| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : APRIL 12, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| COVER STORY
Whitacre Steps Up to the Mike Noticeably uncomfortable in the spotlight, SBC Communications Inc. CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. almost never talks to the media. But in a rare interview in his office on the 13th floor of SBC's San Antonio headquarters, Whitacre shared his thoughts on his company and himself with BUSINESS WEEK correspondent Roger O. Crockett. On his disdain for meetings: This is a nonbureaucracy. It's a result of my being an impatient person. Growing up in this business, I attended thousands of meetings. One of the things I decided was that if I ever got to be chairman, I was not going to have long meetings. Don't confuse me with all this superfluous stuff. On his competitive spirit: I like to compete, and I like to do well. It kind of gets the juices flowing. It's a very competitive world we're in. It's an exciting business we're in, and we're lucky from that standpoint. On what he wants for SBC: I like to be the best. I like for our stock price to be the highest. I like for our employees to be the highest paid. I like for us to have the best network. On SBC's investment philosophy: We don't keep pouring good money after bad. We're not afraid to say that we messed up--and we've done that several times. Some people keep hanging on and hanging on. We just cut our losses. On business failures: We didn't do that well in England competing against British Telecom. We went over and built the first combination cable-TV and phone system. We did O.K., but we hit the wall there fairly quickly and got out of the business. We haven't done any good in the cable-TV business. I'm the guy who said, ''Buy [cable companies] in Washington, D.C.,'' and I'm the same guy who said, ''Let's get out of the business.'' On the need to build a bigger company: I don't feel it; I know it. We have to have a certain mass of [phone] lines and customers so we can reach out to them. And the Ameritech deal gives us the scope and scale to do that.... We have to have the customer base of both medium- and large-scale businesses. We have to have the consumer base.... You can't be a global player and be small. It just doesn't work. On his management style: Gosh, I don't know. It's kind of all over the map. Sometimes I'm very hands-on. Sometimes I spend a lot of time on strategy. I like a lot of interaction with people. We're a pretty close group, and we've known each other a long time. I'm not a detail freak, but I like to know what's going on. On his responsibility to shareholders: They had the courage and the confidence to put money in this business, and they deserve our best efforts to reward them for doing that. When we do well for the stockholders, everything else works. If the stock were doing badly, I can't imagine a worse scenario. That's pretty bleak to me--hunkered down and having shells lobbed in on you all the time. On his controversial legal attack on the Telecom Act of 1996: We thought the government--the legislation--was singling us out for punishment, and we thought that was against the law. A lot of people joined our suit [U S West Inc. and Bell Atlantic]. I hope it didn't bend too many people out of shape.... I'd rather not do it, but I would do it again. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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