April 2020

Welcome to Episode 1 of the ClearPurpose podcast. Today’s topic is the question — what is strategy?

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I asked Steve what was up. “I can’t tell you, but it’s bad.”

“It”, we would all later learn, was a merger being negotiated between Sprint and Nextel.

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For most of the company’s history, United Telecom was primarily a local telephone company. In the 1980s, the company expanded into long distance, even renaming the entire company Sprint, around that long distance brand. The final piece came into place in the 1990s with Sprint’s big bet on PCS wireless. On October 13, 1998, before Sprint had even taken full control of PCS, Sprint president Ron LeMay announced the formation of a new “One-Sprint” organization to pull the pieces together into value-creating offers for customers.

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Yesterday we looked at how United Telecom expanded into Long Distance and became Sprint. The story involved joint ventures, acquisitions, and big bets. It was a long road with a few twists and turns. Today we look at how Sprint became a wireless carrier, and it’s more of the same — in fact much more.

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Startups should constantly reference this book for its various tools invaluable throughout the Customer Development process. Established organizations should pull out Value Proposition Design anytime they are entering a new market or launching a new product or when they simply want to be reminded of why they are doing what they do. The Value Proposition Canvas can also be very helpful for any organization wrestling with nailing down a clear and compelling purpose statement.

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United Telecom had a well established business strategy. They were constantly monitoring the external environment (regulatory, competitive, technology, economy, customer needs, etc.) As the environment started to shift, the company first sought to influence the external environment to maintain a status quo that served them well. When it became apparent that change was inevitable, they began to seriously evaluate external opportunities and threats and internal strengths and weaknesses to determine a new strategy. They pursued a portfolio approach managing investments in various businesses. Some failed quickly and were eliminated. One rose to the top as the future of the company. Company resources were managed to maximize the benefits to all stakeholders. Existing businesses helped fund investment in new ventures and provided the operational and customer base foundation for the success of these startups.

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Arguably the first strategic decision in Sprint’s history was the decision by the company’s founder to enter the telecom business. The second major strategic decision the company made was to grow through consolidation.

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Last week T-Mobile finally completed the acquisition of Sprint. This week, I want to reflect back a bit on some strategic moments in the company’s history.

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