Verizon hits reset button with 2.0 launch

Verizon has announced it is now a new business, one which is customer centric and ready for the digital world of tomorrow. Smells like a polite way of announcing a restructure.

It might sound like a PR plug to stay relevant, heavily relying on friendly buzzwords such as customer centric and corporate social responsibility, but there is some pragmatism in behind the fluff. Like many telcos around the world, Verizon appears to be prepping for a restructure to refocus the business on tomorrow’s digital bonanza.

“It’s not only that we have a new operational structure from today, but it is also about the way we are thinking about our customers, the way we are thinking about our culture and leadership and society,” said Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon Communications. “We have a strategy that we are going to execute on.”

The plug itself seems to be focused on five areas. Firstly, corporate social responsibility. This will now be one of the promoted corporate values of the business, and will also factor into procurement decisions, but will also likely be included in various marketing campaigns.

While this sort of announcement might get some excited, Verizon is late to the show and, quite frankly, we’re surprised it has taken this long to include CSR in the corporate values. This is PR 101 and is a play which almost every other company on the planet is taking advantage of. Verizon might plug this as ‘innovation’, but the tiresome beast is catching up on a trend which ran wild years ago.

Secondly, the business will split into two business groups, Consumer and Business. Again, this seems like a move which should have been made some time ago.

Thirdly, Verizon 2.0 isn’t just a PR play but also symbolises progress which has been made on the network. Network virtualisation and softwarisation of the network is key here, and a critical component to ensure Verizon is a competitive force in the digital economy of tomorrow.

“We’ll also be working in new ways,” said Verizon employee Sravya Gajjala. “2.0 is our opportunity to take a look at what’s in front of us, at our existing processes and make fundamental changes across the business.”

This is the fourth point which to us sounds like corporate slang for restructure.

It might sound like a dirty word, perhaps because pain is a natural accompaniment to restructure, but it is critical. If Verizon is to maintain its lofty position of influence, it needs to be a business which is ready for the digital economy. This might mean redundancies, but it will certainly mean evolving from a Communications Service Provider (CSP) to a Digital Services Provider (DSP).

The final plug is innovation, the most overused and meaningless buzzword in the technology industry. Innovation means very little when everyone claims to be innovative because, quite frankly, only a small percentage actually are. For Verizon, this means pushing into new segments and offering new services. The imagery in the promotional video, which you can see at the foot of the article, suggest data is going to be a key aspect.

This might not sound revolutionary or new, but it is critical. The data intensive industries of tomorrow are going to rule the economy, but the telcos are not sitting in a strong position to capitalise on the gains. Trends are leading the telcos towards the role of utility, though there is still an opportunity to play a valuable role in the blossoming and disruptive segments.

This is the crux of the message; Verizon is attempting to re-model itself as a business which is relevant for the digital economy. It wants to be a partner of these innovative companies, offering services which go above and beyond the connectivity utility.