Sprint reshuffles networks team: Saw promoted, Elfman and Azzi to leave company

[ericdabbs]

Good riddances. Never was a fan of elfman and azzi up top. Hopefully Saw can steer the ship in the right direction.

 

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[Nickel]

Where's Ryan? He wanted Azzi gone months ago.

[Galaxyguy]

Very uncommon.  As it would have to be a Sprint employee outside of their network management.  Not many Sprint logo'd fleet vehicles out there.

 

Robert

 

All of Shentel's wireless technicians drive Sprint logo'd pickup trucks. I usually see them about every day around here. This is the only area I've ever seen them though.  

[NYC126]

Ah my dream has come true.Azi was a poor excuse as a network executive. Sprint two main problems are gone (the marketing and network teams.Son doesn't play ball at all.

[chamb]

Ah my dream has come true.Azi was a poor excuse as a network executive. Sprint two main problems are gone (the marketing and network teams.Son doesn't play ball at all.

Sprint Marketing sure does need to be fixed and it has needed a fix for years. The latest TV commercials for the other big 2 just leave sprint in the dust.  It has been this way for years.  The other big 2 players have excellent messages and whoever put the commercials together did a great job.  If you look closely at the other commercials, the wording was done very carefully. Omissions & exaggeration are there, but they sure do cause the people to look at what they have to offer. Most people do not see the omissions or exaggerations, so the commercials work. 

[IamMrFamous07]

Hopefully these changes can expedite things with band 41. It would be awesome if they can deploy band 41 over 200 million Pops instead of 100 million by year ends

[JustinRP37]

I do wonder if this is the end of the shakeup or just the beginning.  Son will not simply stand by and wait.  He is known for taking risks and pushing his employees.

[WiWavelength]

Hopefully these changes can expedite things with band 41. It would be awesome if they can deploy band 41 over 200 million Pops instead of 100 million by year ends

 

Yeah, John Saw is going to be working hard, doing all of those site installs himself.

 

You guys are getting giddy over next to nothing.  First, two people lost their jobs.  That may have negative effects on them and their families.  Second, Elfman and Azzi were not the problems -- they were just the figureheads who fell on their swords as part of an overall systemic shakeup.

 

AJ

[bosox801]

I have to mostly agree with AJ, blaming these guys is basically just a scape goat. We will probably never know who is to blame for any of these issues. Though it's sad to see someone lose their job I'm sure as most executives have very healthy severance packages so hopefully him and his family will be OK in the interm. Also being in management part of wearing that hat is taking the blame even when you might or might not have control over what happened. It's just part of the deal. My 2 cents worth.

 

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[Terrell352]

Sad when you lose your job but I doubt his family is going to suffer unless you mean their children cant have that new car they wanted.

Yeah, John Saw is going to be working hard, doing all of those site installs himself.

 

You guys are getting giddy over next to nothing. First, two people lost their jobs. That may have negative effects on them and their families. Second, Elfman and Azzi were not the problems -- they were just the figureheads who fell on their swords as part of an overall systemic shakeup.

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

Sad when you lose your job but I doubt his family is going to suffer unless you mean their children cant have that new car they wanted.

 

You can cry your crocodile tears, but that does not mean those whom you perceive as rich do not suffer distress over job loss.  Someone who is making $500,000 per year likely has much greater financial commitments than someone making $50,000 per year.  He may have a $5000 per month mortgage payment.  He may have a child (or two) at an Ivy League school or Stanford or Duke that runs $50,000 per year.  Even if he can continue to afford those financial liabilities, he may still have to sell the house, pack up, and move to another city if he wishes to continue to work in the industry.

 

AJ

[Terrell352]

One article said he was retiring. If this is the case then I would bet he has plenty to rainy day money if he is as smart as I think he is and 401k. But I don't know his story so lets just say he may or may not be financially struggling.

You can cry your crocodile tears, but that does not mean those whom you perceive as rich do not suffer distress over job loss. Someone who is making $500,000 per year likely has much greater financial commitments than someone making $50,000 per year. He may have a $5000 per month mortgage payment. He may have a child (or two) at an Ivy League school or Stanford or Duke that runs $50,000 per year. Even if he can continue to afford those financial liabilities, he may still have to sell the house, pack up, and move to another city if he wishes to continue to work in the industry.

