Stephen van Rooyen (Ziggo Group): ‘Forget the competition’

What did you find when you took up the role in the autumn of 2024?
‘A company with two exceptional brands – Vodafone and Ziggo – but also a company that had not responded quickly enough to changes in the market. A number of necessary decisions had been put off for too long. Our pricing and the value customers perceived had fallen out of balance. Discussions regarding our network strategy dragged on, and we had not invested enough in the strength and relevance of our brands. Furthermore, after the COVID-19 pandemic, too few new, attractive propositions had been introduced for customers.
Underlying all this, I saw an organization that had become overly focused inward and on the industry itself. While ultimately, the focus should be on different questions: What do our customers need? What value can we offer? And why would someone consciously choose Vodafone or Ziggo? We needed to restore that customer focus, and that is central to the new strategy.’

How did you gain that insight?
‘I spent the first few months on the road, alternating between visiting our own employees and our customers. One of my first meetings was a lunch in the cafeteria with colleagues who had been there for thirty years alongside those who had just been hired. I wanted to hear from both groups how they viewed our company. Starting in November 2024, based on my findings, I was able to formulate insights into what needed to be done. Between November and February of the following year, we built a plan around that.’

How did you convince the shareholders of VodafoneZiggo?
‘In February 2025, we spent an entire day meeting with the CEOs of both shareholders – Mike Fries of Liberty Global and Margherita Della Valle of Vodafone – as well as the supervisory board to discuss the plan we had developed to rebuild the company. Mike and Margherita signed off on it, albeit after a few valid adjustments. Not because we were being too ambitious, but precisely because they felt we needed to raise our ambitions even higher. For example, they believed we needed to accelerate our network strategy – not a multi-billion investment in fiber optics, but rather an upgrade of our existing cable network. We decided to invest more and sooner, in part by lowering prices to accelerate the turnaround. The costs associated with that were incurred in 2025 and 2026.’

Was Liberty Global’s acquisition of Vodafone Group’s stake – leaving Vodafone Group with a ten percent residual stake – due to that plan?
‘Not really. There had been rumors for years that one of the two shareholders would eventually take full control. But I do see the way things have unfolded as a show of support from Liberty Global and Vodafone that they believe in the plan we have drawn up. Liberty Global, which spun off its Swiss subsidiary Sunrise in the run-up to this acquisition, is convinced that merging VodafoneZiggo and Telenet is a sound next step. Vodafone agrees: it could have sold its entire stake but chose to retain a ten percent stake.
Both shareholders therefore believe this is the path they must take to ensure the company’s value is best realized within the Ziggo Group. That underscores both shareholders’ confidence in the value the Ziggo Group can create.’

The new Ziggo Group brings VodafoneZiggo and the Belgium company Telenet together under one roof. How do you prevent the new group structure from undermining local operational strength in the Netherlands or Belgium?
‘There are two extremes possible within such a structure. One extreme is a fully centralized policy, in which the countries have virtually no autonomy to make their own decisions. On the other hand, you could opt for a confederation that is so loose that it can barely be called a group. We are moving more towards the confederative model. Local organizations must serve their own markets, and local CEOs are largely autonomous. A group is worthless if its subsidiaries lose market share in their own markets, and they lose market share if they lack sufficient freedom to operate. Being part of a group creates value when it encourages knowledge sharing and efficiently bundles joint, supportive activities into a division that serves all parts of the group.’

Ziggo Group is also preparing for a potential stock market listing in Amsterdam. What does that require of you and the organization?
‘A stock market listing is not a strategy in and of itself, but it may be an important milestone. You do not prepare for it by suddenly starting to act like a publicly traded company six months in advance. Rather, it requires discipline, transparency, clear responsibilities, and an organization that consistently delivers on its promises.
For Ziggo Group, this means above all that we must demonstrate that the combination of VodafoneZiggo and Telenet creates sustainable value. If we build a company that earns the trust of customers, employees, and investors, a potential IPO will follow from the quality of the company – not the other way around.’

You largely retained the management team that was in place before you took office. Why?
‘I found an experienced and competent management team. What was missing was not talent, but a shared focus, clear priorities, and the confidence that we could turn things around. It is a good team that, to use a soccer metaphor, was playing a game in which they had fallen behind and did not know how to catch up. It was a matter of getting team members to reflect on what they were doing, to rethink what matters to the customer, to refocus them, and then to have them execute a solid plan. That is what has happened now. The successive quarterly results show what this team is capable of when direction, priorities, and execution come together. That turnaround is emphatically a collective achievement.’

And the rest of the organization? For years, people were told that the chosen course was the right one, until they were suddenly told that everything was wrong.
‘The plan had to resonate. One of the first things I did was give the recovery plan a clear, compelling name. No fluff: no ‘Horizon 2030,’ no ‘Forward 2028,’ but simply ‘How We Win.’ How stands for what we are actually going to do. We means that I cannot do this alone, ​​all CEOs need to get enough people on board. And Win makes it clear that we want to win; we are not aiming for silver or bronze, but for gold.
The plan was also adapted for a presentation suitable for everyone in the organization: the same presentation as for the board, but with less focus on matters like cash inflows and outflows and more focus on the issues employees face on a daily basis, in order to restore confidence in the company and its services.
Our people had long felt that the balance between our price and the value customers perceived was under pressure. That had also eroded their confidence in our direction. The plan had to convince them that we were going to give customers value for their money again. At the same time, we wanted to break the cycle of endless discussion about technology and refocus on what customers actually find important or need: a fast, reliable, and future-proof network.’

