According to an article on BusinessWeek.com, "The goal is to name Forsee's successor in as little as two weeks and no later than 30 days..." They are working with executive search firm Spencer Stuart to achieve this lofty goal. Sprint is searching overseas to avoid nasty non-compete clauses - the very thing that made getting Forsee so difficult and expensive. Key candidates according to sources in the article are as follows:
- Sanjiv Ahuja, the well-regarded former CEO of European wireless carrier Orange.
- William Morrow, a former Vodafone (VOD) turnaround executive who is now president and chief operating officer at Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG).
- Andrew Sukawaty, a former Sprint exec and CEO of satellite player Inmarsat (ISA.L)
- Daniel Hesse, CEO of Embarq (EQ), the local phone division recently spun out by Sprint.
According to the article, "Ahuja and Morrow had been interviewed for the Sprint COO job, which Forsee and the board had been looking to fill for more than a year. For that position, sources say Sprint also considered or approached telecom execs such as former BellSouth President and COO Mark Feidler and William Hannigan, No. 2 at AT&T (T) before it was acquired by SBC Communications. Noncompete clauses in both executives' contracts raised red flags."
So, lets pause and ask some questions.
First, what value do overseas players such as Sanjiv Ahuja bring to the table to the only wireless giant in the US that does not use GSM and is NOT global? Well, he is the person who led IBM into the telecommunications software industry. He joined Orange in 2003 and doubled its subscribers from 48 million to 100 million. But, he relinquished his executive roles at Orange in April of 2007 - some say at critical time for Orange. Many questioned why he was replaced by an industry outsider Olaf Swantee - an SVP from HP. On the other hand, why would he come to the US to take on such a nasty situation as Sprint Nextel? It will take some serious money and equity to make that work.
Second, is Morrow the right guy to take charge of a company needing a bolster of growth and out of the box thinking? Pacific Gas & Electric is far from an innovative company. While it is great that he is a turn around expert, Sprint needs more than just that. They need a visionary and a passionate leader. I don't know if he is, but I would be surprised if a passionate visionary would go to PG&E. But then again, PG&E is about as bureaucratic and set in its ways - and that may prepare him to do battle at Sprint Nextel.
Third, why bring back Daniel Hesse? He is at Embarq now - considered to be the oldest and most inflexible and undynamic part of the old Sprint (spun off at merger). I can tell you that there are three groups in Sprint Nextel - Old land line operations, Sprint wireless, and Nextel - and there is tons of baggage and hatred between each.
Also, land line based telelcom is about as exciting as a baked potato. Sprint needs more than a baked potato. Hesse's previous wireless background consists of Terabeam (a leader in core-to-client solutions for broadband municipal wireless networks - this is NOT an area sprint needs to get into) and AT&T wireless back in 97' to 00' (that is like a billion years ago in technology and its NOT the AT&T of today that is merged with Cingular). I am sure he is a heck of a smart guy, just not the right guy.
Fourth, can you really negotiate well to acquire a good leader at a fair financial price if you have laid down the gauntlet and damned the torpedoes to get someone in place within 30 days? I think not. Sprint Nextel is showing why it struggles in the first place - poor decision making.
But, out of the cast of characters above, I would only vote for Sanjiv. He seems quite impressive to me.