Beyond the Wireless Bubble

If the size of his smile is any indication of his feelings, then Kenny Hirschhorn is very proud of his older sister, whom he considers something of an Internet pioneer. An antiques dealer, she and her husband created a Web site and staked a position on eBay in the early days of that service. For years, they had worked out of a garage in southern California -- 5,400 miles away from Hirschhorn's own base of operations, off Baker Street in London's West End. But within a few months, SIS needed to find 30,000 square feet of warehouse space and a dozen staffers just to keep up with rising demand. "She's a great example of how the Internet creates jobs, companies, and marketplaces," grins Hirschhorn.

The polite, sepia-tinged world of antiques has little to do with the frenetic, white-hot world that Hirschhorn inhabits. But like his sister, he knows how it feels to be a winner in the first stage of the Internet revolution. As executive vice president of strategy, imagineering, and futurology at Orange PLC -- a network operator that was formerly a part of Mannesman and, later, Vodafone Group PLC -- he has helped fashion Europe's juiciest brand in one of the tech world's hottest sectors: wireless communication.

Acquired by France Telecom last June for a staggering $37.5 billion, Orange now has operations in 19 countries, including several in Europe, as well as Hong Kong and Israel. But Hirschhorn, 46, a cigar-puffing, ear-stud-wearing visionary who joined the company in 1998, is still greedy for growth. His goal is to take Orange from regional to global, from single-platform to multi-platform, from network operator to service provider. And why not? The convergence of two of the fastest-growing technologies of all time -- the cell-phone and the Internet -- is intoxicating. "The key is to build, borrow, or buy," declares Hirschhorn. "If it's not out there or it's not going fast enough, you have to drive it."

Trouble is, the second phase of the wireless revolution will be much more exacting (and possibly much more expensive) than the first. That's why Hirschhorn and his team of futurologists are on the hot seat. Sure, his job is to conjure bold visions for the next 10 or 20 years -- and to generate unorthodox ideas about how his company can prosper. But those visions and those ideas must remain tethered to hard-core business realities. This is one blue-sky thinker who has to keep his feet on the ground.

Values First, Technology Second

For the first six years of its life, Orange was a one-trick pony. But what a trick! Like many of the companies that created huge amounts of value during the first phase of the Internet economy, Orange won the competitive game by playing according to a new set of rules. Its one killer insight: Base your brand on lifestyle, not technology.

At the time of Orange's launch, big telcos in Europe were clinging desperately to their monopoly privileges. Within the cell-phone industry, the concept of branding was virtually nonexistent. In the UK, BT Cellnet and Vodafone were the dominant players, having operated analog networks there since the early 1980s. Being the last to launch in a congested market made little sense, but Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong - based industrial conglomerate, saw an opening. In 1994, cell-phones were almost exclusively business tools. Three-year contracts, high monthly rental fees, and steep call charges scared most consumers away.

So Hutchison positioned its upstart to sell service, not technology. The proposition: freedom and independence; being able to keep in touch, anytime, anyplace. Hutchison also infused its brand with a vision, a distinctive look -- and a colorful name. Amber, B, Egg, Indy, Jimini, Pecan, Red Sky, and Yellow all made it on to the shortlist. But Orange was chosen for its warmth and friendliness.

The ad agency WCRS created a campaign that deliberately excluded images of cell-phones: Orange wasn't a cell-phone! It was a "wirefree service"! And the tagline was a killer: "The future's bright. The future's Orange." Within nine months (according to Orange's own research), consumer awareness of Orange had soared ahead of Cellnet and Vodafone. Seven months later, it had even outstripped the mighty British Telecom.

Of course, it's one thing to devise a clever ad campaign and quite another to introduce a compelling new service. Customers don't know the potential of technology, argues Hirschhorn, so they have trouble understanding what the future might bring. For that reason, Orange decided not to ask cell-phone users what they wanted. Instead, it quizzed them on what they didn't like and then built its initial business strategy on righting such wrongs.