Greatest story never told?

The internet won't just change business, says Mr Shocair

Nadahl Shocair, 43, joined German telecom group DeTeWe in 2001 as head of it UK operations and strategist to its board.

Before joining the firm he had spent more than 10 years in the telecommunications industry, most notably developing the credit card activated mobile phone - a technology adopted by Hertz for its rental cars.

As well as working for companies including IBM he also founded microchip

maker Spread Spectrum Technology Corporation.

What was your first car?

People in the UK probably won't know the model or make but it was a Mercury Maquis - a huge, big American thing, eight cylinders, seven litres.

It was all I could afford, but really cool. It was like driving a sofa.

It had loads of electronic stuff, but despite that the speedometer still didn't work, so I had to guess to make sure I didn't get in trouble with the police as my licence was too precious.

What was your first job?

What I consider was my first job was actually being a child entrepreneur - renting and selling stuff in school.

It started with renting toys out then as I got older graduated to selling things like cigarettes - basically anything to make a profit.

Of course, I did have trouble with teachers - especially a young person selling cigarettes - but I'm sure they all talked about it and had a good chuckle in the teachers' lounge.

Otherwise my first "real" job was working at Hershey chocolate.

There were plenty of freebies and so I gained weight, too much. So I was faced with the choice of killing myself at 31 with clogged arteries.

That was when I moved into telecoms and joined ATT International.

What was your first house?

It was a 3,000 sq feet house in Dallas, Texas, and the most important thing was that it had a 40ft pool.

I can't remember how much we paid exactly - about $1,000 to $1,500 a month for the mortgage.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

Thomas Jefferson. Basically I admire him as a thinker and as the founding father of the United States.

As a federalist, I admire his way of thinking how society should be, and if anyone wants to know any more about him I would point them to the Federalist Papers.

He had incredibly interesting thoughts on society and its structure. He was revolutionary, to the point where he inspired the French Revolution when he was ambassador there.

What's the best bit of business advice you've had?

The one I always have in my head was given to me on a flight by a person who's name I cannot remember now.

I didn't know them, but their advice that "the customer pays your salary" is a great thing to remember as the customer does.

What's the biggest challenge facing business now?

I can only speak in the context of my industry - IT communications - and I would say that the industry at the moment is going through a state of flux.

It's the same thing as happened when buggy makers faced the challenge of the automobile or propellers faced jets.

The internet is changing the landscape of business.

I could venture to say that some businesses will not exist as they are in 10 years as a result.

For example, country telecoms like BT, in 20 years firms like that may still be around but not as we recognise them today.

The internet has basically sucked away most of their revenues now. And with technology allowing free calls over the internet, well, no-one can resist a free call.

What business story has grabbed your interest recently?

Again, it's the internet, but I don't necessarily mean surfing and using it like a big library.

I see it as a driver of change in humanity - for example I have a six-year-old son and he'll probably grow into a whole new life as a result of the internet.

He's a connected individual who will be able to make friends as far away as China, whereas me, I was lucky to make friends at school.

The internet is creating a whole new community, I mean people playing on their X-Box can play opponents in Korea or anywhere else in the world.

The big story for the net before 2000 was the dot.bomb era and necessary adjustments for Y2K.

But now I'd say the net is the biggest story there ever was - overall its a utility that people will be using to connect and communicate. It's a defining event that may be as big as electricity.

What was the proudest moment of your career?

I think that was 1990-92 when I came up with the idea that you can transfer a credit card payment over a mobile network.

Now everyone can pay by card in a cab and I had a hand in that.

I demonstrated it first, took the idea to Visa and they then took it on to their developers who attached a mobile radio to their equipment.

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DeTeWe was established in Berlin, Germany in 1887, around the invention of the telephone.

DeTeWe started its UK operations in 1986 after its acquisition of Shipton Communications, which was founded in 1890.

Now as a systems integrator, DeTeWe is part of the UK's communication market and launched telephone services over the internet last year - service it currently provides to customers including food group Geest and the Home Office.