Sprint to shake up how it seeks and serves customers

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure plans to shake up how the company seeks and serves customers by placing individuals in charge of 19 key cities.

Dubbed One Sprint, the national effort will try to replicate what the company has done in Chicago since April.

The Chicago effort, led by Tracy Nolan, has “been more successful than even we expected at this point,” Claure told employees in a weekly newsletter Thursday.

Claure hasn’t identified who would lead each of the markets. He also is dividing the nation into four areas, with regional headquarters in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles, with plans to name leaders for each.

He also emphasized that none of these changes will happen until early next year, after the critical holiday shopping season when many cellphone subscribers look for new phones and carriers.

“Everybody should stay focused and keep doing the jobs you have today,” Claure’s letter said. “This is a critically important selling season for our company.”

Claure wants to change how Sprint operates, and specifically its sales efforts with One Sprint, because the company isn’t growing fast enough, he said in the letter.

“I know we will see great things if we give more leaders the power to be entrepreneurial in coming up with best ways to connect with customers in their markets,” Claure wrote.

Changes at Sprint also include $2.5 billion in operating and equipment spending cuts that the company has acknowledged will involve layoffs. Its chairman, Masayoshi Son, has said they will number in the thousands. The cuts come on top of 3,700 job cuts at Sprint last year and early this year.

Claure’s letter offered no new details on layoffs but emphasized their necessity.

“For our colleagues who will be leaving, we will be sorry to see them go. We know it will be difficult for them,” his letter said. “But I can’t emphasize enough that this is absolutely necessary. These are actions we must take so that we can ensure the strength and long-term success of our company, and save thousands of other jobs.”

As part of the shake-up, Nolan will join the headquarters team to help spread the One Sprint plan even while maintaining responsibility for the Chicago market.

Sprint currently organizes its sales effort based on the type of customer it is trying to attract. One group targets high-value “postpaid” consumers who have good credit and qualify for leases of the newest phones. Another targets prepaid customers, who generally won’t pass a credit check and pay for service each month before using it. Enterprise teams target larger company clients, and general business focuses on mid- and small-sized companies.

“It’s almost like we have four Sprints,” Claure’s letter said. “I believe we can be more efficient and do a better job of serving our customers” with the One Sprint approach.

Claure specifically said the leaders of those four units would remain in their posts for now. He also announced two new hires.

Christina Sternberg will become Claure’s chief of staff, moving from a similar post at AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. She replaces Jay Spaulding, who will move to an undetermined job after a transition.

Sprint also named Ramon Colomina as its senior vice president of supply chain management and interim chief procurement officer. He comes to Overland Park-based Sprint from its parent company, SoftBank Group Corp. in Tokyo. He also had been part of Brightstar Corp., the Miami-based business Claure founded and sold to SoftBank when he became Sprint’s CEO last year.

In its plan to replicate what has happened in Chicago, Sprint is tapping what has long been a strong market. In her post, Nolan has established stronger ties to city leaders, particularly Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Claure said. The advertising push there and a Paint the Town Yellow campaign have raised Sprint’s profile still further.

Claure said Chicago has been responsible for “a substantial portion” of Sprint’s recent and rare increase in the number of its high-value cellphone subscribers. These postpaid customers generate roughly twice the revenues each month as prepaid customers.

One Sprint map

The new One Sprint plan divides the nation into four areas and sets a president in 19 key markets.

▪ Northeast: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.

▪ South: Charlotte, N.C.; Atlanta; Dallas; Oklahoma City; Miami

▪ Midwest: Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City

▪ West: Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 9:30 AM with the headline "Sprint to shake up how it seeks and serves customers."