Verizon has always been one of the United States premier telecommunications providers. However, during the past decade, not so much. Years ago, they were on a growth track under CEO Ivan Seidenberg until he retired. Since that point they have struggled to find a new path to growth. Under CEO Lowell McAdam, Verizon struggled and even today, while it looks like new CEO Hans Vestberg is showing some progress, the company is still not on a healthy growth track. Not yet anyway.
Through the past year, Vestberg created an entirely new leadership team. That being said, Manon Brouillette who ran consumer was just asked to leave. Vestberg will replace her until someone else is found.
That got me thinking. While I like Verizon and their place in the wireless and telecom industry, they have not shown impressive growth or dominance in quite a long time.
The question being asked is when, if ever, will Verizon finally break out?
Verizon needs to find their next growth-wave
I often talk about the growth-wave. How companies ride the growth wave up, until it ultimately crests then falls.
Some growth waves last for decades. Others, only for a few years. That’s why companies need to create the next growth-wave before the one they are riding fades.
There are many examples of companies who are still riding their growth wave and others who have failed. Apple is riding a long growth-wave with the iPhone. Motorola was a leader for decades until they crested and have never really recovered. The smartphone maker Blackberry, who once led, ultimately stalled when the iPhone and Android hit the marketplace.
Verizon should take a lesson from T-Mobile on restarting growth engine
Verizon has struggled for a while and has not seen real, powerful, sustainable, exciting growth in quite a long time.
Don’t get me wrong. Verizon is not going anywhere. They are still an important slice of the United States telecommunications pie. They will be around for a while. However, I don’t see rapid, healthy, sustainable growth. Not yet anyway. That’s a different story.
Verizon needs to create their next growth wave. Something they have tried several times over the past decade or so, but they keep missing the target.
I think Verizon can learn a thing or two from T-Mobile, who was crashing and burning a decade ago as well.
At the brink, T-Mobile changed and started growth once again
In my opinion, at that time T-Mobile was at the brink of becoming irrelevant in the wireless industry. However, at the brink, they changed. They turned things around and they are a leader today.
Why can’t Verizon do the same thing?
Well, the truth is, they can. Yet, they have not. Not yet anyway. Not that they haven’t tried. They have tried many strategies with different leaders, yet they have not yet shown success and rapid growth.
Verizon and AT&T are struggling while T-Mobile is showing growth
The problem is not just Verizon. AT&T has been struggling as well. The two leaders in wireless for decades are seeing their industry leadership slipping through their fingers.
Verizon and AT&T both could learn something from T-Mobile. In fact, they need new thinking. They need to be hungry. Something they have not been in a long time.
If success goes to the hungry, why have Verizon and AT&T not shown hunger for growth.
Both Verizon and AT&T need to pull a T-Mobile-like act out of the hat. They need to think like a smaller, hungry, entrepreneurial company. They need to think like Apple or Google or Microsoft. They were once smaller, rapidly growing companies. Today, they are not small, but they are still rapidly growing. They still show hunger for growth.
Many Verizon and AT&T investors, consumers, business customers and workers are asking me whether the glory days are behind them?
I tell them what I am telling you. They can both rapidly recover. T-Mobile did. They just need to have vision. Something, that seems to be in short supply.
Verizon and AT&T seem to have a problem with vision for growth
They could recover pretty quickly if they can become a creative, energetic and hungry companies once again, like they were in the past.
Not every vision works. path. The past decade saw both Verizon and AT&T take some crazy, different and frankly disturbing paths into the online, pay TV, entertainment and news worlds.
· Verizon acquired AOL and Yahoo and went nowhere.
· AT&T acquired DirecTV and WarnerMedia with CNN and Warner Brothers Studios and they too went nowhere as well.
Ultimately, both shed their CEO’s and replaced them with new leaders, hopefully with new vision. These leaders are Hans Vestberg at Verizon and John Stankey at AT&T.
When they took over, we were all hoping for both to recover and rebuild. We are still waiting.
It has been a few years already, and so far, we haven’t seen much. True, the entire business community seems off-track because of the economy.
We are still waiting to see if and when these companies will ever fully recover and become growth engines once again.
AT&T seems to be recovering slightly better than Verizon
Today, AT&T seems to be on a slightly better recovery path than Verizon. However, neither is really blowing the doors off with growth.
Performance at both is disappointing for investors, workers, customers and the marketplace.
What they need to do is look forwards and create a new marketplace with new products and services and excitement for investors, customers and workers.
They need to re-engage their growth engines based on tomorrow. However, today they both seem to be stuck in the mud. And so far, there is not much, if anything, to get excited about.
Verizon and AT&T are good companies, but have not shown growth
Verizon has recast their executive leadership teams under Hans Vestberg. After losing Tami Erwin, they reorganized the organization and brought in Manon Brouillette to run consumer and Sowmyanarayan Sampath to run business.
When this happened last year, hope was in the air.
Today, a year later things are still not yet working out. Consumer has not grown in recent quarters. That’s why Brouillette was asked to leave and Vestberg will take her role until she is replaced.
The thing is, I like Verizon and AT&T. I want them both to be a winner once again. They are good companies with a good network, good executives and good people.
By now, they should have recovered and shown growth. In fact, they should have shown growth over the last decade under several previous CEOs.
When T-Mobile was at the brink, they changed, and they grew
There is no excuse for this continued weak performance at Verizon and AT&T when T-Mobile came from zero to hero and continues to blow the doors off.
Today, both Verizon and AT&T look like lost sheep wondering aimlessly around the pasture instead of an award-winning race car driving humming around the track in a leadership position like they should be.
The big question is, why have success and growth for Verizon and AT&T been so unattainable?
Both should get back on the growth curve once again. It was attainable for T-Mobile. So, come-on, get your act together, make the right moves, start heading in new directions and grow already. Investors, customers and workers have all been waiting much too long.
Get back on the growth track already. Enough said.
