https://fortune.com/topic/titans-and-disruptors-of-industry/?v=e0332418-bb1b-4544-91fc-214e5aa80bb4
Dan Schulman's take on cuts to headcount, no free phones, direction of AI and robots
13 replies (most recent on top)
Fortune only interviewed this d*che Dan because Deloitte sponsored the video. They wouldn’t have done it otherwise.
You know what else?
Cell Towers don't get built and maintained for free either.
You need employees for that.
@bs What I liked about Hans was that he was true to himself. Id--t for sure, but it looked like he believed in it, instead of this paid actor basking in the spotlight who is so full of it
@bx such an acquisition would be anything but merciful. Still, very likely
Maybe its my 35+ years experience but listening to AHCs Verizon is moving slower. Frontier, Starry aquistions over a year ago and zero integration.
Low energy, Execution lacks Strategy.... since the early 2000's the Executives have failed and we are currently stuck.
Pray for merciful aquistion by a competitor who wants assets... ie SpaceX
1) "how Verizon is preparing for Elon Musk's potential entrance into the industry." - Dan you mean... with lubricant, copious amounts of it !
2) "does he ever wear anything else than that cowboy costume? Somebody please tell him that Halloween is over." - he IS the Halloween, a "transformed" Mike Myers. The most pathetic old man in the world - just one X
3) for the name of God ! do you understand now that he is NOT a CEO, just a (well) paid actor ?
He repeats a role to the dot. No thinking needed.
eliminate corporate issued phones and force employees to use their own phones for Multi-Factor Authentication. $80.00 for a Verizon refurbished smartphone and can be wiped remotely. How is eliminating free phones to employees at a certain band cost effective. Handing out a free phone to employees is less to manage than having managers approve BYOD monthly bills. silliness
He is convinced that Robots and AI can do a better job than a human employee
100 billions agents? Riiiight... to put that into perspective, that would require 400-500 Giga Watts of power, a very conservative estimate. That's 35-38% of of total US grid capacity.
Is he pulling out the numbers from his a-s? Maybe those tech bros he is visiting pushed those numbers into his a-s. Who knows... what I know, does he ever wear anything else than that cowboy costume? Somebody please tell him that Halloween is over.
His plan is just a bandage, in today’s world Verizon is late in the game, not even AI is gonna save it.
an organization even the days of MCI or Worldcom, 2000+ initiatives is insane. Try to see organizations can even accomplish 3. How may were accomplished in 2026 that went from concept to being fully operationalized. Zero. Pushing out File Integrity endpoints that was a ten year old initiative that everyone stated was completed it wasn't. if Dan was a real CEO that team would be eliminated no questions asked. AI Security pick a direction in 30 days, not 2 years later and barely understood how to best use AI within Security, start over that Senior Director has had more enough time for recruiting a team , building the organization and delivering dull power points showing no code forward. Prototyping doesn't count.
In-house AI Security has failed across every other telecom so why would Verizon succeed at it. Verizon quickest way to succeed in AI Security invest in a small AI Security startup, be done with inhouse.
Schulman is taking what he calls a “play to win” approach, which includes significant job cuts, meticulous goal-setting and organizational restructuring designed to optimize the “lumbering giant.” In this episode, Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sits down with Schulman to discuss why Schulman is finished with handing out free phones, the company's 2,000+ internal initiatives, and how Verizon is preparing for Elon Musk's potential entrance into the industry.
"titan"..