Raising the Bar Management PaperEssay Preview: Raising the Bar Management PaperReport this essay“Raising the Bar”Cingular, one of the nations largest wireless phone providers recently announced its forty-one billion dollar purchase of AT&T wireless. The deal took place on October 26, 2004. The merge of these two major corporations opened the doors for change.
AT&T encountered some difficulties within the past year that brought up the question to sell the company. AT&T struggled to add new subscribers because of a glitch in their new software system. The system was designed to improve customer service but instead it caused more problems for the company as well as its customers. The company also faced problems losing more customers than they were gaining due to new federal rules and regulations that took place in November of 2003. These rules allowed phone users to change service providers without losing their current phone numbers. Cingular, at the same time was looking to cut costs, fill cellular service gaps and expand their coverage area. Since AT&T faced numerous problems and Cingular was on the lookout to expand, the merge was seen as beneficial to both companies.
CINGULA AND THE SHIRTS
Cingular’s sales to phone companies were growing in 2014. But AT&T’s struggles to get service on their new LTE networks and many other issues led officials to believe that the acquisition of the company’s mobile video service could cause a spike in revenues for the company. In late October of 2016, AT&&T CEO John Stumpf confirmed that the company had reached a deal to buy Cingular.
According to the FCC, it is expected that by late November or early December, AT&T will have a total of more than 5,500 members in the U.S., up a whopping 7.5 percent from last year. AT&T is expected to have more than 8,500 existing members at any given time. Cingular, by comparison, has about 50,000 members in the U.S. and about 1,900 members in China, according to Cingulae.
Cingular is scheduled to be launched in November 2017. In addition to receiving service on the US and China LTE networks, Cingulae told CNET through an e-mail that it intends to have a total of 26 carriers in the next few years. It said that by year 2020, 23 are already planning to operate in China, while 11 others are set to operate in the United States by 2020. The total of carriers in the coming year will likely be much larger compared to last year. Cingulae notes that Verizon has been taking orders for several of the carriers in the region for more than a year.
The carrier has been on a mission to expand service in China and North America because the region is so popular with foreign telecoms and has the potential to serve an increasing number of customers. In December 2016, the company said that customers on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Ireland and the Philippines would be able to pay $30/month for Verizon’s cellular plans.
CINGULA IS REACTING TO THE CHINA TALK
Cingulae, which has already established a working relationship with the Chinese Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to facilitate the company’s continued growth under the leadership of CEO Chen Xizhen, reiterated its intention to continue to support Cingular’s global service with the expansion of its customers. In October for the first time in more than two years, AT&T sent a cease communication to China’s telecom regulators requesting that Cingulae’s China operation expand to other customers in the region.
Cingulae expects to eventually be able to build its own networks on a U.S.-based scale within the coming months, with the goal of offering an early preview of a carrier infrastructure with a low price point. According to Cingulae CEO Michael Hallett, Cingulae is “making plans” on whether to launch its service in October through its first subsidiary, and it says “it’s not working very well on the mainland.” Cingulae says it is also “actively exploring” expanding to additional markets in China after China’s announcement.
But AT&T is looking to move forward
The merge brought about many advantages. One of the major advantages for the merge was not only was Cingular now the largest wireless company in the industry having the most coverage area, but it removed one of the major competitors in the wireless industry. This removal would stabilize the industry so that carriers could more easily invest in new services. Another advantage for purchasing a company like AT&T was that both companies ran off of the same network technology making the integration of both companies easy. The merge more than doubled the customer base for Cingular. Going from a mere 23.4 million customers to 46.7 million customers. The management at Cingular would have a lot of work on their hands. To deal with these changes Cingular management will have to lay off employees from both companies. Many positions are a duplicate of what Cingular all ready has. The top management teams from both companies will have to come together and make some huge decisions about who is going to hold what positions and what goals will need to be set for the success of the company. Teamwork and communication are going to be the keywords during this time of change. If each member of the company goes in their own direction the company will continue to fall. Teamwork involves the Cingular customer service representatives training the new AT&T representatives about their system. The existing Cingular employees will need to communicate clearly with the AT&T representatives and ensure that there are no questions remaining. If there is any confusion problems could arise. For example, if the current Cingular representatives do not clearly explain the current wireless plans Cingular offers, then the AT&T representatives might falsely inform the customers. This would lead to irate customers who might choose to take their business elsewhere. The merge will also empower existing Cingular employees. Management will have so much work on their hands that they will not have time to worry about and deal with every single problem that arises with the new employees as well as the customers. In the text Management by Richard Daft, Empowerment means “unleashing the power and creativity of employees by giving them the freedom, resources, information and skills to make decisions, while empowerment expands their behavior”(Daft 56). This will create better customer service. Instead of having to wait on managers to solve problems the employees can solve them, speeding up the problem solving process.
Along with advantages come disadvantages. The consolidation of the two corporations brings an end to the decreased prices that users enjoy as a product of intense competition. It would also lead to major layoffs as well as management changes. John Zeglis the chief executive officer (CEO) of AT&T recently told reporters that he will not remain with the company once it