Ameritech's billion-dollar baby

In March 1992, Ameritech team members agreed that a fiber infrastructure was an absolute requirement for the future needs of its customers. To reach its commitment of deploying fiber in its 5-state region and its promise to triple its fiber capacity by 1995, the company decided to follow a new corpo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTelephony Vol. 224; no. 6; p. 40
Main Author Kohl, Bill
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago Informa 08.02.1993
Subjects
Case studies
Changes
Corporate culture
Costs
Decision making
Fiber optic communications
Implementations
Success
Telecommunications industry
US
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Summary:In March 1992, Ameritech team members agreed that a fiber infrastructure was an absolute requirement for the future needs of its customers. To reach its commitment of deploying fiber in its 5-state region and its promise to triple its fiber capacity by 1995, the company decided to follow a new corporate culture that encouraged empowerment, flattened the decision-making process, strengthend the level of cooperation with vendors, and challenged the traditional way of doing things. Vendors were sought that could commit the resources necessary to accomplish in 4 to 8 weeks what would normally have taken 6 to 8 months. In return, Ameritech promised these vendors easy access to whatever information or data they needed. In the meantime, Ameritech's staff carefully looked at its internal procedures and identified long-standing practices that could be replaced by techniques that would change the cost characteristics of fiber implementation. Today, fiber deployment is on schedule in all 5 states.
ISSN:0040-2656
2161-8690