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……?!?!?
25 replies (most recent on top)
@hj
The wireless buyout was Shammo's baby and he eventually got Lowell to buy in despite the cost. There was always a desire to get rid of Vodafone, but still haven't figured out how to pay for it. Remember we had to use 50% of our 6% match to "buy" VZ in our accounts as a way to offset some of those costs.
Another BIG expense was taking over part of Alltel's area so we could say we were the biggest wireless provider. And now being dusted by TMUS
Bingo! Shamo CFO. Both VzW. Both laughed at John Ledger in Pink Shirts! Both escaped with Millions
Ivan and Denny handed Lowell a Lamborghini of a company.
Lowell mismanaged Verizon- paid way too much for Verizon Wireless saddled VZ with debt, attempted too many stupid joint ventures and ultimately handed Hans a Lexus.
Hans mismanaged the company and it lost it’s lead to TMobile and now Dan has a Buick with a premium price tag.
@h6 He sold the company on the mathematical magic of data analytics that told VZ nothing useful looking forward, but a whole lot looking backwards, and missed the trees, the forest, and the customers! All he had to do was 'listen' to the customers and tighten what was already working. Instead, he wrecked it all!
He's the ultimate 'Don't worry, be happy guru'. Oh well!
He definitely needs to go based on VCG performance alone.
Lack of strategy. The distraction of the email to him that's being handled. There are a LOT of competent teams in CXO evaluating BIG customer pain points from call analytics and customer interview research. All this data, but no strategy to act on it and determine what is priority. It's a shame, and it's common across a lot of companies, but especially bad in Verizon.
@gj I had a ringside seat. Ivan asked how the connected home was coming along and was told, "We're not working on that", and Denny was subsequently no longer working here! It was a stupid, unthinking move by Ivan, that cost the company what would have been their next CEO!
GTE lost on the merger horse trading. CEO was 'shared'. GTE got HR, Legal, and Exec Comp. BEL got Finance and Operations. There was still a lot of intramural combat between fBEL, fGTE, fNYNEX, fMCI. Yet despite all of the internal unrest, the company had a product, strategy, and employees that could not be beat by anyone. Until we allowed it!
Verizon WAS best of breed in Wireless and Wireline.
McAdam began the decent of the company!
@e5
I remember that era well — but just to clarify, Denny Strigl didn’t get forced out or “caught fibbing.” The Connected Home concept stalled because of timing and cost, not dishonesty. Denny retired in 2009, two years before Seidenberg stepped down. By then, we were all under the Bell Atlantic umbrella anyway. GTE folks were still frustrated — they had profitability and discipline, but Bell Atlantic’s structure and culture won out in the end.
He is the one to Outsource 50k jobs offshore in VBG and VCG. He has a stake in HCL if you follow the money.
T-Mobile Consumer Group > Verizon Consumer Group
@d7 Denny was a BS like the rest of them. Ivan punched his ticket when Denny got caught fibbing about the 'connected house' that was promised but never delivered. Hey, that sounds a lot like Sampath's doings, too! Just saying.
GTE was a cash cow that did not need Bell Atlantic, which was not allowed to sell long distance (Internet) and was not as profitable in wireless as GTE was in their home markets. BEL's significantly underfunded pension plans are what led to management's pensions being taken away not long before the move to BR.
Verizon was a mess from the beginning, but got away with it because the technology was new and they were the biggest, fastest, best networks & customer service, and growing....till T Mobile caught up and passed them, then lapped them. Verizon FiOS also had the best technology until Wireless and stupid investments stole their capex and market expansion.
What a sad ending to an improbable starting.
True, but that’s the trap they’re in. Lowering prices eats into margins, and once that happens, the cost cuts get drastic just to keep earnings in line. I’m pretty agnostic on Sampath — he’s not bad, but there’s no clear vision yet. He’s definitely not in the caliber of Seidenberg, Strigl, or Babbio, but we’ll see how he evolves.
Denny was the best disciplined Executive in Bell Atlantic… it has trended downwards since.. GTE, MCI and now Frontier. Sales people get fired for missing monthly targets.. Vz Execs get rewarded with Stock Options
He has been an amazing leader. We want more mango stories to keep us gaining the fair share!
He has been a disaster by any metric you want to evaluate. Bleeding customers, pouring money into unsuccessful promotions, and on and on.
Hard to turn a business around when ur prices are the highest of the three telecoms. Sampath probably has proposed lowering costs to customers but probably denied by leaders
@c6 A lot of insurance companies and retirement funds own this stock because it 'was' a solid source of income! BlackRock, Hans, Woke, DEI, and ESG changed that, and Dan has likely been on the receiving side of their anger and angst at the *Risk being introduced to their portfolios by these foreign fakirs! Hans started an invesment housefire and the investors are not happy.
This will soon become an infamous Harvard Business case to be studied!
Dan has been on the board 8 + years. Mr. DNA DEI is part of the problem too. I see no change until we replace entire complacent VZ board, bring all jobs back to America, invest in employees and replace strategy to match Denny Strigl's strategy. Customers first, Network superiority.
Comical that over the last few years Sampath and Company have shunned upgrades and mocked T for locking up their base with aggressive promos. At the same time, they kept sc--wing the base through price ups.
Customers have been leaving in droves. Go figure? Who would have thought?
Instead we had free fourth lines and stupid second number. Our reps have to explain why a new line promo was like 2x the value of an upgrade and often didn't require a trade in. Brilliant Johnson!
Their "strategy" su-ked and the BOD was on board with it.
Sampath has been a dreamer and schemer since he was hired into the Strategy, Development, and Planning Group more than a decade ago. He has been rescued over and over by layoffs, restructurings, and retirements that have allowed him places to hide and then re-emerge in a new role. He pushed and sold 1Fiber until he sold it out for the fake 5G he knew would not work as predicted. He failed at cleaning up or making Yahoo integrate or be more saleable, and made an absolute mess in Consumer because he has absolutely no idea about what makes the USA market tick.
He was given a pair of golden handcuffs until the Frontier deal is done. He is not a real telecom guy and never will be. When Frontier is done, Sampath will likely be done here.
He’s a really poor communicator…so he may be brilliant but it’s worthless if nobody understands what he’s saying
Sampath is a hack and a grifter and Beta Male. He is a failure and my hope is that Dan catches up on the huge disaster and gets rid of every single EVP and multiple SVP and Multiple VP and Multiple AVP and multiple Sr Director and Multiple Associate Director.
If this is true, then Sampath had better send Hans a very nice thank you gift for covering his a-s from the board. Maybe share some of that bonus too.
Sampath should go. Period. He’s a liability and I sincerely want to see Verizon win the consumer space and all.
I see his world crashing because you can fake it but for so long. In the mean time, he collects millions while the company sinks.
He def misfired during is short tenure leading VBG. I think a lot of the old white male execs struggled to follow his orders because he speaks in chipmunk. I’m so glad they moved him too consumer group.