 

AJ

[dstar2002]

You can cry your crocodile tears, but that does not mean those whom you perceive as rich do not suffer distress over job loss. Someone who is making $500,000 per year likely has much greater financial commitments than someone making $50,000 per year. He may have a $5000 per month mortgage payment. He may have a child (or two) at an Ivy League school or Stanford or Duke that runs $50,000 per year. Even if he can continue to afford those financial liabilities, he may still have to sell the house, pack up, and move to another city if he wishes to continue to work in the industry.

 

AJ

Yea sorry, but no. If you choose to live that life style, you prepare for it long term and save some of that money. Executives like this will get another job, him needing carry over money shouldn't be an issue.

 

You make 500k a year and loose your job, I have no sympathy for any financial struggle you want to claim. Guess you are transferring to state college kid or getting loans like the rest of us.

 

Sell your yacht, your beamer, whatever. No sympathy here if they have to sell a 20k square foot house and go down to a 10k. Boohoo. Like I said, if they were worth that money and fell on the sword, they will get another lucrative job elsewhere.

 

Plus I don't think anyone will contest and say network vision couldn't of been handled better in many ways.

 

Just my two cents of opinion.

 

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[utiz4321]

Look, I think a good point is losing your job no matter how much you are making is disruptive to your life. Further the since of failure is humiliating. Are these guys going to go bankrupt or live on the streets, not likely. But that is not the same as saying this isn't going to be a disruptive event in their lives and AJ is right we shouldn't celebrate someone else misfortune. None of us are making the decisions they had to make or facing the problems they had to face and though Americans don't like to admit this fact it is true that professional as well as personal success depends a great deal on things we can't directly control.

 

Maybe they could have done things differently maybe not, in either case they did what they did and this is where things ended up. The is no need to celebrate this but we can hope that Saw is more effective.

[dstar2002]

I am not advocating a celebration of someone loosing their job. I also am not advocating sympathy for a millionaire loosing their job.

 

Bottom line is the buck stops somewhere. If they excelled at their job, they would still have it. I am sure Son didn't push them out to simply shake things up and see what happens. They must of been very sure this will cause a positive change.

 

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[shawn_kc]

I am not advocating a celebration of someone loosing their job. I also am not advocating sympathy for a millionaire loosing their job.

 

Bottom line is the buck stops somewhere. If they excelled at their job, they would still have it. I am sure Son didn't push them out to simply shake things up and see what happens. They must of been very sure this will cause a positive change.

 

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Really?  What industry do you work in?  That stuff happens all the time.

[utiz4321]

I am not advocating a celebration of someone loosing their job. I also am not advocating sympathy for a millionaire loosing their job.

 

Bottom line is the buck stops somewhere. If they excelled at their job, they would still have it. I am sure Son didn't push them out to simply shake things up and see what happens. They must of been very sure this will cause a positive change.

 

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I have sympathy for any person who tries to do a job or tries anything and fails, failure sucks, losing your job is disruptive to any person. Millionaires are people so yeah I have sympathy for them too. I never understood this culture of blame that exists in American, for a variety of incentive reason people need to be held accountable but they could very well have been excelling at their jobs and a project as complicated as NV could still have fallen behind. This is not as easy thing sprint is trying to do and in fact it maybe one of the most difficult tasks attempted by any wireless company ever.

 

In any case I don't think any one on this forum has enough knowledge about what these two guys did or did not do to say they where doing a good or bad job. It maybe sprint needed some one to take the blame or they where not performing could say with out a lot more information.

[WiWavelength]

Really?  What industry do you work in?

 

Not the spelling and grammar industry, e.g. "loosing" and "must of."

 

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

Sprint's woes are much deeper than just Elfman and Azzi.  Masa said it a few weeks ago when he basically claimed that Sprint execs accept no for an answer too easily.  And that is across the board.  Maybe the departure of these two executives will shake up the rest of Sprint upper management to do better and fight harder.  Or maybe a lot more house cleaning is in order to change the Sprint culture of accepting their lot as last place wireless provider?

 

I feel for Azzi and Elfman.  The network has failed in many respects under their watch.  However, their answers were largely accepted all around Sprint.  I see no urgency or culture to fight back and get the best result as soon as possible.  The issue is much larger than these two.

 

Not only has Sprint had a culture of accepting their lot in life, but they have had their hands tied financially for so long.  The solution to their problems a few years ago was money.  Now that they have access to money, they don't even know what to do next.  They probably did the best they could with what they had for the past few years.  But now their minds need to grow much bigger.  Triage of the current network failures is not enough.  No more crisis network management.

