T-Mobile CEO reveals secret sauce for success: loving customers and empowering employees
In 2015, T-Mobile became the third-largest carrier in the US, and in 2020, shortly after its acquisition of Sprint, it climbed another rung of the ladder. Of course, it wasn't the merger alone that helped T-Mobile become one of the most dominant telecom companies. It was a mix of marketing, bold 5G moves, and of course, the leadership that helped the company surpass competition. Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast's host Diane Brady recently had a chat with President and CEO of T-Mobile Mike Sievert where he talked about the company's culture, passion for growth, and lessons from former CEO John Legere he will carry forward.
T-Mobile's ascent can be traced back to the time it started calling itself the "uncarrier." The designation is meant to convey that T-Mobile is different from other carriers who are not necessarily pro-customer.
While not all customers may consider T-Mobile the superhero it thinks it is, CEO Sievert says the company is still an uncarrier and always strives to do more for customers and asks less of them in return. He says the company has improved on the value proposition in the last five years by not only continuing to provide superior value but also offering the best network, which often wins accolades for speed and experience.
Sievert claims that T-Mobile currently offers three times more speed and capacity than its competitors, and credit this to leapfrogging rivals in the 5G race and betting big on the mid-band spectrum. He says that competitors are a few years behind T-Mobile and it will stay this way for a long time.
The CEO also talked about the company's interest in delivering fiber internet service to customers. He says the company is already the fifth largest home broadband provider. And while its 5G internet business is growing rapidly, the company wants to branch out and include fiber in its offering too, for which it has planned a string of acquisitions.
Sivert also talked about Legere's "unique approach to leadership" and how a years-long succession process helped him step into the role of CEO. Sievert says Legere taught him the importance of listening to frontline employees and empowering them.
Sievert also briefly touched upon the current state of the smartphone industry and how the upgrade cycle has increased from 1.5 years to three years. He thinks rising prices and the improvement in the quality of phones are why people are sticking to them for longer.
The CEO also revealed that most people prefer the company's higher-end offers because they see more value in them.
It's not every day that you see a high-profile CEO have a deep chat on a podcast, even if you don't necessarily agree with everything he has to say. There's a growing perception that T-Mobile is no longer the uncarrier it was under Legere and its employees often complain about how they are forced to blindly chase performance metrics.
While not all customers may consider T-Mobile the superhero it thinks it is, CEO Sievert says the company is still an uncarrier and always strives to do more for customers and asks less of them in return. He says the company has improved on the value proposition in the last five years by not only continuing to provide superior value but also offering the best network, which often wins accolades for speed and experience.
It really is the same story. I mean, the un-carrier is about doing more for you and asking less of you. What’s changed over the past four years is that in addition to being that superior value that the un-carrier has always represented, we also, for the first time, have the best product, the best network. And that’s never been true in the 35-year history of this industry. No one has ever been able to simultaneously offer the best prices or the best value, the most customer-centric policies, and the best network at the same time. And that’s a breakthrough for us. And so now we have this, challenge of, first of all, convincing the public that that’s true. And second of all, you know, making sure to attract people against both of these vectors with this customer-loving team.
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
T-Mobile on average right now, nationwide is nearly triple the speed and capacity of our benchmark competitors. Not 10% better or 20% better, but nearly triple the speed and capacity. And that’s because we leapfrogged everyone in the 5G revolution and got out in front by realizing that 5G would be built on mid-band spectrum and the rest of the industry had to scramble to try to catch up.
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
You know, already with 5G, we are the nation’s fifth largest home broadband provider, kind of amazing to think about, and by far the most rapidly growing one. More growth than all the other major providers combined each quarter for the last year and a half. But now we’re going to plunge into fiber and really complement what we offer
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
Well, both that role and the chief marketing officer role I had before were sort of artifacts of John Legere, my predecessor, his pretty unique approach to leadership. And one of the things that he did was allow me a very wide purview as kind of the number two person in the company throughout that entire journey, and we had a long and thoughtful succession.
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
You know, one of the things that’s special about our culture is that what we try to do is listen deeply to and empower the frontline employee, the people who are closest to the customer.
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
That being said, we see people slowing down their purchases of smartphones. And so what used to be like a once every year and a half thing is for a lot of people, more like a once every three years thing. That’s partly because the prices of smartphones have risen a lot and partly because they work so well now and partly because the networks are performing so well that, you know, your phone takes advantage of those things.
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
And so with flat pricing, more people are buying, our most popular offers are some of our, quote, higher end offers because, you know, they want more of what we have to offer. You know, they they see more value in it. They get more benefits from it. So that’s a really nice development for our business.
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
Sivert also talked about the company's plan to leverage AI to improve everything from customer service to network architecture to stay ahead of its competitors.
we used the 5G discontinuous innovation to go from last place to the world’s most successful company of our kind. We think there’s a chance to architect the next big leapfrog together with a set of industry partners around what an AI-informed AI-enabled networking architecture could look like in the future.
Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile, October 2024
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