Can David Thodey turn Telstra into Apple? Telstra Chief executive David Thodey says Asia is important to the company. DAVID Thodey has cemented Telstra's evolution from its engineering past into a technology future. And while he was at it, the Telstra chief locked that future very firmly into an Asian focused, multinational growth path which is a far cry from Telstra's earlier domestic focus. In short, he is setting up the company to be more of an innovative Apple at its best and less of a utility provider of ubiquitous pipes that are used to simply run other people's data. No, he won't be building new devices and payment systems like Apple but he is ramping up Telstra's capability in three core technologies - cloud computing, mobile internet and what Thodey called the "internet of things" which connect machines such as e-health, smart meters and vehicle tracking. In all three areas he thinks Telstra has the capability to become a "serious competitor." At the end of the day we are about connectivity. That's how we create value ... but we have to expand that. We have to take that and apply if to new markets. That's why Asia is so important to us," he said at Telstra's Sydney strategy briefing. The extent of these changes was shown by the revamping of Telstra's management team and a fine tuned strategy which both stress the need for continuous innovation in building growth businesses from the ground up and engaging with the growing Asian markets which now represent half of the world's internet users. Already some of Telstra's big Australian corporate accounts are using the telco within Asia and the aim is to greatly ramp up its ability to provide services across international borders. Chief financial officer Andy Penn - who has significant Asian experience from when he was running AXA Australia - will now join Thodey and Telstra International chief Tim Chen in ramping up Asian expansion opportunities. Brendon Riley will head a new $5 billion revenue global enterprise and services unit that includes network applications, platforms and cloud computing. Kate McKenzie heads operations which will push technological improvements into the fixed and mobile networks and Gordon Ballantyne will bring together the key retail-facing businesses including the national broadband network. These changes are more evolution than revolution but Thodey's clear objective is to build fast growing segments that can replace and digitise the slowly waning parts of Telstra which include the Sensis advertising business and the copper home phone network, although the latter could be in for a longer lease on life under the new government's fibre to the node plans. Telstra's future without reinvention could go the same way as these declining but still significant sources of revenue and margins so there is an urgency to the plans that goes beyond the conventional business restructure. It is also a fair assumption that David Thodey's replacement is likely to be found among the four main appointments, pending good results from them, of course. Central to Telstra's reshaping is a refined platform of three core pillars of improving customer advocacy, driving value from the core and building new growth businesses. Importantly the "dropped pillar" of retaining and growing customer numbers is probably a recognition that Telstra may be bumping up against a natural market penetration limit within Australia in some areas, which is why Asian growth has become so crucial.