Broadband … A Big Hit Off Broadway
By Paul Chaderjian
Thunderous applause and infectious laughter filled the prestigious Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles, the historic Tower Theater in Fresno and the regal Fox Theater in Stockton last week. On stage were the phenomenal MUMs (Mind Under Matter), who stormed the stage in colorful costumes, performing mesmerizing balancing acts on stilts and huge balls, moving to fancy choreography set to the thumping beats of pop and rave music, juggling balls and torches burning bright, and clowning around for the hundreds of new AT&T Broadband associates.
“We want to make sure the employees know how special today is,” said Debi Picciolo, Senior Vice President of AT&T Broadband, Western Region. “It’s our first day as AT&T Broadband, and we’re now part of the largest telecommunications company in the world, and AT&T, I mean, who wouldn’t love to work for AT&T?” Picciolo and her entire senior leadership team participated in the brand name launch production; and judging from the raving reviews of the interactive show, it was a huge hit with associates.
“I think of all the companies that I’ve seen do mergers,” said Allison Ruddell, an Original Programming Department reporter-producer from Visalia, “AT&T went out of their way and did an extremely exciting job getting employees excited and happy about the merger and opportunities in the future.”
Marketing Manager Tom Baer agreed. “I think it was great. It was a great way to start with a new company. A lot of excitement, a lot of fun watching people with huge smiles on their faces, looking forward to a wonderful career with AT&T Broadband.”
The production was hosted by film and television actor Randy Thompson, whose resume includes roles on the television program “Home Improvement” and motion pictures “Desperate Measures” and “Witness Protection.” Thompson started the show with a Jay Leno style monologue, acknowledging that many people tell him he looks like Richard Hatch, the corporate trainer who took home a million dollars for winning the ‘Survivor’ television show. “My name is not Richard,” said Thompson, “and I don’t want to do the show naked.” That statement instigated a wave of laughter and chorus of applause, which continued as talented acrobats balanced themselves on huge silver balls, rode scooters down the isles and revved up the audience about the limitless possibilities in their future.
Thompson’s first question to the audience was if they knew what the acronym AT&T stood for. Several associates yelled out ‘American Telephone and Telegram.’ Thompson commended them and went on to talk about the perks offered by the company. “Right off the bat,” he said, “you’ll get unlimited free telegraph use.” He went on to say that the future of wireless telegrams was looking very promising and that he hoped someday soon to join the technological revolution. “I’m still trying to get adjusted,” he said, “especially when every morning when my postal service carrier shows up at his front door and yells you’ve got mail.”
The multi-media show continued with a hearty welcome from Teresa Elder, President of Western Region. “We are celebrating becoming part of one of the world’s largest and best companies,” said Elder, whose message was videotaped for the Central and Northern California presentations. “Thanks for coming,” she said, “especially to those who took a long bus ride to come here. This merger is great news, and I’m personally excited about it, and by the end of our time together, I hope you will be too.”
Picciolo, a 14-year veteran of MediaOne, spoke to the audience following Elder’s message. “I think the message to employees is we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” said Picciolo in a television interview between her two Fresno appearances. “We need to go faster. We need to make sure we’re proving excellent service to our customers, and they need to know that things are not going to change a lot except for that we’ve got a really good brand name, and a really good company we’re going to be working for.”
“AT&T is one of the best known brand names in the world,” said Bill Erickson, Vice President of Sales, “and I think people have an immediate image of what AT&T is when they hear that name. There is a lot of advantage we can have and plan to take in the future with that name.”
Cheryl Madison, Chief Financial Officer, echoed Erickson. “Be excited and understand the significance of a brand that we’ve inherited because it’s huge,” she said. “I think people will feel a lot of passion for working for AT&T and feel proud that they can tell their friends and families that I work for AT&T Broadband.”
Madison and Erickson were two of a handful of senior leadership members who participated in the interactive and entertaining presentation, which was geared not only as a way to celebrate the new brand name but to also communicate with each and every AT&T Broadband associate. “Employees must know that associates are critical to us,” said Picciolo on stage. “We’re focusing not only on customers, but on our employees and doing it right the first time to be successful in the marketplace.”
“Anytime you go through a merger,” said Erickson, “there are a lot of gray areas people have a lot of questions and the rumor mill gets started. Really what we want to do is answer those questions and be proactive about it and share as much information as we have and give employees a chance to ask questions to their superiors and give them places where they can go if they still have questions that are not answered there.”
