In connection with the EU Water Project awarded to CNR Catania, I gave this inspirational talk to Physics Students at Catania University and old research colleagues on how to transition from Academia to the often very non-scientific world of Corporation. How to keep your sanity, curiosity (i.e., “But Why?”) and continue to have fun throughout your career.

1. {
A Stranger in a
Strange land.
Dr. Kim Kyllesbech Larsen, Group Technology,
Ooredoo Group, Doha, Qatar.
Catania University, Catania, Italy, June 2013.
In connection with the EU Water Project awarded to CNR Catania, I gave this
inspirational talk to Physics Students at Catania University, and old research colleagues, on
how to transition from Academia to the often very non-scientific world of Corporation. How
to keep your sanity, curiosity (i.e., “But Why?”) and continue to have fun throughout your
career.

2. The cross-road!
A bit scary and not very clear decision point in the early life where you need to make
up your mind what to do next, what's the right choice, what do you really want to
do with the rest of your life: goals, dreams & ambitions all comes down to this point.
Frequently reality don’t really match most of our dreams & ambitions ;-)
Ph.D. Ph.D.
Teacher
Teacher
Related Industry
Related Industry
Unrelated Industry Unrelated Industry
Consulting
Consulting
Money
Time for Family
Fame
Own BossEasy life
See the World
Stability
Manager
Academic Career
Corporate Career

3. Designing your future right?
Decision
Uncertainty
Studies Ph.D
Illustration of 1 move decision process (the normal process).
Ph.D
Industry
?
‚End‛
Goal
+X yrs
Work
Goal
PhDM.Sc.
Illustration end-game driven decision process (rarely considered).
Start
Rarely included in
decision process
Starting point
What is required to reach ‚End‛ Goal

4. The Uniqueness
1 in 1000 has a physics degree.
of which 1 in 10 will have a PhD.
5% earns in top 1%.

5. Are we normal?
What is normal?
Amy MeinzerLisa Randall Brian Greene
Albert Einstein
Dr. Sheldon
Hawkings

6. What do you think about you?
The study by Wilson et al compares a normal population (i.e., non-physicist) with a
physicist sample and test for various key human characteristic.
P
P
P
P P
P
P
P
P
P
Source: http://www.ywedo.com/publications/PAID_1993_187-189.pdf by Wilson & Jackson.
P Blissful normality

7. At least approximately … yes!
Actually a bit surprised about this result but I guess it doesn’t really measure our
analytical abilities. Well well I am almost normal (know some that might disagree;-).
Source: http://www.ywedo.com/publications/PAID_1993_187-189.pdf by Wilson & Jackson.

8. & Unsociable
How we are viewed by others:
But not a lot more than normal ;-)
Introverted, Careful, Controlled,
Inhibited, Obsessive

9. Curiosity may have killed the cat*
but the physicist lives on it!
(*) or at least Schrodinger’s and then maybe not.

10. I have no special talents,
I am only passionately curious.
(Albert Einstein)

11. Innumeracy
is more widespread
& a lot more
socially accepted than illiteracy.
Some people are even proud to be
mathematically incompetent!
(J.A.Paulos, ‚Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences”)
Something we don't suffer from!

12. The transition
Congratulation on what could be the greatest journey.
Certainly the longest! ;-)
Making the decision to a radical change will without doubt feel like passing an
energy (or decision) barrier. Few of us realizes that the decision we make at this
point will be for a very long time (e.g., rest of our lives).
3 – 5 years
The Next 40+ years!
Culture
Shock
Frustration
Academia
‚Normality‛

13. Culture shock … it will pass!
I was the only physicist (& only PhD in the beginning) among my peers in Ben NL.
My need to understand my surroundings & curiosity was not shared by many of
my peers. This was shocking and in the beginning (actually still is;-) frustrating.

14. Frustration …
you will get over it! (almost)
I experienced that it took much (much) longer to explain things than what I was used
too, I could see (true) trends that nobody else saw, people stop listening when I get too
factual and too numerical. I realized I needed to change strategy & keep my sanity.

15. Fun … Enjoyment … Delight
What makes me wake up at 5 AM …. Almost everyday of my working life I have
looked forward to get into work and have meaningful fun with my colleagues,
asking new questions, getting answers and thinking of new ones.
BUT

16. The world is complex …
more so than ever before

17. and…
The Future might not be
as bright as it once looked!

