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Hesse Takes Charge at Sprint Nextel
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Hesse, who sometimes quotes actress Mae West and Shakespeare during analyst calls, joined Sprint in 2005 to head its local-phone service operation, which became Embarq a year later. His main job was to re-brand Embarq, and he has focused on rolling out new services, such as a wireless service that works with traditional phone lines. Embarq, like many local phone companies, faces a rapidly declining land-line business.
In recent Embarq conferences calls, Hesse referred to himself as a "wireless guy," and some analysts say that will come in handy at Sprint.
"He's very familiar with Sprint, but he can come with a different perspective and put in place a clear, concrete strategy for the future," said Michael Nelson, an analyst with the Stanford Group.
At Embarq, Hesse recently established a program in which each department measures itself against the performance of competitors in order to find ways to improve efficiencies in the business. He recently cut 1,000 Embarq jobs -- a signal to some that he may do the same to reduce expenses at Sprint.
CIBC analyst Timothy Horan yesterday told investors that he expects Hesse to be cautious at the outset, partly because he has not run a major wireless company in six years. But Horan expects Hesse to "aggressively restructure" Sprint in three to four years.
Daniel A. Alcazar, Embarq's vice president of communications and brand management, reported directly to Hesse for two years and said Hesse typically spent a lot of time in the field talking to employees.
He said Hesse recently launched a program to ensure that all 19,000 Embarq employees know enough about the company to sell its products to their friends, family and neighbors. He developed several "elevator speeches" summarizing the highlights of Embarq's long distance, local, wireless and small-business packages.
Hesse had the speeches printed on index cards for every employee and posted the text on every computer screen saver. He then started team competitions to make sure all the employees were learning the speeches.
