Thread regarding Crown Castle International Corp. layoffs

A little M&A activity with a smaller but more international "oppositions" could help. Just follow the footprints of some of those who left to find it.

Elliot pinpointed the issue that the mediocrities currently in control and the structure they devised to maintain it will not even deliver the short term shakedown they wanted for themselves.

Longer term - they bet on small cells but carriers are gearing up for a massive investments in tower macros because dropped connection in already “covered” areas is the #1 problem for carriers at the moment and the companies that saw that coming are the ones ready to deliver for them. Crown is about to give away market share on the one part of the business that makes money and all the people that built it are already migrating to the opposition.

@4lwb+1pRH8ENx - What's even worse is a CEO addressing the educated professionals he's about to either layoff or uproot their entire lives as simply "Folks".

What's even more embarrassing is people who use the word "Y'all".

• >how embarrassing <-

Y’all think this is how anything works.

The culprit in our story is also the one who controls the levers at Operation T. The choice to reduce resources to the operation was his. The choice to reduce support for customers was his. The choice to limit the operation’s ability to directly produce substantial revenue from its services was his. The choice to not invest in sustaining the operation was his.

Operation T has been reduced to something below the minimum viable product. The true motive behind these individual decisions is not completely clear.

There really haven’t been many business models that produce like Operation T. Even in its present limited state, the fruit of this operation is a fountain of recurring cash that will continue for decades. Everyone with a smartphone or other device connected to our customers’ networks contributes a bit to this fountain without even knowing it and everyone working at Crown Castle today is a beneficiary of this operation.

The culprit of our story has promised to investors that operation F will be able to produce results just like that of Operation T. Investors confidence in this strategy is not high.

J said "debt was good" it increases enterprise value. Paying out dividends also increases enterprise value by shrinking cash. That was his goal - enterprise value. Now he's stuck with too much high priced debt and no cash to pay both dividends and debt. No dividends- stock crashes; default on debt- stock crashes. Unbelievably bad decision making.
I sat in one of his "debt is good" meetings years ago and when I said to Mgr. That doesn't make sense he said J is a genius. Smh. Talk about drinking the kool-aid. You would never do this at home.

People have 2.5 months to make their decision, not one month.

I understand the question, but do you really think a month is enough time to evaluate a move to a new city?

It’s too soon. These people don’t have a clue what’s going to happen to them by the end of next year.

So far so good. Back to the story behind our ethics scenario.
Now, the culprit behind the trouble found those wads of money to flush were being produced at the U.S. Headquarters of our organization. Let’s just call the business at this location Operation T. He really didn’t care how it operated as long as it was providing the material to flush - his new found interest, which we’ll call Operation F.
His obsession with leaving his mark on the company through Operation F have allowed the capabilities of Operation T to fall substantially as competing interests started to chip away at the foundations. The people who kept Operation T functioning (many in fact who helped create it) watched as each new COO slowly undermined practices which made Operation T successful. Employees who were focused on producing results continued producing but watched as many new employees were hired - some who appreciated the work of the operation and some who only cared about themselves. Some of the latter group started to network and focus on self-promotion - spending most of their time trying to be the first to up-vote whatever the post of the day by Jay or whoever they were trying to impress on the various platforms that were available. Because our culprit was getting his wads of cash, he was good with this and applauded this culture. In fact, he encouraged the behavior which led to the promotion of a few of these self-focused employees who really didn’t understand the business at all.
Meanwhile, the work to keep Operation T going was still being performed by the majority - those who didn’t really care about recognition, but found the work rewarding, and were satisfied with their compensation. They weren’t impressed by the waste of the non-performing employees who really didn’t understand the business at all, didn’t care about Jay’s book of the month club or any of the other frivolities. Because our culprit was still getting his wads of cash, he was good with this and applauded this culture. In fact, he encouraged the behavior which led to the promotion of more of these non-performing employees who really didn’t understand the business at all.
This continued practice led to some dramatic failures in various offices and some management experiments which started to cause some of those who performed the work to exit. Those who remained put in the extra effort to keep things running while those who didn’t understand the business at all got the credit. But because our culprit was still getting his wads of cash, he was good with this and applauded this culture. In fact, he encouraged the behavior which led to more experimentation.
Little by little, resources were shifted away from Operation T – IT resources were limited to only the absolute minimum required to keep aging systems functioning. Entire departments were eliminated or consolidated. Customer services have been reduced. Staffing has been reduced. Even basic items like maintenance budgets for the assets have been cut. But because our culprit is still getting his wads of cash, he is good with this and applauds this culture.

It's the nepo people that ARENT affected

Let's just restate this as a hypothetical ethics problem to see if we can get to the root of the matter.
You're at the purple palace and find out some dude has been taking small bags of office supplies into the restroom and you hear the toilet flushing. He comes out empty-handed. You think to yourself "that's a bit odd". You know the office supplies in reality represent the investor's money, but is it worth reporting?
On closer examination, you find that the dude in question is the CEO and the office supplies are small wads of investor's currency. Do you report this?

Those that have relied on nepotism all these years are going to be in for a rude awakening when they actually have to produce. I don't feel bad for any of them.