While more than 150 people worked on making the MediaOne and AT&T merger a reality, fifty former MediaOne employees worked long hour and exercised a lot of creativity to make the stage production as successful as the merger. “First we met with each Vice President and said what are the objectives you want out of it,” said Avery Bell, Director of Marketing Communications. “After that we hired a production company. And I said here’s our objectives. Here’s what we want to get across. They handed me six different tapes of bands and five different tapes of acrobats, and I was able to choose them from there.”
“We all tried to, really tried to figure out a way to do this and really have fun doing it,” said George Noel, Vice President of Field Operations. “We didn’t want to make it a work function. We wanted the folks to come in and really get excited about it, give them information, keep them informed in reference to how exciting and how big this really is, and also to get them to continue to do what they always do which is take care of our customers.”
“For our customers,” Picciolo said to the associates gathered in Stockton on Friday, “I think it means that we’re going to get products and services to them much quicker. They’re going to see local telephone service next year – hopefully first or second quarter. They’re going to be seeing more high speed date products out there that we are going to be rolling out as well as digital video. For our customers I think it will mean more choice, they’re going to have a choice for their local telephone service provider, and they’re never really had that before.”
Picciolo went on to acknowledge some of the struggles Southern California associates faced when they began offering local phone service; but, she said, “now we have 30,000 customers. The system is stable and reliable, and we had these successes because of what you did.”
Madison said, “it’s fantastic to be a part of evolving technology and an evolving industry.”
Neeve Reddick, a Customer Services Coach agreed, “I’m really excited. I can’t believe we’re here. I can’t believe we’re AT&T now. I can’t even begin to express how I feel. I feel so good.
“We’ve been going through a lot of transitions,” said Manuel Samaniego of Ad Sales in Visalia, “and this is the best one yet. AT&T certainly has a lot of experience in this field, and I’m looking forward to working with AT&T.”
“Good. Feels good,” is all Van Walker, a Converter Control Clerk, could say at the end of the first show in Fresno. “Good job keeping us informed. Lots of customers are surprised about the name change, but we were all informed.”
“This is the most exciting time in an industry I’ve been a part of for more than 27 years,” said Noel. “I started from the ranks as an installer right on through, and this is an exciting time for me and of course the company, but I think our associates are having a blast. I think it’s exciting when we unveiled the new name off the vehicles and on the new uniforms. I think it’s really an exciting time.”
“As you know,” said Erickson, “we went through the MediaOne name change from Continental three years ago. That was a pretty big hoopla, and that pales in comparison to this one. This one is really exciting, and we want to communicate the good news to everybody today.”
“They gave us a lot of information,” said Roger Paul. “It was a lot of fun. It was energizing and exciting.”
“Fantastic,” was the review offered by Pamela Daniel, a Converter Control Coordinator. “It did get me excited. It worked. It worked great. That’s all I can say. It was just great.”
Before the grand finale when everyone took the stage, the audience was separated into three teams and competed in events like a hula hoop contest, a game to see who could catch a ball with a bathroom plunger, and the infamous stilt walk of death. There was also a rope-jumping contest and what the Mums called “the ring toss of death.”
Sylvia Jones, Administrative Assistant in the Fresno Rebuild and Construction office, was wearing not just a new hat when she left the Tower Theater – she was also wearing a huge smile. “It was tremendously fun,” she said. “I had a great time, and it all started from a bus pass, which lead to a beautiful trophy, which lead to money – 50 dollars – a great little colored hat from my team and also for participating, they gave me an AT&T phone card for 30 minutes.”
The fifty-dollar question Thompson threw out to Sylvia said “Our mission is to make every home a broadband home. True or False?” Jones didn’t have to think long, but some others answering Thompson’s tricky questions could have been confused. Todd Hawkins of Fresno was asked if AT&T’s growth would come from long distance, local phone service or broadband and wireless.
“I’ve been working for 40 years,” said Original Programming Video Technician Gill Sanchez, “and I’ve never seen a company go to this extent to really make a production and introduce everybody to a new company.”
“I’m very pleased with our success,” said Bell. “We met our objectives which were to educate the associates, to entertain the associates, and tell them what our AT&T Broadband vision is, and I think we accomplished that through the show.”
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