What To Expect From U.S. Cellular Under New CEO Laurent Therivel: Jeff Kagan

Image: Laurent Therivel. Source: U.S. Cellular

U.S. Cellular has a new leader, Laurent Therivel, who became President and CEO as of July 1. What should we expect from U.S. Cellular under its new CEO? Let’s take a look at Therivel, U.S. Cellular, the wireless marketplace and what we can expect next.

At 45 years of age, Therivel came to U.S. Cellular after 10 years at AT&T. Most recently he was the CEO of AT&T Mexico. Before that he was COO of IPcelerate, a VoIP applications company.

New U.S. Cellular CEO Laurent Therivel

On one hand, his resume says he does not come to U.S. Cellular with loads of wireless experience in the United States. That raises questions like, how well does he understand the always changing U.S. marketplace? What is his growth plan going forward? Will the company continue to be too quiet or will he lead it into becoming a louder and successful marketer?

U.S. Cellular is a large, regional wireless competitor. It is not a national player like AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile. That has never changed. That’s why you may or may not be familiar with them. You would have to be in its marketplace to see its advertising.

U.S. Cellular operates under the wireless radar

It seems to be a quiet company that does not make waves. It quietly does business. There is nothing wrong with this approach except it has not shown the same kind of growth and transformation as the wireless industry leaders have.

In its markets, it competes with national wireless players AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, and it also competes with other regional players but has always managed to stay under the mainstream radar.

U.S. Cellular says Laurent Therivel is customer focused

U.S. Cellular says Therivel is customer focused. That is good. That is what every CEO needs to be. CEOs must also be focused on the investors and the employees, however, and keeping all three groups happy and successful is always the key to a successful and growing company.

If Therivel can strike a balance, that will be good for the performance of U.S. Cellular going forward.

To date, U.S. Cellular has been a very quiet competitor in a noisy industry. I think it has been too quiet. That means it is not widely known by customers, investors and the marketplace in general.

Will U.S. Cellular marketing change under Therivel?

Will that change now under Therivel? We’ll see. I hope so. In order to see growth and success, every competitor needs to punch its way onto the stage.

Think about how T-Mobile did it several years ago. The company was dying. Then it hired its next CEO, John Legere, who punched the company onto the stage and kept punching. He poked at Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility making early claims that were hard to swallow.

The media loved covering this and that kept the company in the news. T-Mobile eventually grew into the company he had been talking about at the beginning of his tenure. Today, after the Sprint acquisition, T-Mobile is a healthy competitor and among the big three wireless players.

Will U.S. Cellular change its marketing and growth trajectory?

So, what is the growth plan for U.S. Cellular? It depends on Therivel. It depends on his goals and his approach.

I would recommend being an active competitor, but not over-the-top. U.S. Cellular must punch their way onto the radar, or it will never be a real player. The company must capture the attention of business customers, consumers, investors, workers and competitors.

U.S. Cellular future depends on Laurent Therivel

So, it really depends on Therivel. He is the new leader of this wireless carrier. If he turns up the volume, he can transform U.S. Cellular into a wireless leader. If not, it will stay in the shadows.

We just don’t know much about him or his style yet. We’ll have to keep our eyes on him going forward to see which direction he will take the company.

At this point let me wish good luck and success to Laurent Therivel and U.S. Cellular. Let’s keep our eyes open to see which direction he intends to take this company. And whether that plan will lead to growth and leadership. I hope it does.

Jeff Kagan is an Equities.com columnist. Kagan is an Industry Analyst, Thought Leader, Key Opinion Leader, KOL, and Influencer focused on Wireless, Telecom, Pay TV, Cloud, AI, IoT, Tele Health, Healthcare, Automotive and Self-Driving cars. Email him at [email protected] His web site is www.jeffKAGAN.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffkagan and LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-kagan/

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Equities Columnist: Jeff Kagan

Source: Equities News