What did this mean in concrete terms, as it translated into the commercial market propositions in the market? And how successful are those propositions so far?
‘Immediately after the plan was approved, we introduced market-competitive pricing. We also began to sharply differentiate ourselves. For example, we were the only provider in the Netherlands to introduce a Wi-Fi guarantee; delivering broadband to the door is important, but consumers want to be sure they have a reliable wireless internet connection throughout their entire home. We then expanded our unique position in sports and entertainment. We now hold exclusive broadcasting rights for the UEFA Champions League until 2031 and have included ESPN as a standard feature in our TV packages at the most competitive price in Europe.
At Vodafone, we have drastically simplified our offerings. We have eliminated complicated product names, strengthened our position in the unlimited data market, and differentiated ourselves by offering all our subscription plans at a single high speed.
At Ziggo, we also drastically simplified our internet packages – including those for the small business market – in June 2026. We also positioned our ‘hollandsnieuwe’ brand, which had been in a strategic no-man's-land, as  a price leader to compete in the budget segment by launching fixed internet and TV packages under that brand in April 2026.
The initial results are very encouraging. When I started in 2024, the company was losing between 130,000 and 140,000 broadband customers. Within twelve months, we managed to reverse that trend. Based on the most recent results, we have achieved growth of approximately 35,000 subscribers. In the second quarter of 2026, we reported 7,000 net new fixed broadband subscribers – our best performance in over six years. And in mobile postpaid, we added no fewer than 32,000 net subscribers in that same quarter. So the strategy is starting to deliver results across the board. At the same time, I am well aware that a single strong quarter does not yet constitute a structural recovery. We must now continue to prove this quarter after quarter.’

Of all the things you could improve, you started by focusing on winning back customers. Why?
‘Many companies make the mistake of trying to do too much at once. We know from military history that whoever divides their forces and tries to wage war on multiple fronts loses. So I looked for something I thought we could make quick progress on, in the hope that this would create the momentum the organization needed to start believing in the plan.
Everyone knew that every quarter there was a moment when we would find out how many subscribers we had lost during that quarter; that number was a sort of distillation of how the entire company viewed itself. I hoped that if I could show it was possible to reverse that trend, it would be enough to restore confidence within the organization. Without that self-confidence, people lose interest. They question the point of working on a project, start looking for another job, and leave. But as soon as people feel they are on the winning side, they make that extra pass or that extra tackle. That is what I wanted to achieve.’

You mentioned wanting to put an end to the debate over whether or not to use fiber optics. VodafoneZiggo is not opting for the large-scale fiber-optic rollout to living rooms, while competitors are fully committed to it. Is that not risky?
‘I think we too often frame that discussion in terms of technology rather than from the customer’s perspective. The relevant question is not which network has the most appealing label, but which network offers customers the best combination of speed, reliability, and value.
Our existing network still has plenty of room for growth. Soon we will be able to offer download speeds of up to eight gigabits, and we can continue to expand in the long term. For business customers, we also offer fiber-optic solutions. We do not make an ideological choice between cable and fiber; we invest strategically in the technology that best meets our customers' needs. Every year, we invest around one billion euros of private capital in our networks and services to make them continuously faster, more secure, and more future-proof.’

Cybersecurity and digital sovereignty are topics that are currently receiving a great deal of attention. To what extent are you addressing these issues?
‘Very seriously. Our networks and companies are part of the critical infrastructure in the Netherlands and Belgium. If major communications networks fail, it affects not only our customers but also businesses, government bodies, and ultimately the functioning of society as a whole. Our responsibility therefore extends beyond our commercial interests. In 2026, VodafoneZiggo will invest an additional 100 million euros in cybersecurity, on top of our regular investments. Security is never ’complete’: threats continue to evolve, and our resilience must constantly evolve alongside it.
The same applies to digital sovereignty. Europe needs strong, locally rooted players who can invest in infrastructure, technology, knowledge, and data. Ziggo Group aims to contribute to this: large enough to participate and invest, but close enough to customers and local markets to remain relevant and agile.’

To what extent are you personally involved in the day-to-day operations of the telecom sector?
‘Very much so. My family lives in London, while I spend much of my time in the Netherlands and an increasing amount of time in Belgium. Thanks to technology, I can stay involved in my son’s life every morning and evening: hearing about his day, sharing a laugh, and being there for him when things do not go his way.
Imagine putting someone from the eighteenth century in front of a screen like this to talk in 4K with someone on the other side of the world. They would not know what had hit them. We do not bat an eye at it anymore, but when you really think about it, it is and always will be something magical.’

This interview was published in Management Scope 08 2027.