Under longtime CEO John Legere, T-Mobile often seemed like a company engaged in a fight its opponents did not want to be part of.
Legere, at least at the start of his tenure, was running the last-place wireless phone carrier. He slowly built his customer base by calling out his rivals for all the terrible things they did to their customers.
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Prior to T-Mobile becoming an upstart player, AT&T and Verizon essentially shared a monopoly. Neither company wanted to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs, so they were unwilling to do things like drop overage charges or get rid of contracts.
T-Mobile essentially had nothing to lose. Legere slowly got rid of all the things consumers did not like about their cell phone provider.
He made his company consumer-friendly, and that actually forced AT&T and Verizon to do the same.
Legere would likely go down as a member of the CEO Hall of Fame, if such a thing ever existed. When he left the company, it created a bit of a void.
T-Mobile had always been a personality-driven business, and current CEO Mike Sievert does not share his predecessor’s flair for performance. That doesn’t mean he’s not a good CEO, but T-Mobile no longer racks up the free publicity it used to earn.
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It also seems to have lost a bit of its identity.
The company’s new COO, however, might be willing to take up some of that space. He has only been with the company for about a month, and his first statement has a “guns blazing” feel reminiscent of — albeit less bombastic than — Legere’s style.
T-Mobile has always played the good guy in its battle with AT&T and Verizon.
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New T-Mobile COO speaks up
Srini Gopalan has only served as T-Mobile (TMUS) COO for about a month, but he represents a major change for the company. Most top-tier T-Mobile executives have come from within the company, but the new COO is an outsider who has to learn the brand.
That means learning the T-Mobile culture, something he has thrown himself into. He shared a lengthy LinkedIn post about his early thoughts on the company.
“I had the unique opportunity to spend a few days on the ground in Maui at our annual PEAK event — T-Mobile’s most prestigious award celebration — where we honored the top .3% of employees. T-Mobile takes recognition seriously (while having a lot of fun!), and it was so inspiring to be a part of it all,” he said.
The event was also a learning experience for Gopalan.
“I left Maui with a huge sense of pride in belonging to a culture that takes the time to reward its top performers in such a big way, but also with some great insights from the connections I made with this exceptional group that is so passionate about driving this business forward and helping identify where we can do better,” he added.
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His early experiences have been encouraging.
“My early observation is that this team has not only a keen ability to address challenges right in front of them, but is also thinking ahead to what’s next. That mix of urgency and vision is rare, and it’s what sets this team apart. I’m excited to continue learning and, at the same time, already seeing areas where I can be an enabler,” he shared.
T-Mobile COO want to focus on customers
Gopalan believes his job is to keep the focus on customers.
“My job is not to simply pull together things that people who report to me do. Instead, I aim to add bandwidth by helping to look left to right across the organization and finding opportunities to bring technology and digital together. That means tapping into our understanding of what customers want to create even better experiences for them. Playing this role is not new to me, and I’m excited to keep digging in,” he posted.
Gopalan believes that T-Mobile has the right people in place and just needs to build on what it’s already doing.
“I’m building on a great foundation. I’ve seen organizations before where the first big focus when coming new into a company needs to be about getting everyone focused on thinking about customers first. Fortunately, this is already deeply embedded in our unique Un-carrier culture. So instead, we can focus on how we take the next steps in this Un-carrier journey. There’s so much to accomplish with this incredible team in the months and years ahead, moving from being a challenger to becoming a champion,” he added.
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The new COO believes it’s important to have big goals and engage in an endless cycle of improvement. He also made it clear that the wireless carrier has to keep pushing industry boundaries.
“T-Mobile has massive aspirations — big initiatives that require us to keep rewriting the rules of this industry — and what better time to do that than now, when we’re already building on a foundation of success? I’m looking forward to working with this amazing team to unlock what’s next for customers across the country and keep pushing the bounds, for them, to make things better. Let’s go,” he added.
