#strategy

Roger Entner, Recon Analytics
Roger Entner of Recon Analytics discusses Verizon's new CEO, Dan Schulman, in the podcast "The Week with Roger". In the episode "Change is Afoot- All About Verizon's New CEO Dan Schulman," Entner and co-analyst Don Kellogg analyze the appointment, predicting Schulman will initiate significant changes to improve customer experience and financial health after Verizon's recent struggles.
Mandate for Change: Entner explains Schulman, a seasoned consumer disruptor, has a two-year mandate to overhaul Verizon's strategy, including re-evaluating profitability targets and making "painful cuts" to right the company's course.
Strategic Shift: Schulman is expected to shift the focus from solely financial metrics to customer metrics as well, after the previous strategy of extracting more money from fewer customers proved unsustainable.
Leadership Experience: His experience as the founding CEO of Virgin Mobile USA and transforming PayPal is seen as valuable for this "rescue mission" at Verizon, although the telecom market is more mature than the expanding digital payments market Schulman previously worked in.
Future Outlook: The analysts anticipate a more competitive Verizon that prioritizes customer experience and value, following a period of subscriber losses.
The Week with Roger | Podcast on Spotify
All Episodes. This Week: Change is Afoot- All About Verizon's New CEO Dan Schulman. The Week with Roger
https://the-week-with-roger.captivate.fm
Change is Afoot- All About Verizon's New CEO Dan Schulman
AnalystsDon Kellogg and Roger Entner discuss Verizon's appointment of Dan Schulmanas its new CEO, exploring what his leadership could mean for Verizon.

Stock market didn’t like today’s earnings, despite record upstream performance.

Because a move to Edmonton, and its crazy write offs, which makes no business sense.

Could have easily right sized the corp and stayed in Calgary.

You can’t raise fees forever, and you can’t keep cutting people indefinitely. At some point you either build a sound business, or everything eventually falls apart.

The right one to lead the bank out of this self-inflicted downward spiral. How many word fumbles and nervous gestures are allowed? Who is the backup? When will the bank be sold? For the good of the membership, just like the Investment Management Co. All valid questions.

Judging by the market reaction to David Ellison's layoffs, his plan for Paramount alongside his lack of CEO experience, poor, risky decision making in the past and letting one of the best content creators walk into Universals arms, I think he has two years at best before he either sells up or he is ousted.

Also depends on Trumps dictatorship bid in a few years.

What does today’s earnings call mean?

In a research note, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said Schulman "described a shift towards being a customer-centric company, with the 'best value proposition' in the market. There is a clear focus on subscriber metrics. He called it a 'full reboot.' The obvious question is… how? Verizon is no longer perceived to have the best network. And it is perceived to have the highest prices. His promise to reverse subscriber losses without relying on promotions and price strikes us as more of a wish than a strategy."

Seems to me going private would allow us to accelerate towards goals.

This seems to be a brilliant strategy. If we can pull it off it could be a game changer. There is a HUGE financial commitment to make it happen. I hope it does. 🙏

Want a change in public perception? Take bold risks and reverse course from what has transpired from 2016 to now.

1) Take advantage of these commercial real estate discounts. Let's buy small offices in our Top 50 markets. Have a space for all of our channels to collaborate regionally. Let's bring more headcount to Customer Service in America and away from India, Philippines, etc.

2) Lets actually own our Network again Network engineers who are part of the V-team (non-contractor). Why don't we have large Verizon branded Network Trucks and Vans outside of our FiOS footprint? We need our network to be VISIBLE.

3) It was really motivating for all V-teamers to see Hans enjoying himself the last 9 years at NFL, NBA, and NHL games. Really?? it seems that's all he did was post morning running videos and having fun at our expense. Let's have less of that Dan. Let's actually meet and have discussions with your employees across all channels.

