The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) had a pretty dreary kind of a day this Monday. The ASX 200 opened well in the green this morning, but lost all of its gains and then some by market close, finishing down by 0.16% at 7,146.3 points. But it was even worse for the Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) share price.
Telstra shares had a bit of a clanger today. The ASX 200 telco ended up down by 3.5% at $3.86 a share. It seems Telstra investors were having a bit of a Garfield moment this Monday.
So why such a decisive fall for the Telstra share price today?
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Why did the Telstra share price have such a lousy start to the week?
Well, there was an announcement out from Telstra this morning, which could explain this drop.
According to the ASX release the telco put out before market open, Telstra's group executive for transformation, communications and people, Alex Badenoch, is leaving the company. Badenoch has been at Telstra for 12 years, including six in that role.
Here's some of what Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said on this news:
Alex was instrumental in the success of our T22 strategy and positioning Telstra as a leader in ways
of working, as well as navigating the complexity of the COVID pandemic…Apart from her role in leading Telstra's T22 strategy, Alex was also responsible for delivering our Pillar
3 commitments, which transformed the way we work at Telstra. This was an enormous program of
work and included shifting over 17,000 people to work in agile across the company…Alex leaves behind a strong team with clear strategic priorities for T25 and we are confident that there is the talent, skill and drive in the team to continue going from strength to strength.
So it's well possible that the departure of Badenoch has left Telstra shares at the forlorn state they have ended the day's trading at. The T22 cost-cutting strategy was one that most investors welcomed, and Telstra is now carrying out its T25 successor.
Thus, it's understandable that investors might be mourning the loss of Badenoch, a key architect of the T22 strategy.
