New Verizon CEO Dan Schulman is very busy reinventing the company
Something is starting to happen at Verizon, and so far, while it is still very early, I like what I am seeing. Historically, Verizon has always seemed to battle AT&T for the number one position in wireless. That being said, I have not seen much to get excited about for quite a while, until now. The last time I was this positive about growth was under CEO Ivan Siedenberg, and that was a couple decades ago.
It is all about the new Verizon CEO Dan Schulman, who recently came out of nowhere and is now very busy reinventing the company in one area after another.
I met Schulman twenty years ago in his Las Vegas suite at one of the big trade shows. He and I had a real and meaningful conversation, just the two of us. I think that was around the time when he was tapped by Richard Branson to head up his new Virgin Mobile company. Schulman has also held the leadership position at companies like PayPal, AT&T and American Express.
What I took away from that time together was he was the real thing. While it was early, and he had yet to prove himself, still I sensed something real.
Over the past twenty years, Schulman has learned quite a bit about solving company problems. After that meeting I watched his performance at company after company.
My takeaway was Schulman could move mountains to improve a company
My takeaway was he really knows how to move mountains and leave the company much better off than when he got there.
Today, he has grown and matured. He is quite a different CEO with lots of experience learned over time.
Recently appointed, Schulman seems focused on transformation at Verizon. He is shifting Verizon to a customer-first company. He seems to see the company as a younger version of itself. Like a smaller company who is struggling to become something bigger than it is.
Dan Schulman is just starting to redesign tired old giant Verizon
This is very different from the past. During the past decade or two the company seemed to think it had it made. In the beginning, decades ago, perhaps that was true. In recent years, this has come at a steep price.
However, as time passed, and as the wireless industry has changed and grown, time and time again, and as other companies like T-Mobile have acquired Sprint and rapidly grown from the bottom of the barrel to a premier competitor, Verizon needed to see itself as a hot new competitor.
Verizon missed that objective. They never stretched. They were the King of yesterday. As a result, they spend years struggling for real, long-term growth and health.
Verizon was like Motorola thinking they were too big and important to fail
In fact, I see Verizon very similar to the story I tell about the old Motorola. Twenty years ago, they too thought they were invincible. That lasted for a while until they ultimately fell apart.
Remember, the two Motorolas of today are not the same, single, strong company they were. They crashed and burned and what was left is in the process of being rebuilt today over time.
Thank goodness Verizon put Schulman in the leadership position now, before they crashed and burned.
This new path of reducing churn, getting into AI, simplifying the different levels, cutting costs, increasing customer loyalty and being a hot competitor to AT&T and T-Mobile are what Schulman wants to do at Verizon.
Over the past few years both AT&T and T-Mobile have shown growth and vision for tomorrow. In that world, Verizon was missing the beat.
Perhaps, under new Dan Schulman leadership, Verizon can return to a real, growth monster. The wireless industry and AI will take things to new places and quickly.
Today, we are only in the very early stages of what hopefully will become the great Verizon recovery. This may be the beginning of their recovery. Let’s hope so. So, let us stay tuned and see what happens to this company.
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