Tag Archives: US West

Qwest/CenturyTel merger: do you, Triceratops, take this Brontosaurus to be your lawfully wedded wife?

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It was announced yesterday that Louisiana-based CenturyTel is buying Qwest, marking the second major takeover in ten years for the Denver telco. I have some history with the US West iteration of the company, having worked there from 1997 until the ill-fated Qwest “merger” in Summer 2000.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of USW’s PR group, which remains the best large corporate communication division I have ever seen (and in that role I got to do some interesting, groundbreaking work). I’ve continued to watch the company fairly closely through the years, especially as the unfortunate Nacchio affair unfolded (and am proud of the repeated stompings we here at S&R have administered to that amoral cur along the way). I have hoped for the best over at 1801 California for a number of reasons. Read more

Joe Nacchio heading to jail; Justice weeps anyway

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Don’t call it schadenfreude. That’s the term for taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, and I’m not guilty of that.

What I feel today, as I review the news that former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio’s conviction has been upheld, isn’t about pleasure in his mighty fall from power. In fact, it’s not “pleasure” at all.

Instead, tell me what the word is for “taking satisfaction in justice served,” because that’s what I’m guilty of. Right now I’m feeling powerfully and righteously satisfied that a man who caused so much misfortune is getting at least a small slice of what he deserves. Read more

Of customer service, desk jockeys and service rangers

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Been doing some work on my biz blog this evening, and I might as well point those of you interested in subjects like customer service (as in, “why does customer service at every damned company I have to deal with suck so bad?”) to something I just posted. In essence, I’m just sick of people pretending that certain kinds of ideas are all newfangled when the only thing new is thick-headed corporate execs finally starting to pay a little attention.

Of course, I put it much more diplomatically…

Joe Nacchio and the moral pathology of a nation

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In Spring and Summer of 2000, as the Qwest takeover of US West unfolded, those of us at USW saw the writing on the wall. Though billed as a merger of equals, the financial realities of the deal meant that Q was going to control the merged company.

Who was going to run things? USW had CEO Solomon Trujillo, a man who had worked his way up through the ranks in the Bell system and, despite his flaws, a guy with some actual vision. Yeah, we were supposed to be stereotypical old-economy, slow-moving monopoly while Q was the agile new economy start-up. They were the shiny new future, we were a relic of a dead past.

But go back and do a little research. Who was the first company to roll out DSL in America? Read more

It was eight years ago today

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Posted: April 20, 2007: 11:19 am MDT
Denver CO

In 1999 I was the Electronic Communications Manager for US West’s internal comm group, and my team rode herd on several channels used to communicate with 44,000 employees in 14 states and DC. Mornings were usually really busy – we posted things when they happened, but we did a big daily update by noon every day. Sometime around lunch Joe Lopez, who handled a variety of things for us, said, “hey, Sammy, there’s been a school shooting in Littleton.” Read more