Marcelo Claure, Town Hall Meetings, New Family Share Pack Plan, Unlimited Individual Plan, Discussion Thread

[WillM]

Hesse's greatest accomplishment at Sprint was his ability to earn massive compensation with basically nothing to show for it.

[RedSpark]

I know we are all a little peeved at Marcelo. However, let's not forget that under Hesse's tenure, he led a poor NV roll out and Sprint's cost base was insane. Imagine if Hesse spent more time cutting expenses and attacking the corporate bureaucracy while deploying NV, Sprint would've had more funds to expand and densify.

 

Marcelo isn't perfect, but I think we shouldn't gloss over the execution issues under the previous management.

That's a great point. Sprint's costs were totally out of control.

 

Perhaps Hesse tried on this, but he just didn't have the political capital to do it.

 

The limos and snack room stuff seemed like no brainers though to get rid of. Not sure why it took getting Marcelo to do that.

[RedSpark]

Hesse's greatest accomplishment at Sprint was his ability to earn massive compensation with basically nothing to show for it.

No, that would be Gary Forsee, in my opinion ... who's still getting a Sprint paycheck.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_D._Forsee

 

"Forsee was ousted after Sprint lost 337,000 customers in the third quarter of 2007,[5] and a little over six months later the company wrote off $31 billion related to the merger—essentially writing off three quarters of $42 billion Nextel's market capitalization value as of the time of the merger.[6] In a significant reversal of market perception of his performance, the former "Best Manager" was named one of the "Worst CEOs" in 2009 by Fortune Magazine based on the disastrous outcome of the Sprint Nextel merger.[citation needed]"

 

"Despite Gary Forsee's widely reported poor management performance throughout the Sprint Nextel merger and afterwards, he was awarded a severance package that ChiefExecutive.net described as "exceptional:"[7] Foresee's severance package added up to over $40 million, including a $1.5 million salary through 2009, $5 million in bonuses, stock options and restricted shares worth $23 million and an $84,000-a-month pension for life.[8]"

[RedSpark]

I like how they still have the fine line of it going to be only available till March 2018

And a major fail...

 

They just don't get it.

[RedSpark]

Perhaps Hesse tried to do some of those things you mentioned, but the board wouldn't let him, much like how they blocked him from getting MetroPCS. It seems there were quite a lot of problems with the old guard at Sprint, yet not with Hesse.

How much would have acquiring MetroPCS helped?

 

Wasn't Sprint already strapped for cash at the time? That had to be the reason for the Board's refusal, right?

[RedSpark]

It is good reading these posts regarding the appreciation those here have of Dan Hesse's positive contributions to Sprint while he was in charge of the company.

Another thing I wanted to mention regarding this here too, is how S4GRU generally was busier during those times. Surely, NV was in progress, and that brought people here discussing all of the pros and cons, etc. Although I wasn't an active member here back then, or even registered to this site, I lurked around a lot, reading quite a bit and referencing this site a lot in good terms, of course, whenever discussing wireless issues with others.

I believe if Dan Hesse were still in charge of Sprint, we would be hearing alot more regarding network developments, with people still actively discussing and verifying this information on a much larger scale than what is going on now. I know people thought the whole "underpromise, overdeliver" thing is nice, but its also nice to be hearing some news regarding this stuff more often than not, even through the delays, because it gives a sense something good is going on, rather than barely anything.

I thought Dan understood what people wanted. Clear plan prices. No promos with gotcha gimmicks. The "Dan in the street" and "Dan in the diner" ads were some of the best wireless ads ever made.

 

As for the website, it was pretty awful during his tenure. Marcelo finally got the site looking nice.

 

Take the Coverage Map for example. Until the viewer window was recently enlarged to make it more usable, it looked like a Hesse era product... and it was.

 

As for informing customers about what's up, the Sprint Network Page showing improvements was good. Shame it was deprecated.

[utiz4321]

Hesse's greatest accomplishment at Sprint was his ability to earn massive compensation with basically nothing to show for it.

Except the survival of the company. When he came in sprint was in free fall.

 

 

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[S4GRU]

You guys are nuts!!!! Don't you remember under Hesse all the NV delays and how the network was still unusable after billions and billions spent? Unusable you cried!!!

 

Sprint's network is better than it ever has been before. Pricing is lower than ever before. Marcelo has focused limited resources under drowning debt on the most critical places. It has improved as much as possible without getting more capital.

