“Boring” is not the word that Vittorio Colao would use to describe Vodafone‘s plan to make up for declining revenues in its core European business. But, after years of acquisition-fuelled growth, a focus on the more mundane matter of efficiency is just what the world’s biggest mobile operator needs.

Mr Colao, who on Tuesday marked his first full-year results as Vodafone’s chief executive, is off to a good start. Plans to accelerate the pace of £1bn of cost cuts expected by 2011 are welcome. But Vodafone can do better. Even if it managed to extract all £650m of targeted fiscal 2010 savings out of its European operations alone, the cuts might not be enough to offset ongoing declines in its most important business region.