The head of AT&T’s Emerging Device segment started out as a professional soccer player, but wireless is where he’s become a real game changer.
In October 2008, Glenn Lurie was named president of AT&T Emerging Devices, National Distribution and Resale. The division was formed to deliver “game-changing hardware and applications” that leverage the AT&T wireless network and to “discover tomorrow’s innovations.”
How’s that working so far? In its first year, the division added the Amazon Kindle, personal navigation devices like the Garmin nuvi, various netbooks and announced digital photo frames – all for a total of 19 new devices. As for “tomorrow’s innovations,” well, Lurie still has his sights set on tracking devices that might be able to keep track of packages and pets.
Before his current position, Lurie was in the room when AT&T negotiated the first iPhone exclusively on AT&T’s network. He has worked with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and COO Tim Cook since that time. AT&T broke entirely new ground with that first iPhone deal. The philosophy is much the same with the Emerging Devices division. This year, Lurie and team scored yet another win with Apple and the iPad.
Lurie thinks the same kind of success that the iPhone delivered can happen with the iPad. The iPhone sparked many more devices in the smartphone category, and the iPad is likely to trigger more in its space. “We think there’s going to be a ton of innovation. It’s great for us as a carrier. It’s driving the innovation to a new level.”
EARLY BEGINNINGS
What does all of this mean for an executive whose career in telecom goes back to 1990, when he became a sales rep for McCaw’s Cellular One? In the end, Lurie says it all boils down to partnerships.
Lurie played professional indoor soccer for three seasons before he decided the mobility business looked like an attractive one. He looked in the newspaper, applied for and got hired in 1990 at Cellular One. In his first month, his quota was to sell four of the pricey phones. He sold 18. The second month, his quota was six and he sold 20. The first year on the job, he was recognized by the senior management team.
Lurie eventually would be hired as general manager of the Arizona market in 1996, bringing AT&T Wireless’ 1900 MHz to market. He moved on to integrate the Los Angeles market into the AT&T fold, then became reg ional president of the West region where he managed 12 states. When Cingular bought AT&T Wireless in 2004, he was offered the chance to lead national distribution.
Not long after that, he found himself in the company of Apple. “Apple is a great company to work with. I’ve enjoyed every minute … They’re a terrific partner, and I’d venture to say we learned a lot from them in how they do business. We have a very trusted partnership,” he says, calling Apple one of the most if not the most innovative companies on the planet.
NO MORE “BAU”
In his current role, Lurie wanted to get out of the “business as usual” mode. AT&T is a big company, with 282,720 employees worldwide. Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, refers to the Emerging Devices division as a startup within AT&T – with the flexibility to get things done fast. How fast? The division was able to add 19 new devices in its first year – this, in an industry where certification of devices historically took a year and a half. Total emerging devices on AT&T’s network increased by more than 1 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The way Lurie sees it, AT&T can’t walk into a meeting with a lot of preconceived notions about how a deal with a potential supplier is going to go. It’s a clean slate of paper, with a willingness to look at any model, he says, instead of going in with a business as usual, or BAU in AT&T parlance, mindset. With the original Apple deal, business as usual went out the window. The UI was not driven by AT&T, there was no owner’s manual and it was a new kind of activation process. “I learned you’ve got to be willing to change,” he says. “…There are no rules.”
“For me, the one thing I’ve learned over the years, there’s nothing better than having trusted partnerships.” His division is embarking on a lot of new territory, and “we’re going to have bumps in the road … but with a trusted relationship, you’ll get through them.”
An AT&T timeline for the Emerging Devices organization lists nothing short of 25 different events to transpire between the unit’s October 2008 start date and early January 2010. Last May, AT&T and Jasper Wireless entered into a multi-year, strategic agreement to connect and support a variety of emerging devices. In September, AT&T opened a new lab facility in Austin, Texas, dedicated to emerging device certification to accelerate time to market.
Some analysts point out that the wireless industry is hitting a saturation point, and the incremental revenues that carriers get from products in the emerging device category aren’t going to make up for slower growth in monthly voice and data subscriptions. But in the dog collar example, millions of people who own dogs might be willing to pay a few dollars every month, and those types of revenues add up – with great margins, Lurie says.
As for those worries expressed in the media about AT&T being able to handle the traffic for the iPad, Lurie points out that a lot of companies in the consumer electronics space signed deals with AT&T last year. Of course, these companies did their due diligence, as did Apple before it announced the iPad.
Lurie’s team is in lock step with the network team, and his division wouldn’t be adding more devices to the mix if the network were not able to handle it. Some of the devices use bursty bits of data; others use more 3G and Wi-Fi. “The network as a whole is important to us. Our network is performing extremely well,” he says, with markets quickly moving to HSPA 7.2.
As for that soccer career? Lurie says he’s living vicariously these days. His two kids are league players, and they’re carrying the torch.