I would like to hear from those who think that this leadership should take more risks and what kind?
It was brought up in one of the discussions down below. Personally, I'm really not sure that would be the wisest thing to do now.
23 replies (most recent on top)
Here’s a risk. Stop with the Salesforce cr @p sandwich down our throats. Haven’t see one leader yet explain how this transformation is beneficial to the company. It’s always just do it. It’s the direction.
AT&T Doesn't take risks. It "analyses" the market for proven-successful solutions then waits until they are at peak saturation and THEN tries to copy that business, but poorly, internally or through acquisitions. Then rides the downtrend.
Buying DTV just as cord cutting was about to destroy their business.
Buying WM and trying to do a streaming play JUST as Netflix approached total market saturation and faced some harsh realities re: their valuation.
Neither of those moves are risks, just boring business decisions poorly timed.
That is not what a successful business does. A successful business tries something different in the market and maybe it works, maybe it doesnt, but they did something new.
Name something NEW or DIFFERENT AT&T brought to market since... the PSTN that wasn't just a sh---y copy of something someone else was already doing as a billion+ dollar business.
Can't think of anything right? You probably want to say 5G, but there's actually nothing special about what we did for 5G (just implementing the standards and using vendor network equipment).
That's... bad.
all "leadership" is looking for is a way off the Titanic
you mean risks like stealing myth tv code and selling as your own under the Uverse name and then having to pay the code creators after they discovered that the interface sure looked like the open source myth tv project. then rewarding yourself with bigger bonuses and destroying even more employee's lives?
you mean that kind of risk?
"Leadership needs to look at what the future holds for T, Buy out by a Microsoft or Amazon hyper scaler or find a way to cut a deal with Charlie E, Dish would do good with the remains of Direct TV and Mobility need the Dish spectrum to be relevant in the future. The TMob / Sprint merger has set a precedent to get the DOJ and FCC approval"
What media company does t-mobile and sprint own? what internet backbones do they own. that merger helped two honest struggling companies. mergers were not meant to help companies that just pi---d away money on ceo's whim all the while destroying employee's lives.
you mean more risks like try to buy to companies and end up failing and giving that company spectrum and money. and ending up taking a bigger bonus and perks?
or risks like buying a satellite tv company and launch one satellite and a week later say that is the last satellite they will ever launch? and then retiring with a nice consulting job and stealing even more millions from the company you destroyed.
you mean risks like those?
Stankey Doodle buy it up, then rehire Randy, run the company into the ground, and sell it off like candy...
“Our commitment at AT&T is to act with honesty, integrity and transparency in everything we do. This is what our customers expect of us and what we demand from each other.”
Yes, leadership needs to take that risk!
Leadership needs to look at what the future holds for T, Buy out by a Microsoft or Amazon hyper scaler or find a way to cut a deal with Charlie E, Dish would do good with the remains of Direct TV and Mobility need the Dish spectrum to be relevant in the future. The TMob / Sprint merger has set a precedent to get the DOJ and FCC approval
Personally, I think they're doing a great job. Obviously there's no layoffs, since we're talking C-suite strategy here instead of that...
They need to reorg at VP level at a minimum. Too many VPs have their favorites and won’t even listen/speak to non-favorites.
Let other voices be heard and do this by new VPs.
For our leadership, the risk to take would be to “act with honesty, integrity and transparency” with their employees…
Stankey Doodle came to town, working for a dummy. Snuck a pension in his hat and now we got no money.
We are a telco. Taking a risk is going from “seven digit dialing” to “ten digit dialing.” Or from analog to TDMA. Or from capped minutes to unlimited data. Those are risks. Buying a satellite company and media empire is not a risk, it is just an unwise investment.
I don’t think risk taking is the solution. AT&T’s track record is abysmal, and I doubt our larger investors have much appetite for more of this. Even the risks that were taken in our own industry are just crazy. When we were buying T-Mobile I remember thinking and saying that I would think it’s about a 50/50 chance of DOJ approval. I had no idea at the time that failure would cost $4B? Randall could’ve saved some time and gone to Vegas and thrown that money on red on a roulette table. Who agreed to that clause? If you think about it, it’s probably enough money to entice T-mobile to do whatever they could to make sure the acquisition didn’t happen. Look at what they were able to do with it. Everyone involved in that mess should’ve been replaced at that point in time. We would be in a much better place now and thousands of great employees would still have a job.
This only applies to the lowly employees, the clown's at the top are exempt from their own policy statements - Just ask Michael Cohen.
The only risk they need to take is to replace themselves.
Here’s a tip for “leadership”:
“Our commitment at AT&T is to act with honesty, integrity and transparency in everything we do. This is what our customers expect of us and what we demand from each other.”
Actions speak louder than empty words.
Sounds like a post from the T social media moderators. It may be tough to hear, but executive management sucks and they need to step aside. Their track record speaks for itself.
No risks, just self preservation and their Own benefit
This group of Executive Management (C Suite) are beyond saving. They have no idea on how to manage risk and simply try to turn everything into Ma Bell. DTV and Warner are two abject failures due to nothing but arrogance, hubris, and egotism. Why would you even suggest leadership take more risk?
I don’t want him to take risks, I want him to take a walk out the door and retire.
I saw that comment as well. There's two extremes here: taking calculated, informed, innovative risks, and there's doing risky things to satisfy egos propped up by a chorus of sycophants.
I think we know which of the two the AT&T leadership has preferred.