 

If Hesse remained at the helm, there would not even be a Sprint right now. Don't get me wrong. I liked Dan Hesse. But he would have been the wrong CEO the past 1-1/2 years. Heck, he was the wrong CEO since 2012. And a big reason why Sprint is in the network position its in.

 

The reality is, you guys want Sprint to spend billions it doesn't have in capex in the areas you prefer. And any CEO that gets in the way of your dreams, you will have no confidence in. That's fine. But I respectfully disagree.

 

If you fairly consider Sprint's position when Marcelo took over...the network condition, stock price, subscriber numbers...Marcelo is improving everything. Marcelo has done more to improve Sprint in 1-1/2 years than Hesse did the previous 3. All while the market is getting more competitive and reducing per subscriber revenues. That is the big story of why capex has been reduced.

 

This is revisionist history to think Hesse is now some superman who would have done everything YOU wanted the past 18 months.

 

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[RedSpark]

I'm completely in agreement with you, RedSpark.

 

I've mentioned this in a few posts lately, how despite the issues with Network Vision, the guy had a plan. He wanted to expand Sprint's network, he wanted to deploy band 41, and he wanted to get MetroPCS, but the board of Sprint wouldn't let him. So, regardless of the hiccups in NV, he generally seemed to have Sprint's best interests at heart. Dan Hesse even featured himself speaking directly to his audience in Sprint ads, which some of the Sprint commercials under his watch were simply genius. Remember the ads featuring Malcolm McDowell and James Earl Jones? Great stuff! Also, some of Sprint's best rate plans were under his watch too. Sprint was going in the right direction with Dan Hesse, and now, who really knows. I definitely believe Sprint would have been in much better shape right now if Dan Hesse were still in charge of Sprint.

I agree with you 100%. Those Hesse ads were fantastic. We don't see Marcelo doing that. He should.

 

The ads with James and Malcom were also great.

 

You always wonder what could have been... but just remember that there were serious problems under Hesse that Marcelo quickly addressed: ballooning cost structure, etc.

[RedSpark]

You guys are nuts!!!! Don't you remember under Hesse all the NV delays and how the network was still unusable after billions and billions spent? Unusable you cried!!!

Sprint's network is better than it ever has been before. Pricing is lower than ever before. Marcelo has focused limited resources under drowning debt on the most critical places. It has improved as much as possible without getting more capital.

If Hesse remained at the helm, there would not even be a Sprint right now. Don't get me wrong. I liked Dan Hesse. But he would have been the wrong CEO the past 1-1/2 years. Heck, he was the wrong CEO since 2012. And a big reason why Sprint is in the network position its in.

The reality is, you guys want Sprint to spend billions it doesn't have in capex in the areas you prefer. And any CEO that gets in the way of your dreams, you will have no confidence in. That's fine. But I respectfully disagree.

If you fairly consider Sprint's position when Marcelo took over...the network condition, stock price, subscriber numbers...Marcelo is improving everything. Marcelo has done more to improve Sprint in 1-1/2 years than Hesse did the previous 3. All while the market is getting more competitive and reducing per subscriber revenues. That is the big story of why capex has been reduced.

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A good take on this. However, current customers on current plans are being ignored.... and all the Legacy ED1500 customers are being told to go pound sand.

 

It's a shame that Masa has billions for ARM and other ventures but leaves Sprint high and dry, starving for CapEx.

 

Why isn't he pitching in more?

[RedSpark]

Here's Dr. John Saw's take on Sprint's spectrum position and Unlimited:

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/blogs/sprint-perspectives/in-the-land-of-wireless-spectrum-is-king.htm

 

Thoughts?

[utiz4321]

You guys are nuts!!!! Don't you remember under Hesse all the NV delays and how the network was still unusable after billions and billions spent? Unusable you cried!!!

 

Sprint's network is better than it ever has been before. Pricing is lower than ever before. Marcelo has focused limited resources under drowning debt on the most critical places. It has improved as much as possible without getting more capital.

 

If Hesse remained at the helm, there would not even be a Sprint right now. Don't get me wrong. I liked Dan Hesse. But he would have been the wrong CEO the past 1-1/2 years. Heck, he was the wrong CEO since 2012. And a big reason why Sprint is in the network position its in.

 

The reality is, you guys want Sprint to spend billions it doesn't have in capex in the areas you prefer. And any CEO that gets in the way of your dreams, you will have no confidence in. That's fine. But I respectfully disagree.

