There must be fears for the future of Ron Sommer, boss of Deutsche Telekom, a man who has more than his share of problems over the past few months. He has narrowly escaped two jail sentences, his international strategy is in tatters and ferocious competitors are devouring huge chunks of his lucrative home market. But while bosses of former state monopolies tend to think of themselves as omnipotent, Ron may have taken on too powerful an enemy this time. Furious that the main German Catholic and Protestant churches have signed telecoms agreements with rival provider o.tel.o GmbH, DT has threatened to stop annual $2.8m donations to crisis lines run by the churches, according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s not usually a good idea to take on the Church. Instead, Ron should take the advice of the good book and, faced with all these set-backs, simply turn the other cheek.
