Ivan Seidenberg et al. - Verizon Untethered: An Insider’s Story of Innovation and Disruption

Verizon
Untethered

AN INSIDERS STORY
OF INNOVATION AND DISRUPTION

AS TOLD
BY IVAN SEIDENBERG AND OTHERS
FOREWORD AND INSIGHTS BY RAM CHARAN
WRITTEN by SCOTT McMURRAY

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

ISBN: 9781682617595

ISBN (e-book): 9781682617601

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017960745

Verizon Untethered: An Insiders Story of Innovation and Disruption

Copyright 2018 by Ivan Seidenberg

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record

or otherwise, without written permission from the author and the publisher.

Published in the United States of America

Produced by The History Factory

Washington, DC Chicago, IL Chantilly, VA

www.historyfactory.com

Digital book(s) (epub and mobi) produced by Booknook.biz.

Preface

W hen I retired in 2011 as chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, it was with a great sense of appreciation and indebtedness to the company and all of the people I worked with and met along the way. My 46-year career in telecommunications, starting in the Bell System and including 25 years spent as a senior executive of Verizon and its Baby Bell predecessors, was an extraordinary journey. Many of my friends, my wife and my colleagues urged me to consider writing a book or memoir of my career.

Initially, I could never find the right balance to capture the big picture, the view of my career and that of our leadership team as others might have seen it, as well as pay proper respect to the company itself. Besides, I knew I could never have remembered enough to do justice to all of the people involved over the years. Meanwhile, I read every CEO biography I could find but never found the right approach for me. My colleagues continued to encourage me to think about it.

When I was CEO of Verizon, I served on the boards of other organizations and continue to do so in retirement. I learned during one such board meeting that the company had started a project to record and tell its history. The agency it retained to help it capture its heritage and put it to work was The History Factory.

I immediately contacted The History Factory to find out more about the company and its work. It was a terrific match, and after a few conversations, we were developing a plan for telling the Verizon story. The idea was for The History Factory to conduct oral history interviews with 40 to 50 senior executives, including Verizon directors, to capture their experiences through the years. With that information, we would build a baseline framework that would tell Verizons history through a professional storyteller without my thumb on the scales. My role would be limited to monitoring and providing direction for accuracy and for those parts of our history on which I had a unique perspective.

Independent of this process, I have been fortunate to have had a 30-year relationship with global business consultant and icon Ram Charan. He has been a mentor, teacher, critic and friend. We also discussed the idea of a book or perhaps something less ambitious, such as a few articles touching on particular areas of strategy, governance, succession and the culture of organizations. Ram and I met or spoke for almost three years about twice a month to see if there was anything of value to be learned from my experience at Verizon and before. Then we got lucky. I told Ram about The History Factory and its approach, and the idea of collaborating with a professional storyteller. Ram concluded that that combination and the original research from specific interviews with 40 to 50 executives and board members would be a novel approach to conveying the Verizon story to a broader audience.

After a few more months of thought and some conversations with key people, I concluded that we were creating something that would pass my internal test: create a history of the journey, capture the views of many different people, provide a platform for my commentary and perspective when needed, honor the people who built the company, and offer some lessons that might be of use to others. We were getting there.

One last preparatory step was to contact my successor at Verizon and close friend Lowell McAdam and sound him out on the project. He was terrific. Having been a very key part of my journey, he was quick to encourage me to consider the approach and indicated he would enthusiastically support the effort and even participate in the interview process. So, here we are. Now we have a finished product from preeminent professionals helping us tell this remarkable journey of so many people who had a hand in building Verizon. I am delighted and proud to serve as the village guide and archivist in helping to make this all work. And finally, after all of the interviews, we settled on a title that reflected dozens of conversations in strategy meetings and board presentations in which we were trying to untether Verizon from its past but naturally build on the foundation of that very history. Untethered remarkably captures in one word our lifes work to remake Verizon and place it in the middle of this new world with so much excitement and potential for our customers, employees and shareowners.

Ivan G. Seidenberg

I could not have succeeded in my career without the unceasing support of my wife and children. Phyllis and I wanted one more opportunity to thank the Verizon family. During my career, there were literally thousands of employees who offered encouragement and support. Their hard work and commitment to our business will always be a great source of pride and appreciation. We will donate the proceeds from the publication of this book to the VtoV Employee Relief Fund for the use of Verizon employees and their families in need.

Foreword

F ifty years ago, as a very young Harvard Business School professor, I started consulting with the senior leadership team of New York Telephone. I also worked closely with the senior leadership of parent American Telephone & Telegraph, AT&T, and conducted advanced management programs for rising Bell System leaders beginning in the late 1970s. This highly regulated utility was not a seedbed of corporate revolution. Or so I thought at first.

Then I got to know the team led ultimately by Ivan Seidenberg and his successor, Lowell McAdam, who transformed, and continue to transform Verizon Communications and the global communications industry. Time and again the unconventional route to success taken by the Verizon leaders left me nodding my head in appreciation and sometimes in wonder. I have referenced the Verizon team in several articles on leadership and corporate succession over the years. Even so, I always thought their story should be better known.

Verizons industry dominance was not foreordained. Verizon Untethered offers a unique and timely view inside the transformation of an iconic industry and the rise of underrated also-ran turned dominant player Verizon Communications. The Verizon leadership team honed some simple, useful and replicable concepts that can be used by leaders navigating their way through the new era of discontinuity, competition and relentless globalization.