 

If you fairly consider Sprint's position when Marcelo took over...the network condition, stock price, subscriber numbers...Marcelo is improving everything. Marcelo has done more to improve Sprint in 1-1/2 years than Hesse did the previous 3. All while the market is getting more competitive and reducing per subscriber revenues. That is the big story of why capex has been reduced.

 

This is revisionist history to think Hesse is now some superman who would have done everything YOU wanted the past 18 months.

 

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Not really a fair comparison. Hesse had to deal with the after math of the awful Nextel merger, one of the worst recession in American history, condensing three networks into one, the iPhone exclusive, NV 1.0 etc.... Marcelo walked in with all of that behind sprint.

 

 

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[nexgencpu]

A good take on this. However, current customers are being ignored.

 

It's a shame that Masa has billions for ARM and other ventures but leaves Sprint high and dry, starving for CapEx.

 

Why isn't he pitching in more?

Its safe to say, Hesse's "unlimited" budget for NV with very little to show for has something to do with it. (Even though Marcelo definitely benefited from NV)

 

From a marketing stand point, I do not think Hesse had anything as successful as the Verizon guy.

 

Hesse got the Amex Black and somehow maxed it out, with only a loss of customers to show for it, while Marcelo has to make due with a parent issued CC. Its insane how much Marcelo (specifically Tarek) has done with the limited budget.

[utiz4321]

Here's Dr. John Saw's take on Sprint's spectrum position and Unlimited:

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/blogs/sprint-perspectives/in-the-land-of-wireless-spectrum-is-king.htm

 

Thoughts?

Yeah, the vast majority of 2.5 is not deployed and you are moving to slow on densification to leverage your value proposition with 2.5. Nice chart Dr. Saw but we have seen that since the merge and your network is still not the fastest.

 

I am seriously sick of Sprint's "look at our potential" line. People buy products and services for what they can get out of them when they pay for them not for vague future promises.

 

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[Hmight]

Not really a fair comparison. Hesse had to deal with the after math of the awful Nextel merger, one of the worst recession in American history, condensing three networks into one, the iPhone exclusive, NV 1.0 etc.... Marcelo walked in with all of that behind sprint.

 

 

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Marcelo didn't walk in with all of that behind him.  He walked in when Hesse pretty much screwed up NV roll out and customers were defecting left and right.  Marcelo walked in to fully appreciate the effect of the defection and he had to clean house to reverse it.  

 

Sprint now is much better than Sprint's  2 years ago.  Son bought Sprint because Hesse needed a life line. 

[kg4icg]

What did Hesse do that threw everyone in a tissy and everyone said that he needed to go because people weren't getting it any more. You remember the premium freebies. That went bye bye under Hesse. Guess what people said when Hesse did that. The exact thing you broken records are saying now. Hate to say this but this is start to become like another site for which I don't speak of but some people are starting to sound like those dolts.

 

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[S4GRU]

 

 

A good take on this. However, current customers on current plans are being ignored.... and all the Legacy ED1500 customers are being told to go pound sand.

 

It's a shame that Masa has billions for ARM and other ventures but leaves Sprint high and dry, starving for CapEx.

 

Why isn't he pitching in more?

I don't have an answer for every Sprint decision. Nor do I endorse everything Marcelo does. But I was addressing the growing comments that suddenly Marcelo is a mistake and Hesse was somehow the panacea to Sprint's problem the past 18 months.

 

That being said, I expected Masa to find a way for more capital to get into Sprint to help it gain a more equal footing network wise against the competition. I've been disappointed in that.

 

And I believe the potential for Sprint to lose a boatload of customers with this new Verizon unlimited deal is YUUGE. So Sprint needs to do something attractive to keep customers. I know it threatens ARPU. But ARPU staying artificially high while your cash flow leaves with millions of customers is not good either.

 

It's tough being Marcelo. I don't envy the guy. But Sprint is now far healthier to handle this fight because of him.

 

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[derrph]

Here's Dr. John Saw's take on Sprint's spectrum position and Unlimited:

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/blogs/sprint-perspectives/in-the-land-of-wireless-spectrum-is-king.htm

 

Thoughts?

Don't care to read it...just deploy it. Same story about just in article form on how they have the most spectrum than anyone.

 

 

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[WillM]

Except the survival of the company. When he came in sprint was in free fall.

