are all about. It’s what we do, and it is, of course:

Beyond Telecom