Leadership

Shirley Bloomfield, NTCA CEO
National Telecommunications Cooperative Association
2010 NTCA Regional Speech

Leadership
Welcome to your regional meeting. The theme, as you know, is leadership. What if I walked into your central office and asked your employees to name a leader? I would imagine that most would give the CEO’s name. Industry research shows that 84% of employees equate leadership with formal supervision. To coin a phrase from the 1950s, the so-called “organizational man” dictates and employees follow.

This traditional approach worked well in a regulated industry with a guaranteed flow of revenues. Today’s rural independent does not have the luxury of working in such an environment. The stakes are much higher. The most successful companies are the ones transforming themselves. For that to occur, you need three ingredients: a visionary board, transformational management, and employees empowered to act as leaders.

Leadership can come from anywhere in a company. If given the opportunity, people who do not occupy supervisory positions can act as leaders. Southwest Air has built its reputation on getting people to their destinations on time. Everyone — from the baggage handlers to the crew to the customer service reps — has an interest in making that happen.

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Skyline Telephone PowerPoint Presentation
North Carolina

On behalf of Skyline Telephone Membership Corp. (West Jefferson, NC), WriteVentures produced a PowerPoint presentation that utilized past photos, video stills, logos and graphics to commemorate the telephone company's 50th anniversary. The nine-minute presentation made its debut at Skyline's annual meeting on October 6, 2001.

Click here to view a Flash sample of this presentation.

(You will need the Flash plug-in to view this sample.
For the free download, please visit the Macromedia website)

Network News Special Edition Newsletter
Emery Telcom
Orangeville, Utah

“Consider Sue Thompson of East Carbon. She sells fishing lures. These are not just ordinary lures, but hand crafted, wooden lures. Working out of her home, she sells them through her web site, www.easterncedarlures.com.

She launched her web site a year ago, doing research beforehand on web sites, banner exchanges, fishing lure companies, and suppliers. At her web site, she has numerous links with fishing exchange organizations. “They’ve been invaluable,” she says. “The links give me such exposure. They give me an edge I wouldn’t have otherwise—especially living in a small county.”

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“Everything is intertwined: the Internet, computers, televisions, wireless devices, the list goes on. Independent telco technicians—be they involved in the local network, backbone technology, out in the field installing DSL lines, or extending an ISP’s reach—cannot afford to take a myopic view of their world. They need to grasp the big picture. They need to understand converging intelligence.”

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