 

 

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I think the Hesse reign was one of treading water and that's being charitable. The company was in terrible condition but for the compensation he was receiving I expected better. He should've known early on the company wasn't viable as a standalone entity and needed to be sold. Eventually he sold a majority stake to Softbank but to me they are turning out to be a less than ideal choice. 

[OhioCalling]

Here's Dr. John Saw's take on Sprint's spectrum position and Unlimited:

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/blogs/sprint-perspectives/in-the-land-of-wireless-spectrum-is-king.htm

 

Thoughts?

 

That is only makes a difference if you can access it. It isn't here yet and no plan to be here soon according to Sprint. 10+ year customer, started with Nextel. I don't understand why Sprint does nothing for long time customers and everything is for new customers only. Some of us remember when they did even small things for LOYAL customers who patiently suffered when service was terrible and Sprint was closing to extinction. I am comparing to cost to switch to V or T-mobile, running out of patience here.

[utiz4321]

Marcelo didn't walk in with all of that behind him. He walked in when Hesse pretty much screwed up NV roll out and customers were defecting left and right. Marcelo walked in to fully appreciate the effect of the defection and he had to clean house to reverse it.

 

Sprint now is much better than Sprint's 2 years ago. Son bought Sprint because Hesse needed a life line.

Listen Marcelo himself. He has said over and over again NV 1.0 pain was behind them and he built on that.

 

I am not knocking on either of them. They both run/ran a company with deep structural problems in an industry that is extremely competitive. I just think Hesse did a good job under extremely difficult circumstances.

 

 

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[JustinRP37]

I don't have an answer for every Sprint decision. Nor do I endorse everything Marcelo does. But I was addressing the growing comments that suddenly Marcelo is a mistake and Hesse was somehow the panacea to Sprint's problem the past 18 months.

 

That being said, I expected Masa to find a way for more capital to get into Sprint to help it gain a more equal footing network wise against the competition. I've been disappointed in that.

 

And I believe the potential for Sprint to lose a boatload of customers with this new Verizon unlimited deal is YUUGE. So Sprint needs to do something attractive to keep customers. I know it threatens ARPU. But ARPU staying artificially high while your cash flow leaves with millions of customers is not good either.

 

It's tough being Marcelo. I don't envy the guy. But Sprint is now far healthier to handle this fight because of him.

 

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I agree with most of this, but I really do not know how much healthier Sprint is to handle this fight. I think this was very strategic for Verizon, especially with the timing. They know that Sprint has two big debt payments coming up, so they cannot cut ARPU as much as they probably should. They also know that Sprint's older customers on legacy plans might be up for a change. I do think that if churn upticks considerably, which I think it will based on the signals we are seeing on Verizon's reddit and the fact that their servers have been overloaded with switchers, I feel the stock could come crashing down. However, many are investing in Sprint now because they are realizing the value of the spectrum. I do think though that this was strategic on Verizon to try and bring down Sprint. In the long run this could lead to the price increases Verizon will look for. I expect market volatility to increase this quarter as we see this play out.

[S4GRU]

Not really a fair comparison. Hesse had to deal with the after math of the awful Nextel merger, one of the worst recession in American history, condensing three networks into one, the iPhone exclusive, NV 1.0 etc.... Marcelo walked in with all of that behind sprint.

 

 

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You're right. It's way more complex and deserves a very deep analytical response. However, superficial shoot from the hip judgments were being thrown around about Marcelo versus Hesse and I wanted to get some real perspective thrown back out there. Hesse would be the wrong guy the past 18 months. Sprint would have spent more yielding less results if the status quo had been maintained. It could have very well resulted in Sprint's demise in an ever increasingly competitive market.

 

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[joshuam]

https://opensignal.com/blog/2017/02/16/lte-how-us-operators-stack-up-by-region/

 

Sprint is not looking good for LTE availability or speed. They are dead last in every single category in every single region.

[utiz4321]

I think the Hesse reign was one of treading water and that's being charitable. The company was in terrible condition but for the compensation he was receiving I expected better. He should've known early on the company wasn't viable as a standalone entity and needed to be sold. Eventually he sold a majority stake to Softbank but to me they are turning out to be a less than ideal choice.

Go back to 2006 and 2007. They had to write of 29 billion of value because of the merger. Nearly half of the value of the company, that is what Hesse walked in on. To get the company to a point where it was treading water was a major accomplishment.

The blocking of the metro and T-Mobile mergers were outside of his control and they were the only way to fix sprint's structural problems as we are seeing today. Sprint is paying off debt by starving the Network and that isn't good news.

 

 

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