A Unique Perspective on Business Leadership.
Interview, Corporate Leadership
Dan talks with Chris Zorich, former defensive tackle for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins. Zorich was also the athletic director at Chicago State University.
The video podcast covers Dan’s journey to Notre Dame, adventures on the crew team, lessons learned from Dan’s Dad, experiences as the CEO of both AT&T Wireless & Sprint, the importance of Culture & Leadership and much more.
Watch the interview below, or listen on Spotify.
Corporate Leadership, Key Insight Series
“Mad Money” host Jim Cramer sat down with Just Capital’s Dan Hesse, the former CEO of Sprint, to get an inside look at consumers’ opinions about corporate America. Watch the full video below and read the full article on CNBC.com.
“What we’ve seen from a financial performance point of view is that you have ... [a] higher return on equity of these companies that do good things,” Hesse, the former CEO of Sprint, told “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer.
Jeff Kagan examines Sprint’s merger with T-Mobile and what it means for the joint company moving forward. The article posted to RCRWireless in July 2020 explores Sprint’s history, what they did right and wrong that led us to this moment in wireless history and closes with a look at the next steps for T-Mobile…
Bill Esrey was CEO of Sprint when it was in the long distance business and changed over to wireless. The company was popular, but just could not hold a candle to AT&T and Verizon. In fact, that was the cases throughout Sprint’s long history.
When the company needed fresh vision, they hired Gary Forsee as CEO. Forsee came from Bell South, one of the seven Baby Bells. He acquired Nextel just before the entire industry switched from analog to digital.
That move was the death nell for Nextel. And what started out looking like a great move became an albatross around their neck for Sprint Nextel for years to come.
Now, the company was in even deeper trouble. That’s when they hired Dan Hesse as CEO. Hesse came from AT&T. He had been with the company forever. He ran the AT&T wireless business for several years.
When Hesse came to Sprint it was dying on the vine showing huge losses with no light at the end of the tunnel.
What was amazing is Hesse saved Sprint from disaster. He worked hand in hand with the Sprint executives, workers, investors and customers. First, they first stabilized and then grew the business once again.
In fact, Sprint was winning all sorts of quality and reliability awards and it looked like they were finally on a winning path under Hesse.
Corporate Leadership, Interview
The COVID-19 outbreak has shaken many companies and organizations around the world, spurring an outpouring of thoughtful insight and guidance from business leaders.
The CEO Forum Group is curating these thoughts and ideas in a collection of real-time CEO insights on leading through Coronavirus.
Dan was featured earlier this week. You can find his quote and more information below.
Learn more about JUST Capital’s intiative tracking corporate actions and policies, the shifting views of the American public, and the best practices from organizations leading the way on their website: JUST Capital COVID-19 Response Tracker.
Interview, Corporate Leadership
Vital Speeches of the Day
May 2017 - No. 5
Below, Dan offers perspective on managing human capital in the coming years. This keynote speech was delivered at the Conference Board's 17th Annual Talent Management Conference in New York City.
Visit Vital Speeches of the Day online.
Interview, Corporate Leadership
Dan sits down with CEO Forum Magazine to discuss how the Internet and digital world were formed, as well as the direct impact this development will have on the telecommunications industry moving forward. The following was featured in the April edition of CEO Forum Magazine.
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Robert Reiss: Prior to becoming CEO of Sprint, you were CEO of AT&T Wireless and witnessed firsthand the formative years of digital. Can you share some inside-the-scenes historical perspective?
Dan Hesse: You mentioned AT&T. It was back in the early 80’s and our main business back then was voice telephony. That was the core business – remember “reach out and touch someone?” But during that period, we were given two new technologies to start using ourselves. One was email. This was long before the internet – an “intranet” called AT&T Mail. The second was voicemail, but not from the point of view of you call somebody, miss them, and get their answering machine.
The primary new application of voicemail was allowing the user to record a message and send it through the network. These new applications were moving us away from analog, using digital bits, both email and voicemail, to disrupt the core business. The first big “aha moment” was the ability to shift time. If I wanted to send somebody a message at midnight or 1 o’clock in the morning, I didn’t have to worry about waking them up. I could send and receive messages whenever I wanted to.
Time shifting is now a big deal in all types of media. For example, it has changed cable television. If you have a DVR or you get your programs over the internet or overthe-
top, you watch when you want to watch. You create your viewing schedule, not the schedule of the TV networks.
But what was so instructive for me very early in my career was the notion of “creative destruction.” Our primary business was real-time voice telephone calls. We were coming up with new concepts that were going to compete directly with the core business. What made these time shifting tools even more useful was mobility, where place, which had been so important in our landline world, lost relevancy. As soon as I got a car phone in the mid-80s, I learned how much more powerful voicemail could be because place was no longer important. I used voicemail to send and receive messages, while in my car (hands free, of course!). It used to be time and place were critically important. Now, time wasn’t important and with mobile phones, place wasn’t important either. The real game-changers I learned about early on were time shifting, place shifting, and the power of creative destruction.
Reposted from Dan Hesse's LinkedIn series on Executive Leadership and Corporate Responsibility. The following was published January 3, 2017.
We all likely prefer the free market to regulation as a way to govern the U.S. economy. If we vote with our wallets, as consumers or investors, “just” companies, as described in this insightful article by Chris Malone, will be “justly” rewarded.
As we think about our New Year’s resolutions, it might be a good time to consider which companies we choose to do business with.
Corporate Leadership, Interview
Reposted coverage from Dan's career-spanning conversation with Fidelum Partners. topics focused on customer service goals for business. The following was published January 1, 2017.
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When Dan Hesse joined AT&T as a 23-year-old management trainee 1977, he never imagined he was embarking on a career journey that would eventually lead Fierce Wireless to name him one of the five “Best Turnaround CEO’s of All Time“. In addition, Entrepreneur magazine would recognize him as one of “10 Inspirational Leaders who Turned Around Their Companies“. While his accomplishments at AT&T were substantial, including launching the Digital One Rate service plan in 1998, it was the remarkable turnaround Hesse led as CEO of Sprint that left an indelible mark on the wireless industry and business world more broadly.
Corporate Leadership, LinkedIn Series
Reposted from Dan Hesse's LinkedIn series on Executive Leadership and Corporate Responsibility. The following was published December 9, 2016.
Americans want “just” behavior from its companies. Forbes recently published a list of America’s most just companies after extensive survey work and data analysis by JUST Capital.
The inaugural report, the JUST 100 List, shows that Americans want companies to work for all stakeholders. This includes:
This report fills a gap, offering an easy-to-use reference guide in terms of overall performance, sortable by specific industry and score. Consumers, workers and investors can now access this information quickly and easily. The list is online now and will be featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine's December 20 Impact & Philanthropy issue.
These companies deserve recognition. Capitalism is a force for good, but can become more so. I’m hopeful that this information will result in action that will make American capitalism even more responsible.
