Increasingly, I am invited to attend corporate strategy sessions with senior-level executives at a variety of wireless, telecom and technology companies. They want an objective outsider to help them scope out the next generation of growth for their company as the industry changes. Let me share a few pieces of information your company should also have on the front burner.
Today, every company faces similar challenges and growth opportunities. They may all choose different paths and strategies going forward. Which will be successful, and which will not, is the question.
We have learned through experience over decades if change that only some companies will be successful during this next, great AI transformation. It depends on their leadership. Whether the CEO and their senior leadership is up-to-speed on these new technologies which are quickly reshaping our world.
Today, artificial intelligence is perhaps the biggest challenge CEOs from all different kinds of companies have ever dealt with. While this is true, the fact of the matter is most CEOs have no clue about this new technology. That’s why they bring in CTOs or Chief Technology Officers.
Now, we are increasingly seeing a new senior level officers called CAIO or Chief AI Officers being hired at companies.
Every competitor faces similar AI growth opportunities and challenges
AI represents a competitive threat and a potential growth opportunity, which we don’t yet fully understand. In fact, we may always be struggling to keep up with this ever changing tech. That’s why today we are writing the new rulebook for success. Some company moves will work, while others will not. Knowing the difference is key.
While some executives know more about what is going to happen next than others, how do they educate themselves further and how do they educate other executives in their company? In other words, how do they get everyone on the same page, from the CEO to the front-line workers?
It’s all about understanding AI and the path the industry will choose to grow, out of a myriad of different directions.
As an industry analyst, I have watched the wireless industry go through several change waves over the decades, some more significant than others. However they all changed the industry.
The past decade has been, well, strange. In the past, when the next generation was unveiled, growth accelerated for years. However, with 5G, new growth is not occurring as quickly as in the past. Some wireless companies are taking strange, new directions and wrong detours.
Right and wrong choices
Let me share a few key ideas I share with wireless and telecom companies with you.
Years ago, Motorola led the wireless industry for decades until the late 1990s, when the industry shifted from analog to digital. As I spoke with them, I noticed they didn’t see the change wave impacting them. That cost them their leadership position. As a result, they suddenly fell from a leader to the bottom of the list of competitors.
BlackBerry took the leadership position from Motorola for the next decade as smartphones grew in popularity and importance. Their problem was that the company did not innovate as it should have. They innovated in steps instead of light years. This meant that when the next big smartphone hit the streets, Blackberry fell from leadership to the bottom alongside Motorola.
Android and iPhone were next. These were super-smartphones that used wireless data and apps. When the iPhone and Android entered the market, AT&T and Verizon jumped in, did what was necessary, and rode the next growth wave. They have been in leadership for almost 20 years.
T-Mobile did not see the value in wireless data and fell far behind. It took them many years and several CEOs to finally start doing the right thing. Now they are fine, but for many years they were lost.
This is the risk and the growth opportunity every company faces, every day. Some hit the mark, while others do not. A real question is how do companies keep their investors happy? The industry must crack the new code for growth going forward.
Wireless is important. It is not going away. However, whether it will be a growth industry or just dumb pipes like the old telephone network became is the real question.
To keep investors satisfied, both AT&T and Verizon took a wrong turn about a decade ago. AT&T acquired DirecTV, WarnerMedia, Warner Bros. Studio, CNN and more. Verizon acquired AOL and Yahoo. Ultimately, both failed. Both are now back to wireless.
New growth from private wireless, wireless broadband and AI
Wireless investors are still looking for growth. That’s why wireless companies are expanding their reach to new areas, such as private wireless and 5G wireless broadband. This is creating new growth potential, but also upsetting the apple cart since broadband is how cable TV companies show growth.
Next, artificial intelligence is entering the picture and changing everything. Today, AI is helping wireless and telecom networks find and repair problems before they have an outage.
Is new AI technology what the industry is looking for in the long term? It wants this technology to create new services that customers will love — a whole new world of services from which companies can profit.
What will this industry look like going forward? I think the entire industry could be unrecognizable as it transforms over the next decade. It all depends on whether the industry can use AI to create new growth segments. I am waiting to see which company introduces an AI breakthrough. Something big and bold and different.
We are still very early in this next change wave. We do not know exactly what the world will look like in a couple of years or what new directions we will take. We will use different versions of AI technologies to do things to change companies and industries.
There is so much more you need to learn, and I share so much more with company leadership at these sessions. However, the bottom line is that the top of the organization needs to understand the new direction they and their industry need to take.
Time for bold, new vision and direction
Just like in the past, leadership has changed repeatedly from Motorola to Blackberry to iPhone and Android. Now, staring down the barrel of AI, which ideas and companies will be the leaders in the next generation of growth?
Will leadership come from current companies like Qualcomm, Ericsson, Sony, Huawei, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Xfinity, Spectrum, Altice, Cox and others from the old guard? Or will it come from new companies like Juniper Networks, which is trying to merge with HPE, Celona, AWS, Boingo, Boldyn, or countless others, large and small?
This new world of AI is just part of what we need to watch for as we all prepare for. This is how the next generation of services, products and networks will be built.
You don’t want to sit out this next wave of transformation. The question I ask you is simple. Do you want to thrive like AT&T and Verizon or struggle like T-Mobile when the iPhone and Android hit the marketplace?
Now is the early time to jump in, experiment, be bold, be creative. Today is when new leadership is being forged for the next decade or two. Where do you and your company stand as this battlefield changes and expands thanks to new technology like AI?
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