 

The new network heads need to be in front of network problems before they happen, or at least as they happen in the worst case.  They need to be pushing technologies out ahead of their competitors.  They need to be aggressive.  And if they need more money to do it, they need to be able to go back and fight Sprint execs and Masa himself to do it.  They cannot take no for an answer.  They need to be a scrappy fighter.  And that is probably a task much larger than Elfman and Azzi can do right now.  They are battle hardened and too narrow focused based on the chains they have had on for years.  They have been too close to the problem.  Probably a little PTSD.

 

These are real people and we should have sympathy for them, to the extent that you can for total strangers.  They aren't bad guys.  They didn't do bad things to Sprint or the network.  Their hands were tied.  But they are not the best people moving forward.  Sprint needs the best people to get moving forward.  However, Masa gave them six months to get out of the funk they had the previous years to see if they were going to rise to the new challenges and the new fight.  He didn't feel that they had it in them based on what they demonstrated.  What they would need to be successful.

 

I'm positive and optimistic about these changes for the future.  Masa is no loser.  If Sprint fails on his watch, it won't because he was OK with being told no and was willing to accept the status quo.  It will be because he fought the good fight and it just wasn't enough.  Well, Sprint hasn't fought for a very long time.  And 90% of its problem right now is it doesn't know how to fight.  Masayoshi Son has decided he knows how to box.  He's donning the gloves and now it's time to train people how to throw some punches.

 

Robert

[Paynefanbro]

I'm positive and optimistic about these changes for the future. Masa is no loser. If Sprint fails on his watch, it won't because he was OK with being told no and was willing to accept the status quo. It will be because he fought the good fight and it just wasn't enough. Well, Sprint hasn't fought for a very long time. And 90% of its problem right now is it doesn't know how to fight. Masayoshi Son has decided he knows how to box. He's donning the gloves and now it's time to train people how to throw some punches.

 

Robert

All of these boxing references...

[grapkoski]

The timing of this move is peculiar, we just 'redeployed' half my team yesterday. Maybe this week was the quarterly reorganization week.

 

Anyways, I think this is a great organizational move. At the end of the day, the 'network,' at a primarily wireless firm, should be the only focus of one C-level executive.

 

Having peered into the inner workings of Sprint, many teams are still stuck in the pindrop era.

[S4GRU]

Also, I don't understand this hatred or anger against executives.  Someone has to do that job.  And they aren't going to do it for $50,000.  Someone who is responsible for a $10 Billion network and a $20 Billion five year upgrade needs to paid accordingly for how much they are responsible.  They earn the money.  The market decides what is fair compensation.  Good for them.

 

I think too often we can be bitter and angry about these people.  There really are not that many of them.  It's just not healthy to think like that.  It's like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.  I bet if we actually knew some of these people, we would feel really ashamed to say such things.

 

Robert

[WiWavelength]

All of these boxing references...

And now you get your ears boxed for quoting the entirety of Robert's lengthy post just to add a one phrase reply.

 

AJ

[tommym65]

. . .

The new network heads need to be in front of network problems before they happen, or at least as they happen in the worst case.  They need to be pushing technologies out ahead of their competitors.  They need to be aggressive.  And if they need more money to do it, they need to be able to go back and fight Sprint execs and Masa himself to do it.  They cannot take no for an answer.  They need to be a scrappy fighter.  And that is probably a task much larger than Elfman and Azzi can do right now.  They are battle hardened and too narrow focused based on the chains they have had on for years.  They have been too close to the problem.  Probably a little PTSD.

 

. . .

 

Robert

 

And, they need to become familiar with S4GRU.  I am serious on this point, not joking.

 

S4GRU has identified virtually every problem and shortcoming of Sprint Network Vision since its very inception, and the intelligent and insightful members, Sponsors, Premiers, and Staff have presented well-thought-out solutions to almost all of them, long before Sprint would even publicly admit their existence.

 

So, I ask, how can we, as supporters of this forum, get the attention of the Executive level of Sprint/Softbank?

[lilotimz]

And, they need to become familiar with S4GRU. I am serious on this point, not joking.

 

S4GRU has identified virtually every problem and shortcoming of Sprint Network Vision since its very inception, and the intelligent and insightful members, Sponsors, Premiers, and Staff have presented well-thought-out solutions to almost all of them, long before Sprint would even publicly admit their existence.

 

So, I ask, how can we, as supporters of this forum, get the attention of the Executive level of Sprint/Softbank?

If you want this site to shut down then we can do a lot of things to attract the attention of softbank/sprint.... Their legal teams...

 

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