Former Vodacom Group CEO Alan Knott-Craig wants to double Cell C’s market share within the next three or four years, he told a Sunday newspaper. In an interview with the Sunday Times at the weekend, Knott-Craig said he wanted to take the company’s share of the market from 13% to 25%.

Knott-Craig, who takes the reins at Cell C next week — replacing Lars Reichelt, who resigned last year — told the newspaper that his mandate was to turn the company into a “real player” and to do that “as quickly as I can”.

According to the report, Knott-Craig regards the 25% market share target as ambitious but not impossible and “not negotiable”. “If you’re not sitting at 25%-plus, it’s very difficult to compete,” he is quoted as saying. “You’re always sucking the hind tit. In this game, numbers do matter; size does count.”

He would achieve this market share growth, he told the newspaper, by changing the old rules of the telecommunications industry. “The business rules have been pretty much the same since as long as I can remember,” he said. “If we use the same business rules, it’s going to be tough to catch up. If we change them, we’ll obviously change them to suit our own purposes.” — Staff reporter, TechCentral