AT&T

• Laptop
• iPad
• Cell Phone
• Great discounts on personal cell and Direct TV services
• Education benefits and opportunities

Overall, a good place to build your resume and education in the industry.

• Large company with tons of red tape.
• Aging systems and technology.
• Slow to market.
• Inept managers allowed to sit and wait on pensions while ruining careers of direct reports.
• Numbers-driven managers lacking real forward-thinking vision.
• Company is going through too many changes without a clear vision of the end result.
• Can only advance based on playing corporate politics and not based on results.

AT&T is lacking clear leadership and focus from the top, including CEO Randall Stephenson, CEO of MBS Ralph de la Vega, and others. While it is trying to rebrand its image as a "Mobile First" leader in entertainment, content, content delivery, the Internet of Things, and business solutions, it appears the clarity internally has been lost along the way. The company is making many changes in its business solutions segment, which is causing some serious growing pains as it tries to move away from old legacy systems and products. There doesn't seem to be a path forward to shut down legacy systems and move to updated technology. The company only cares about the number of new subscribers each month and really nothing else. This has caused the culture to change from a great place to be to a "what have you done for me lately" mentality. You either meet your numbers or you're gone. The company has also lost, through this change, many seasoned and experienced leaders who have bolted for better positions in better companies, leaving a huge void being filled by inept leaders who will ruin careers to save their own. The company has a reseller mentality in the business solutions segment. They have filled their product lineup with too many non-core products that are either white-labeled from others or just resold by AT&T, making it hard to sell against direct sellers in the marketplace. A company the size of AT&T should be able to develop its own solutions and not rely on solutions from others with large markups. There is also a growing mentality of bringing in agents to resell AT&T solutions, which is eliminating positions and causing serious internal morale issues. While this might save a buck or two for Wall Street, it is not a solid strategy to grow your business or create a solid reputation in the industry. This mentality is spilling into the mobility retail arm as well. More and more stores are moving over to the agent channel and being run by third parties. Again, this saves money and looks good to Wall Street; however, these agents pay minimum wage at best and treat their employees horribly. This is causing poor issues with customer service in the stores, which will ultimately affect the bottom line as more people will switch to other carriers for better customer experiences.

Take a solid look at the vision of the company and communicate that vision clearly to the field.

Stop the constant mind games with change that are creating issues with morale and retention of quality employees. You can't keep good talent when that talent is fearful of getting cut yearly.

Clean house and get rid of the aging legacy employees who are just hanging on for a pension. They are a cancer within the company as they refuse to adopt change and learn the newer technology. Also clean house with managers who fit the same mold. Too many are aging and just hanging on for a pension. They have no idea how to lead and have no knowledge of the new technology in the field. They sit and lead using the legacy mentality, which is ruining the careers of those they supervise.

You will continue to lose good talent until this is fixed.

Drop the reseller mentality, focus on your core business and fix the bugs there first. This will change the customer perception of your business, which will open the door for you to layer on those outside solutions from your partners. Until then, customers will just continue to buy direct.

Reconsider the agent and solution provider segment. Too many solution providers are causing an image crisis out in the marketplace as they are not 100% AT&T driven. They sell everyone's solution and have no loyalty to anyone.

In addition, closely monitor and inspect the retail dealer arm. Cutting corners there will severely hurt your business in the future. Allowing agents to pay subpar wages and treat their employees horribly will cripple the business. The money gained up front here will end up costing losses twofold long term, as these agents and dealers run your image into the ground.

Invest in the workforce you have. Trim the hangers-on at all levels, and you will reap the rewards down the road.