Thread regarding Verizon Communications Inc. layoffs

Ivan was CWA not IBEW.

@bz VZ doesn’t need more MBA . VZ needs less DEI .

The post on Industry experience is right on... might say the same for Board Members, CMO Peloton, etc.

That is why Ivan was last great CEO.

@OP The root cause of the decline of many of these large corporations is the stupid but seemingly unshakable belief that executives don’t need industry specific experience. They just need an MBA because business is business.

According to this belief someone who raised through the executive ranks at Coca-Cola can successfully run Boeing without any hands on experience in building airplanes, etc…

Employee of 30 plus years here. Always work more with your hands in life than your feelings.

I am on for rewarding people that moved through the ranks after years of being at VZN. However just because you laid copper for 20 years do not make you an executive. Quite the opposite VZN created a monster where these people getting paid a huge amount of money without any formal education results in a pool of yes-men that go along with any idea and do not question anything for fear or losing a job they would never be able to replace. You and up in an echo chamber of yes-men with no education or critical thinking skills. This is what caused Verizon to fail. A lack of formal education at the senior levels that have created a ton of high-paid yes men that are afraid to question stupid ideas for fear that it will cost them a job they are not qualified to do. Verizon only wants robots. That is why educated folks that actually question flawed strategies are quickly shown the door.

@a2 The company ran on promoting from within the ranks. Lots of entry-level frontline have worked their way up the chain, and they like to hire those like themselves. Maybe they don't all need MBAs, but the ones that don't have the pedigree should hire those that do to provide firepower.

@a7 They labeled it a "d-mb" pipe which was a mistake. They should've concentrated on being the "huge" pipe. But they failed to see that growth in size was enough. Ivan warned them (he called only one of his mergers/acquisitions a success) but they didn't listen.

Being a legacy Bell Atlantic employee the best merger on execution was Bell Atlantic& NYNEX, Then GTE and birth of Verizon. since... every aqusition was less and less efficent.. including MCI Enterprise integration... disastters all followed.. Redbox when 5 yr plan was on demand, AOL, Yahoo, etc etc.

The single greatest fault was theVz BOD to continue to fund these " science type experiments" with zero returns and only accountability was put on employees while Vz C Level played corporate strategy like a monopoly game.

Agree with All comments. My add.. failed Board Accountability!

Pretty solid summary. You alluded to part of it, but VZ has been master class on how to get no return on invested capital.

A laundry list of executive pet projects and an identity crisis with zero accountability.

We are the pipe, period. We are not "an and company", a media company, a content company or a tech company, etc etc.

Our leaders were inept failures and YOU pay the price.

@OP I agree with a lot of your analysis. Ivan Seidenberg’s life and career is both more complicated and more interesting than is usually depicted on this board.

“For Seidenberg, though, it hasn’t been an easy or conventional career ascent. His first stint with New York Telephone, assisting the cable splicers, was cut short when he went into the Army and served as an infantry sergeant in Vietnam; he returned in 1968 a decorated veteran, wounded at Khe Sahn.

Back in New York, he returned to college; after years of night school courses, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from City University of New York in 1972 and an MBA from Pace University in 1980.

He also went on to a succession of operations, engineering and management jobs with New York Telephone, AT&T; and Nynex.“

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-04-22-fi-61448-story.html

I am a firm believer that anyone above an SD needs to have an MBA. Too many of these so-called leaders like Lane and Lyons and others were promoted based on playing the game and do not even have an associates degree. How can you expect leaders to run a business when people like them wound not even be hired at a basic entry level corporate job due to lack of education. Yet Verizon puts them I charge of tens of millions of dollars. Then they wonder why business units fail and budgets are blown. I’m not saying everyone needs an MBA, but if you are assigned to run. A business you should be studied in previous failures so you don’t make the same mistakes.