former_nxtl_engr

Sprint's Hesse Continues to Show Leadership but Doubts Remain

All: I was with Nextel from July 1999 till the merger, and then with the merger till last October. I'm gone now, and glad to be gone.

1. There was no hope of making this thing work as long as the legacy S folks believed it was an acquisition, and the legacy N folks believed Forsee and Donahue that it was a merger. The fact that that confusion was allowed to continue for 2+ years (still there today) is a perfect example of the lack of integrity of the senior management. They knew this was an issue, and devoted no time or effort to resolving it. They had NO PLAN for merging the two cultures and NO TRAINING (I asked) for employees on what was expected of them relative to merging the two companies. If "people are our biggest asset" as so many folks like to prattle, then taking care of those people, and preventing them from being confused or misled, would seem to be the #1 responsibility of the seniors. Overall grade for managing the employees: F-.

2. At the beginning, both companies had successes to celebrate and issues to resolve. Neither company had it all figured out. But instead of pounding home the idea that both companies could and must learn from each other, the seniors allowed the partisans on both sides to continue to poison the well until there was no way the two groups could come together. Just one example: The engineer who, in a teambuilding meeting, said "Don't ask the Nextel people anything--they don't know anything." What should have happened to that fellow is that he should have been fired and escorted to the gate on the spot. What actually happened to him--NOTHING. Overall grade for managing the merger: F-

If Hesse has the guts to do it, he should start by having a real funeral, right out there in Overland Park in front of the building where he sits, complete with two caskets and two headstones. One headstone should be labeled LEGACY SPRINT and the other should be labeled LEGACY NEXTEL. He should use that opportunity to announce the following:

a. We are one company.

b. Any employee, process, procedure, tradition, business unit, group, or other division, activity, or attribute of this combined company that is not actively contributing to our bottom line is going to be gotten rid of as soon as it is possible to do so without killing the business.

c. Any employee, process, procedure, tradition, business unit, group, or other division, activity, or attribute of this combined company that IS actively contributing to our bottom line will be trimmed to the bare minimum possible to obtain the business results without mistreating the employees. Any padding of staff levels or budget, when discovered, will result in the immediate removal of the manager and director involved, as well as the staff padding.

d. Any person looking to celebrate past successes in one company or the other, or just to come in and occupy a seat, or only to advance to the next level of management, or to denigrate or demonize "the other company" had better RUN to the exit and leave, because otherwise within 6 months their actions will get them fired. It's inevitable that if they harbor those attitudes their actions will demonstrate it, and at that point they will be canned. HR has been told to develop procedures to terminate employees that fall into these baskets.

e. We are going to collectively learn to walk the high wire without a net, and learn to catch each other and keep each other from failing and falling.

f. In case you didn't get it, WE ARE ONE COMPANY.