By Nat Ives
John Legere's absence from T-Mobile US Inc. after he steps down
as chief executive officer next year will be noticed, not least
because he has made himself so noticeable.
Mr. Legere stands out from other CEOs. He sports long hair,
leather jackets and T-shirts in T-Mobile magenta. He riddles rivals
with public barbs on Twitter, including calling AT&T Inc. and
Verizon Communications Inc. "dumb and dumber." He hosts an
exuberant cooking show shot as a vertically for Facebook called
"Slow Cooker Sunday," which attracts millions of views.
He seeks attention, in short, and he gets it.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2014, he showed up to a
party thrown by AT&T and got ejected. He said he just wanted to
see rapper Macklemore perform.
"He was truly the face, and hair, of the brand," said Andrew
Essex, chief executive of Plan A, a collection of marketing
agencies.
Plenty of corporate bosses have entwined themselves with their
companies' brands, from Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca to Victor Kiam,
who bragged in TV commercials that he liked Remington products so
much that he bought the company. Mr. Legere just put a modern,
social-media stamp on the approach.
More CEOs are likely to follow his lead as social media and
tuned-in consumers push them into the spotlight, said Daniel Binns,
the New York chief executive of branding firm Interbrand. "The CEO
can't be a hidden figure any more," Mr. Binns said.
Mr. Legere, 61, once presented himself as a fairly staid
telecommunications and tech veteran, with prior tours at AT&T
and running Global Crossing Ltd. He styled himself with
slicked-back, combed hair and drab suits.
But at a 2013 event to promote a deal between T-Mobile and Major
League Baseball, not long after T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG
named him CEO of T-Mobile's U.S. operations, he uncorked on the way
the wireless business treats its customers.
"It was an action statement for me," he told Business Insider.
"I'm sure it sounded a bit arrogant, that I was going to fix this
industry. From then on, I started to be the brand."
It was around then that he began to wear his hair longer and
stopped wearing formal suits as often.
Under Mr. Legere, T-Mobile rose from an afterthought to the
third-largest wireless provider by subscribers, behind Verizon and
AT&T. He fought successfully to get federal approval for
T-Mobile's proposed $26 billion-plus takeover of Sprint Corp. (a
deal that has been delayed by an antitrust suit by several
states).
And his unconventional approach has helped embody the company's
"Un-carrier" positioning, which is meant to set it apart from the
rest of the telecom industry.
"He had a very distinct impact on their culture and their
external brand image," said Susan Cantor, CEO of Sterling Brands, a
strategic branding and design firm. "He gave them a brash style, an
irreverent tone, and I think most importantly he really imbued the
organization with a challenger mind-set."
Not all of Mr. Legere's public moments have been positive. In
2016, he posted a video including an obscenity as he defended a
T-Mobile product from questions by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a nonprofit privacy advocacy group. "Why are you
stirring up so much trouble?" he said in part. "And who pays
you?"
He later apologized, saying that the group fights for
consumers.
During Congressional hearings this year about the deal for
Sprint, Democrats questioned Mr. Legere about T-Mobile executives'
stays at the Trump International Hotel in D.C.
Some observers aren't sure how much Mr. Legere's performative
qualities mattered to the company's growth. "His tweeting and
trash-talking energized the troops, and eventually it became part
of their brand promise to customers," said Craig Moffett, an
analyst with MoffettNathanson Research LLC.
Whether that is what drove T-Mobile's success is hard to tell,
Mr. Moffett said. "Behind the scenes, he was analytically driven
and rather cerebral, although still irreverent, and they made a lot
of good decisions."
The company's next CEO, operating chief Mike Sievert, deserves
much of the credit for the company's strategy and execution in
recent years, Mr. Moffett added.
But don't expect Mr. Sievert to grow his hair long when he takes
over for Mr. Legere at T-Mobile.
"Mike's more the cardigan guy to John's leather," said Ric
Prentiss, managing director at financial services firm Raymond
James & Associates Inc., where he covers T-Mobile. "Will he
continue the message of 'We're the Un-carrier?' Yes. Will he
continue embracing the customers and employees? Is he excited about
broadband and video? Yes. Is he going to host 'Slow Cooker Sunday?'
Probably not."
--Drew Fitzgerald contributed to this article.
Write to Nat Ives at nat.ives@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 18, 2019 17:38 ET (22:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Deutsche Telekom (QX) (USOTC:DTEGY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Deutsche Telekom (QX) (USOTC:DTEGY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024