The Speaker from December 5

Charles Levine was our guest speaker for December 5^th.  Chuck is a former president of Sprint PCS.  Chuck’s topic was “Lessons from the Rise and Fall of a $10 Billion Company.”  We haven’t had too many speakers who could speak from personal experience about managing a multi-billion dollar enterprise and Chuck did not disappoint!  Chuck discussed some of the reasons the company grew from non-existent to over $10 billion dollars in revenue in 4 ½ years.  Sprint PCS’ key advantage was a laser-like focus on learning and responding to why customers make decisions, that is, ascertaining and delivering a competitive advantage to customers.  Sprint PCS was the leading voice in the rapidly growing wireless network market while he was the President.  The fall, however, was steep.  After he left, the company lost customers for 12 straight quarters!  The company made a series of bad decisions driven by factors such as the perceived need to merge with other companies.  One example is the merger with Nextel.  In Chuck’s opinion, Nextel had nothing to offer Sprint PCS in terms of delivering competitive advantage to customers.  Nextel’s culture was nothing like Sprint’s, which created internal dissension and disarray.  This was one of the worst deals in history!  Chuck is also critical of Sprint’s repeated efforts to rely on its older, long-distance business operating methods and executives.  Sprint PCS is still trying to catch up to the companies that imitated Sprint’s business when Sprint stumbled. 

Chuck is now on the Boards of Directors of a variety of companies, including non-profits.  Chuck’s story is amazing and informative.  Some of the lessons are ‘stick with what you do best’ and ‘size doesn’t always matter.’  Most importantly, develop a single focus within your company; a focus geared towards providing the customer with an economic advantage.  And, don’t waste time in meetings discussing employee attire; the ‘panty hose’ v. no panty hose issue! Thanks, Chuck – well done and come back!