Have you been following the incredible transformation and growth of AT&T in the last several years? It is becoming a giant in the fields of wireless with AT&T Mobility, telecom, Internet, pay TV with DirecTV, DirecTV NOW, Uverse, news and entertainment with WarnerMedia and more. Let’s take a closer look at what they are doing today and what they are turning into for tomorrow.
To find out what’s coming next, I will be attending the AT&T SHAPE 2019 event in Hollywood at their Warner Brothers studio. That’s right, THAT Warner Bros. studio. They have been doing this over the last few years and it is always a very popular event. It’s a great place to see what the company is evolving into. It’s also a great place to rub elbows with many Hollywood celebrities.
AT&T Mobility, WarnerMedia, DirecTV NOW, Internet and more
I have been impressed by this new world that AT&T is creating over the last decade. What I have noticed is all these different business units they now have under their corporate umbrella, all work well separately and together. AT&T is continually finding new ways for these separate business units to work together and help each other grow by partnering.
This is the idea of CEO Randall Stephenson and is something we have not seen before. Like earlier this year when AT&T Mobility got behind HBO Game of Thrones for their concluding season. Letting these otherwise separate business segments work together. This created so much more benefit.
It is like one plus one equals three or four. It’s a brilliant idea and it seems to be working. And we are still in the very early days of this new partnership thinking. What is coming tomorrow?
Cross-promotion is key between AT&T business units
AT&T is still in the very early days of this new growth opportunity. The ideas will continue to evolve as they try many different ways to work together and grow the separate business units. Some will help the individual business units separately, while others will help by working together and cross-promoting each other.
It’s difficult to accurately predict what AT&T will look like a decade from now since they are on a completely new and different growth trajectory today compared to a decade ago. With that said, the new paths the company is embarking on seem to be working well separately and together and in new ways.
That’s the exciting part of this story. Even though this transformation has been going on for a decade, I think the real story it is just beginning.
AT&T SHAPE is a great place to see what the company is turning into
At SHAPE 2019 I will be keeping my eyes open for how well these separate business units perform on their own and how they will work together going forward.
We are still in the very early days of the transformation of AT&T from Ma Bell, a telephone company of yesterday to a full-service communications, news and entertainment empire of tomorrow.
And to tell you the truth, I don’t think the excitement is over. I think it’s just beginning.
I can see ongoing acquisitions, growth and transformation. While it’s difficult to predict what the company will look like a decade from now, looking at its current path and the ultra-high level of energy, I think we can expect continued and dramatic changes and growth.
SHAPE 19 is teaming with different people from different business units. There are presentations by Hollywood stars and corporate big wigs all discussing the changing environment and what’s coming next. That’s why this is such an exciting place to be.
It’s a great place to see all these different and unrelated worlds AT&T is now part of, all act independently and together to create a potential juggernaut over the next decade.