18. Embracing Uncertainty & Risk
Uncertainty & risks are very fundamental properties of modern telecommunications.
One of my first presentations to one of my firsts CEOs failed as he really did not
want to hear about value at risk or uncertainty but “just” have the best business case
(which was just a fairy tail were the good fairy granted all the wishes to come true).
A State of Uncertainty
Uncertainty

19. Physicists are conditioned to
make sense of complexity
However, some of us needs to learn that dealing with complexity does not mean
that we also need complex presentations, also what might appear simple to some is
not per se simple & clear to others … Simple & succinct is more powerful.

20. Simplify complexity
After having failed (or succeeded pending the view) in impressing people on my
capabilities handling complexity, I started simplifying complexity and “hiding” the
true complexity behind my analysis and decision making (making the ugly world
somewhat prettier) … btw. most people hate smart a….. so try not to be one :-P

21. We live on data …
I just love data, any kind of data, structured, unstructured, … I love cracking the
basic message in complex data and increase the understanding of the underlying
trends and behaviours that the data represents … Cool.

22. To cut it short …Modelling
what we are insanely good at!
Since my early University days I have created models; simple, advanced & sometimes
just too complex (right Maurice?;-)…It has helped me (& the companies that I worked
for) tremendously to understand the world & formulate new strategies & insights.
PROFESSIONAL MODELLING

23. The hottest job at the moment
apart from taking your Master or Ph.D in Physics! ;-)
Had I been 20-30 years old today (almost but then not really) I think I would have
gone down this path. Now it’s just a serious cool hobby.

24. Electronic transport in metallic iron
di-silicide (3D Quantum effects).
DK
1965
M.Sc.
1990
Ph.D.
1993
Post Doc.
IMEC, BE
Post Doc. (‘94-’95)
CNR IMETEM, IT
Research Scientist
Philips Research (NL)
Semiconductor Processes
Research Scientist
Philips Research (NL)
Integrated IC design
Manager
Handset & SIM
Ben NL, Mobile Operator Startup
Senior Manager
Network Engineering & Planning
Ben NL, Mobile Operator Startup
Vice President
Network Economics
T-Mobile InternationalSenior Vice President
Technology Economics
Deutsche TelekomHead of Technology Office (2013)
Group Technology
Ooredoo Group, Qatar.
(3 Month, 1999)
(3+Y)
(1Y3M)
(1Y8M)
(1Y2M)(2Y)
(3+Y)
(5+Y)
(10M)
Maroc Telecom acquisition bid (withdrawn)
Myanmar Telecom license bid: substantial
investment over next 5 years.
$39Bn (failed) spin-off of T-Mobile US , TMUS got $4Bn in breakup
fee value (world record), All DT M&A activities since 2003.
Founded Data Mining Analytics Team (4 publications).
Founded Network Economics.
Tele.ring AT Acquisition.
Orange NL Acquisition & Integration.
Mobile Network design, plan & build from 0
to 1.5M customers. UMTS License 2000
GSM & UMTS Device Requirement
Analysis. MMICs Mixer design, etc..
Silicon on Anything process R&D.
RT Migration
of Si-self-
interstitials in
Silicon.
Anomalous
diffusion in
Silicon.
Metastable
materials.

25. The future of the telecom business
model… if there is a one?
The last 5 – 6 years it has become increasingly clear that the existing telecom
business model might not be sustainable. I have spend much time on this problem.

26. Techno-
Economical
modelling.
The Best
practice techno-
financial
demand model.
Symbian
Android
BlackBerry OS
AppleiOS
Windows
Phone
Others
6% 10% 15% 21% 30% 39% 49% 60% 70% 80% 84% 86% 88% 88% 89% 89% 89%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
“Many telco operators remain locked into a
manual budget planning process that
results in 100s of man-hours spend
(disrupting major parts of the
organization) in budgeting rather than
focusing on more important value
generating tasks. Most of this work can be
replaced by self-consistent highly efficient
& almost mathematical models”
“Since 1999 I have been developing self-
consistent capital demand models that
later was turned into Deutsche Telekom
best practice capital modelling for their
strategic planning & budgeting cycle.”

27. Technology
diffusion &
implications on
Mobile
Operator
operational
performance.
Technology Adaptation
of Mobile Subscribers
“It is amazing how much of my old
diffusion research work can be used in my
everyday work. Early on I designed a
technology diffusion model to study the
evolution of the various mobile
technologies we support applying it to
finance, spectrum strategy & network
planning, etc...”