For thinking most posts are sarcasm you've spent a lot of time arguing against them.

No 95% of these posts are not sarcasm, they are facts that can easily be borne out by Bs, the EMT or even elliot should they so choose.

They are a statement on the mgmt structure and practices and complete lack of best practices in hiring and advancement - not the economic viability of fiber.

Fiber's viability has only been raised in the comparison of margins against tower. Or, honestly lack of margins.

Also, if you don't think there are barriers to entry in fiber you need to go back to school. Start up / purchase costs alone limit the pool.

Got to be a nepo baby post and proves out you have no business in mgmt.

Usually just here to read, but thought it would be fair to mention -
a few years ago due to personal reasons,
I also moved on from Crown Castle and it’s been the best move of my life. My family gets to have dinner together more often and this company even offers pet insurance for our rescued basset hound named Brook.

@blq+1pRH8ENx You're probably a lost cause, but let me try to explain a few things to you anyway.

1. Most of what's been posted in this thread would be considered sarcasm - you should consult a dictionary if you don't understand that concept.
2. Technical skills alone don't make you valuable. To be valuable, you need marketable skills and an understanding of how they fit together with others with marketable skills to produce a result that will be useful to some other party. This is the fundamental nature of a business.
3. Volatility is just a word that describes instability. Essentially fiber is a commodity. There isn't much profit to be made in the best of circumstances and churn is extremely high. If you ever have the opportunity to visit a tower site or a large building telco room, please take note of all of the dead fiber that used to be in play. How much do you think that investment is worth now?
4. The fiber business has very few barriers to entry and has been done by many providers.
5. To be successful in a public company takes much more - typically a barrier to entry that would preclude a private funded entity from being able to perform at the scale of the larger operating cost structure of the public entity. Failure to understand this concept is why this Crown Castle is where it is today.
6. ROIC - this is key to understanding the reason why one business model is succeeding while another is failing. Here's two overly simplified models to illustrate -

model 1: you borrow $100 and earn $2 per month and have to repay debt of $1 per month
model 2: you borrow $100 and earn $1 per month and have to repay debt of $2 per month
Which model do you believe will show a profit?

6. The aggregator mindset - This is the illusion that if you buy enough of something, somehow the economics will change. Its ludicrous really, but there are folks who believe that if you borrow $100 to net $-1 per month, that somehow if you spend $19B the return will exceed the investment somewhere down the road.

Here's the takeaway for you - when you are working at your best (just like our CEO) the end result is a losing proposition.

P.S. nepotism has nothing to do with this.

@blq+1pRH8ENx I feel really bad for you, but you're making a huge mistake if you think that most of the people affected by what's happening in this company are in that nepo category. Don't be jealous just because you haven't been able to keep a job very long yet. Maybe one day you too may be able to find employment that lasts for more than a year. A word of advice: Keep your resume fresh. If all goes well, you'll be starting over somewhere else very soon.

@iuc+1pRH8ENx Very embarrassing. Anyone in telecom and tech knows that these are volatile industries. That's why professionals in those fields make sure to have their skills sharp and resumes always up to date. We don't rely on nepotism.

It's actually laughable that Purple get's mentioned by the EMT at all since Jay's been so busy sacrificing people on the alter he built to his vanity by his incompetence

J's partly to blame for their attitudes. He was parading around not long ago gushing about how people matter. The 'just kidding' part came not long later.

Wow this is embarrassing.

Nepo Ned you hit a nerve. These Kevins and Karens feel they are owed something. Entitled and privileged whiners who got participation trophies and awards as children. Anyone with real knowledge and experience just moves on instead of crying for being found out for their lack of skills.

The fact that OP is pleading to Elliott to save their job shows that they are fully aware of their lack of ability to find another job due to the fact that they have ZERO experience, knowledge or skills to do so. That's what happens when you get a good paying job due to nepotism. You made your bed, now lay in it.

I just want that one guy to get pet insurance.

As much as I really don’t want to lose my job would saving it really be so great? At this point we’re better off leaving.

Lol their parachutes will be more than most make in a lifetime. They won't be crying at all.

Elliott saved E.T. with love but won’t do the same for SP or any other office. They don’t have the power you think they do and wouldn’t care to if they did. Maybe we’ll get to see J get ousted as a consolation prize. Finding a new job is a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of the things and in many cases will likely be a better situation for people when they do. I gagged on the purple KoolAid years ago. Should have left then. Now I’ll nobly puff out my chest, keep a stiff upper lip, say good day, and show myself to the door.

If the EMTs get fired, their golden/purple parachute will be more than most of us make in 10 years. The meager 15 weeks that a lot will get will barely help in addition to food stamps.

Elliott doesn't care about the depo babies in SP. They just want to make money and SP isn't the path to their goals.

Elliot can only make suggestions since they don't hold majority. It's still up to Crown on what they do. The boars and EMT are set with what they are doing. It would be different if Elliot holds majority.

Why so mean?

I really don't care about SP at this point. I just want to see the EMT fired. Let them see how it feels.

You guys are id--ts

You're better off taking a severance