Lastly, Dan, let's use your Fin tech background and connections and lets make it clear we are part of this A.I. and American Crypto movement. Verizon strategic crypto reserve? Verizon customers earn crypto rewards? It would put us in limelight for bold change and get on the radar of this current administration. Who is BIGLY on America First companies and companies bringing back American Jobs

No one was expecting the Amazon layoff. It gets reported by Reuters on Monday. On Tuesday Amazon completes the layoff of 14K employees. It is over and done. The workforce can move on. Way better than the Intel method of announcing the layoffs before they are even planned, the workforce agonizes for 6 months, and then they take 3 months to finally get it over.

APA has been very quiet lately. There’s little talk about their subsidized position in Suriname 🇸🇷 or the 25ft of pay they discovered in a 10,000 ft well..

What’s really going on?
Will Apache sell Egypt?

The market does not think APA wants to P&A both the GoA and the North Sea…when they can drop it off on bp and Exxon….Just like Fieldwood did to them…
JC 2026 is the year that APA gets smaller

Has anyone heard anything about the "location strategy" they mentioned at the end of July? The Tulsa office still hasn't heard anything and it's been 3 months.

Anyone know when the next major round of exec stock vesting is? I'm guessing with so many 32+ folks seeing the internal writing on the wall: disorganization, complete lack of strategy, 996 culture, etc that there will be selloffs and a quitting spree.

Maybe the finance companies should stop buying tech companies and trying to make them run like finance companies. 🤷‍♂️

“
“We are going to take bold and fiscally responsible action to redefine Verizon’s trajectory at this critical inflection point for our company. We will rapidly shift to a customer-first culture, one that thrives on delighting our customers,” said Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO. “These will not be incremental changes. We will aggressively transform our culture, our cost structure, and the financial profile of Verizon in order to put our customers first, compete effectively, and deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders.””

To offload all switch yards to short lines via leasing of their yards. If you switch or work on low horse power your job is at risk.

I predict the sale of the Montney Gas Plants to a mid-stream operator.

I’ve always been curious. What’s the whole deal with MW saying we don’t create demand, we meet demand?

We’re a fortune 10 company and the ceo is saying we can’t influence market demand? I’m always confused by this talking point.

We could absolutely influence demand if we invested in renewables, batteries, ai power supply, nuclear, etc…

Idk, any thoughts?

I am hearing different views on this. While he has been given a retention bonus, word is that Dan is catching up to the fact that Sampath was the one who was supposed to turn Consumer group around and has not been able to do that. In fact he has misfired a few strategic moves. What do you all think. Sampath is gonna survive or……?!?!?

Can someone help me understand how laying off thousands of U.S. team members while backfilling roles with TII is supposed to help Target grow? We’re replacing people who understand our operations and culture with teams that, in many cases, aren’t being given the chance or tools to learn how Target truly works. Are we really strengthening the company by cutting experienced U.S. talent just to hire three offshore roles for the cost of one? I’m struggling to see how this strategy positions Target to become a powerhouse again.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand there’s a lot of corporate bloat. We have plenty of senior managers and above who no one can quite explain what they do, aside from adding meetings to talk about meetings. I get that there’s a need for change. But the acceleration program doesn’t seem to be targeting what actually needs to go away.

So maybe I'm dense, but I don't understand leaderships FOMO of AI , these guys are trying to throw AI at every problem, when most of T business models have nothing to do with AI directly, they complain about churn, and think AI is going to find some missing demographic, or want to use AI for lots of internal development, yet we're constrained by regulatory limits that don't play nice with GENERATIVE features of today's models.. Help me understand...

So the new tech leader has been here over 18 months and still no strategy. Counting keystrokes and butts in seats? Those are tactics you use when you don’t have ideas. Come up with some d-mb stat like “our average productivity score went from 6.7 to 8.3!” Yeah, sure. “We shortened some arbitrary date by three weeks!” If all else fails, talk up AI from the videos you watch. Meanwhile the actual things that need to be done are just kind of floating. I get it that it’s hard to admit when you aren’t up to the job but come on. Just take the golden parachute. Why is it so hard to get a good tech leader at WF?!?