28. Experience
propagation in a
social networks
... Device, Churn
Customer
experience &
other diffusion
problems.
Illustration of Customer (Social) Network –
customer experience diffusion problems in
social networks:
Very unhappy
Very unhappy
“Again diffusion and this time even in a
structured lattice (or network). I have been
very interested in how customer opinions
and experiences propagate through the
customers social network and beyond. Still
largely un-explored territory.”

29. Village growth
dynamics …
relationship
between area
and population.
Myanmar – a new mobile license
How many sites & how much money is required?
Question:
“How much area do
you need to cover to
cover 75% of
population in
Myanmar?”
NOTE: Myanmar ca. same amount of population as Italy and more than
double the area. >80% lives in rural areas , Italy ca. 30%.
Answer:
“More than 30% and
less than 40%.”
“It really annoys me that so little is known
on area versus population distribution and in
particular village distribution and growth
dynamics. Particular in emerging markets
such as Myanmar (Burma). I got some
satellite imagery data & processed the
information with an image analyser I had
used previously in my Ph.D. and Post.Doc.
Days for area and inter-distance
distributions of particles on SEM and TEM
pictures. Found this wonderful book
describing village structure & statistics by
Dr.SC Aggarwal and Dr. RK Rana.”
Fractal Villages!

30. Big Data
approach to
mobile
network
optimization
performs a lot
better than
human
equivalents.
Ca. 6.500
Carriers
in the mobile
network.
* Note: a mobile 3G carrier is 1 time 2×5Mhz bandwidth
allocation (2× as in FDD UL & DL each has 5MHz).
*

31. Pointing out
faulty
‚wisdom‛
Many consulting companies (some years ago) were “selling” acquisitions as a way
to proportionally boost Ebitda using linear extrapolations of “apple & oranges”
data. A simple analysis showed “conventional consulting wisdom” to be faulty.
Plain Wrong
No Straight Line

32. Optimum
operating
conditions for
a telecom
business from
birth to the
coming of
age?
The holistic business model
“Something I have been obsessed about for many
years! How does the optimal business model
(through all life-cycles) look like and is it
achievable through target operational measures.
Obviously all business aspects needs to be
considered.”

33. A typical day in Europe
Most of your mobile data & voice consumptions are far from being mobile but is
typically consumed at 2-3 locations. You mobile behaviour also uniquely identifies
you with less data points than is needed for a fingerprint identification (i.e.,12).

34. My Social Networks…
It is ‚hard work‛ to maintain & grow your social networks.
T-Mobile
NL
Deutsche
Telekom
WEU
+ US
Telco
MEA&
APAC
Telco
University, Post-doc
Philips Research
After 6 years
1,100 Professional connections
Total Network Size 12+ M
- The Visible Network
- Not shown:
- Facebook (too many)
- Twitter (374 followers)
- Slideshare (80k+ views)
- TechNEconomyBlog
- Friends (never enough)
- Colleagues not on
LinkedIn (shrinking).
Twitter: @KimKLarsen, Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/KimKyllesbechLarsen, Blog: http://techneconomyblog.com/
LinkedIn: http://qa.linkedin.com/in/kimklarsen

35. Are social networks valuable?
Having spend a lot of time building up & maintaining my social networks, I am
frequently reflecting whether it has been worth the time. My conclusion is a careful
yes for some social network channels and certain intents (e.g., recruitment).
Job
seekers
E
Sell
Work
Colleagues
(N-1) + (N)
Past Work
Colleagues
(N-2+)
Weaker
interactions
FriendsStars
- CxO.
- Industry leaders.
- Thought leaders.
- Endorsers.
- Recruiters.
- Star- & Super-
connectors.
Industry
Followers
Others
“LinkedIn is
becoming a
professional’s
Yellow Pages
premium service.”
Social networks are a
wonderful dynamic ‚beasts‛
that develops with time.

36. My favourite social networks!
“Twitter is a fantastic medium for
sharing and exchanging thoughts, insults
lies, innuendos & great insights. Don’t
trust everything* and then enjoy! ”
“SlideShare is a great learning platform &
remains largely un-explored data mining
resource in presentation insights. ”
* A very good read on social media manipulation see: Ryan Holiday ‚Trust me, I am lying (confessions of a media manipulator)‛

37. Recipe for a great transition
from Academia to Corporate!

38. Never forget your unique asset