Sprinting Into a Death Spiral: Sprint Nextel Announces Layoffs

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Last week, Sprint Nextel announced plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs in an effort to - once again - reduce costs. This is the third round of layoffs since early-2008, when the company announced job cuts of 4,000 (they also eliminated 8,000 jobs in January, 2009). Employees who manage to survive this latest round of layoffs are probably thinking that it's only a matter of time before the next one occurs.

In 2008, Sprint lost 4.6 million subscribers. During the same period, AT&T and Verizon added 7 million and 5.8 million, respectively. Sprint also reported a $4.2 billion loss for the year. I'm thinking that addressing the problems at the company are going to require much more than cost cutting to resolve.

Remember that this is the company that, in 2007, made the much publicized decision to drop customers who make too many calls to customer service for help. Whether or not this decision made sense from a financial perspective, it did a lot of damage to the company's reputation for customer service.

According to their website, Sprint's mission statement is: To be No. 1 in providing a simple, instant, enriching and productive customer experience. Judging by the number of subscribers lost last year, I'm guessing that their customers do not think they are achieving their purpose.

The company needs to get back to the basics and focus on the customer instead of just costs. This means reflecting on its purpose and openly and honestly debating what it means to the company. Do they truly believe in it? Does the leadership team in place feel they can achieve it? If not, there is little chance of getting anyone else to believe in it either. Many companies, especially during the recession, have acted as if their purpose is to cut costs instead of provide value for their customers.

Once it is clear that the leadership team absolutely believes in the purpose and feels confident that it can be achieved, they need to identify the barriers that are preventing the company from being number one and start aggressively attacking them. This will require creating initiatives in critical areas like product & service offering, market development, process improvement, or people development. Chances are, there will be some pretty daunting barriers to overcome, but they need to be addressed for the company to become competitive again.

Ignoring the barriers is not an option - neither is continuing to focus on cost cutting. The company shrinks in size and the culture is damaged with each round of cuts and eventually there will be nothing left to cut without completely shutting down the company . . . which is definitely not the way to become number one.