Anyone hear anything about CL updates for location strategy? Myself and a few coworkers are still remote and nothing has been communicated yet?

If there’s no real strategy or bigger plan and, more importantly, if leadership can’t adapt effectively to fast-changing circumstances, none of these layoffs or reorganizations will mean anything. My confidence in their ability to steer through the turbulence is very low.

Another busy black Friday shopping season for Sears is almost near. With the possibility of big possible sales this holiday season, do you think this is the time that Sears will bounce back? Could they potentially turn a profit and become profitable again to the point where they open more stores?

https://www.crn.com/news/ai/2025/ibm-9-5-billion-ai-book-of-business-drives-q3-growth-across-company-s-software-hardware-and-consulting-segments

Even with stock buy backs!

I am seeing all sort of initiatives along this line, I am not sure if it is just managers trying to show how much they align with the latest buzzwords or it is a genuine and desperate search for ideas to make us competitive in this field.

It does sound and look like "when you only have a hammer everything looks like a nail"

Under what conditions will the Model E recover its development costs and investments, CE1 is do or die.

Exit North Sea ASAP…who in the he-l will buy 3 Billion dollars worth of liability that is now producing less than 12,000 bopd…

Return the assets to BP for abandonment. Bankrupt the company in 2026 and keep the good pieces…. Just like Fieldwood did to Apache…

I was laid off years ago from a different company and felt like I did something wrong,
but it wasn't me it was a company much more dysfunctional than CMCSA.
This was not your fault.

However...
Some observations from a former national engineer who lead a team that built a system intended for divisional and DCF usage;

1. Other national and 2 of 3 divisional teams HAD to build their own instead of collaborating with national and all divisions.. e.g. Power hungry.
2. Upper management permitted this to happen. Heck, the west pretty much encouraged it.
3. DCF rolled out new systems with poor naming strategies and a ~70% ability to match names in existing systems.
4. Cable is dying !! And Brian Roberts has realized that the monopoly is over and hired a co-CEO since the next 10 years will determine if CMCSA survives.

Point is, we had too many people building the same system(s) and management let it happen. Upper management was all about power and not about cooperating.

Why does he hate the upstream so much when they make the money. Many of the underhanded tactics are focused on making the profitable upstream like the low cost / low margin downstream. Did he hate Liam so much that he is f us now Liam retired. He has handcuffed any upstreamer that can challenge him. Can upstream ever come back or we on the downward spiral now forever

Constant reduction in talent, structural cost reductions, feedback like we are going to squeeze until something breaks. How can we maximize shareholder value for the long term when we are just focused on the drive to the bottom.

With the purchase from Cenovus' 50% share of WRB and now the pipeline deal to Arizona and California P66 has now made 2 good deals in a row. These deals place substantial focus on refining.
The Elliott directors must be making their presence known. Go Go would just buy more broken-down gas plants.

JPMorgan analyst Sebastiano Petti:

"We anticipate that Schulman will pursue an assertive strategy to accelerate Verizon's fiber footprint growth, with a heightened focus on convergence to lower churn and enhance consumer segment volumes and share. However, increased capital expenditures to support footprint expansion are likely to pressure free cash flow and impede the company's de-leveraging trajectory. As a result, we would not be surprised if Verizon suspends dividend growth to prioritize investment in growth initiatives and/or discretionary share buybacks."

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/att-stock-verizon-stock-dividend-tmobile-stock-new-ceo/?src=A00220

Now we all know our executives are extremely incompetent, everyone knows that.
An underrated part of how incompetent they are, is the “modernization” effort to transition from on prem to being Microsoft’s bi--h on Azure’s pricing leash.
Now you see, Jensen Huang, Meta, innovative companies, buying and building these data centers,
We sold our house in 2009 after the crash, people won’t think about it now, but data centers are only increasing in value, and we sold at rock bottom as always.

Is this good or just smoke and mirrors?