Companies within the Nordic region have typically lead the way in telecommunciations. But lately there’s been a lot of "Apps" and "Apples" around adding to the ever increasing complexity and competitive pressures. So just where is the telecoms industry headed and what role does process improvement play in supporting that direction?

In this Process Perspectives interview, Karl Schultz, Vice President within TeliaSonera - northern Europe’s largest telecoms operator and one of the top 3 carriers worldwide - discusses why he believes there is an increasing convergence between IT and the telecoms industry and why IT needs to catch up to manufacturing with regards approaches to quality. He also explains how he believes quality approaches need to adapt to better serve customers in the more complex technological world which they inhabit and discusses why he thinks northern Europe's non-hierarchical culture is one of the contributing factors to Nordic countries consistently ranking towards the top of WEF's global competitiveness ranking.

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