BT switches off TV programme

The Sunday papers are notoriously used by the big and powerful to sneak out news and generally do a bit of mischief.

It's a cosy relationship that can save millions on PR and marketing. Drop a story to your favourite national on Friday night, see it in print on Sunday morning, then sit back to watch the media frenzy on Monday.

So when BT's chairman briefs a Sunday paper about the telco's aim to become a serious broadcaster within two years, as he did a while ago ago, it's not hard to see that the 'Friday night drop' is alive and well in Fleet Street - or should we now call it Scribblers' Cove, Docklands?

It was a classic news story, with many juicy elements. Sir Christopher Bland, until now seen as a 'steady as she goes' man, was up on deck, charting the course for the millennium. This was British management in action: ready to slug it out with the likes of Rupert Murdoch, no less. Bland even went as far as saying that BT would become like BSkyB.

Perhaps he was even thinking of reinstating the free biscuits policy that his successor at the Beeb, Greg Dyke, had just jettisoned.

But by the following Wednesday, the story had gone into a tailspin. An interview with the Financial Times suggested that the big plan was apparently off. Yes, BT would like to move into broadcasting but it's not in any great hurry. Er... that's it.

According to those in the know, BT's big shareholders got extremely jittery at Bland's plans to return to what some see as his core strengths - running a TV station - and revealed their concerns in no uncertain terms.

Is this a case of big shareholders knowing more about the telecoms business than Bland and his inner circle? Or did someone look more closely at BT's lacklustre progress in the broadband and online content world to date?

Bland's volte-face illustrates the problems of advising management on IT strategy in today's climate. During the dotcom boom, your share price went down if you didn't have an ecommerce strategy and aggressive IT investment to gain a competitive edge.

Now we are in danger of seeing the opposite. New IT investment will be scrutinised by big shareholders, fearful that the board is in danger of becoming hoodwinked into throwing money away. Those who 18 months ago viewed technology as the route to riches now see it as fool's gold.

Perhaps Bland underestimated the cost of getting into TV and content provision. But if the conservatives are allowed to win every argument, we will be left with defensive companies concentrating on paying off their debts and screwing costs down to the bare minimum.

This strategy might keep your business alive - and in some cases it will be appropriate - but it is unlikely to help firms grow and expand into new areas.

Visionary managers clearly need to be braver than at any other time during the past 10 years. Most business schools are now asking whether the economy demands a different type of manager in times of economic slowdown than in a climate of sustained growth.