If I had a dollar for every time someone in telecom told me, “Our challenges are completely unique,” I could probably fund a small fiber build myself.
Government shutdowns. EchoStar transaction fallout. Universal Service Fund uncertainty. Spectrum reshuffling. Brutal competition from every angle. Yes, the telecom sector is getting hammered right now. And yes, it feels overwhelming.
But here’s what I’ve learned after working across the public and private sectors, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, startups, and massive enterprises: We’re not nearly as special as we think we are.
Every Business is a Wrapped Gift
One of my mentors, Tom Bronson of Mastery Partners, once told me this: “Every business is like a wrapped gift.” The outside might look different—unique regulations, acronyms, competitive pressures—but once you unwrap it? Inside, it’s all the same.
Every company struggles with:
- Corporate structure that affects taxation and governance
- Legal issues around risk, contracts, and transferability
- Financial policies and abilities to raise capital, maintain the books, and plan for the future.
- Human capital challenges: attracting talent, retaining it, and getting the best from your teams
- Operations that determine how well you deliver
- Marketing that defines how (or if) you stand out
- Sales that drives revenue
- Leadership that sets the tone for succession and organizational capability
Strip away the telecom jargon—BEAD funding, CAF-II phase-downs, RDOF defaults—and you’ll find the same core business issues faced by a manufacturing firm in Ohio or a financial services company in New York.
The Problem with “Uniqueness”
Here’s why this matters: when we convince ourselves we’re too unique, we ignore decades of proven business wisdom that could actually help us.
I’ve seen it repeatedly. Telecom operators drowning in change—scrambling to respond to subsidy uncertainty, shrinking margins, rising supply costs, and regulatory whiplash—yet unable to step back and ask some of the most basic questions:
- Do you have clear, written processes? (You’d be surprised how many don’t.)
- Are you measuring what matters? Or do you have a dashboard with 47 metrics that confuse everyone about what’s really important? (Most businesses can run effectively with 12–15 key numbers.)
- Do you have a unique selling proposition? Can you clearly articulate what sets you apart? Have you quantified it?
- Do you have formal success plans for key employees, with the right incentives to retain your best people?
- Do you have an actual strategic planning process—one that you execute with discipline every quarter, not just talk about?
The rural broadband sector is especially prone to this trap. Too many providers are overly dependent on subsidies that may not last, competing without a real marketing strategy, and—perhaps most damaging of all—mistaking activity for progress.
Being busy is not the same as being effective.
What Good Looks Like
Consider this: research from the Harvard Business Review found that companies with disciplined management practices—standardized processes, clear metrics, and strong talent systems—outperform their peers by up to 25% in productivity. And this holds true whether you’re manufacturing widgets or laying fiber.
The most resilient companies I’ve worked with all share a few common traits:
- They know their numbers cold
- They have clarity about what makes them different
- They’ve built systems that don’t rely on heroic individual effort
- They execute consistently, not just when it’s convenient
These fundamentals don’t change whether you’re navigating USF uncertainty or global supply chain chaos. Strong businesses withstand massive change because they’ve built well-oiled machines underneath.
An Invitation (and a Challenge)
I’ve been working through these ideas because I keep seeing the same pattern: smart, capable telecom leaders buried under daily fires, unable to step back and build the infrastructure for sustainable growth.
That’s why I’ve put together something I’m calling the Scale Strategy Program —a hands-on, collaborative program designed for CEOs and leadership teams who want to step out of firefighting mode and focus on:
- Scale efficiently
- Reduce dependency on government support
- Compete with confidence
Here’s how the process works:
- Assess your business soup-to-nuts to identify what’s really holding you back
- Review the findings together so you’re armed with clarity
- Focus on high-impact areas that will move the needle fastest
- Execute with quarterly check-ins to maintain accountability and momentum
I’m currently opening two spots for new clients starting in December. If you’re interested, reach out. And if you know someone who could benefit from this approach, please forward this to them.
But here’s the thing—whether you work with me or not, remember this: business is business.
The challenges may feel unique. The acronyms may be different. The regulatory landscape may be its own special nightmare. But the fundamentals of building a scalable, resilient company? Those have been tested and proven for thousands of years of human commerce.
Focus on fixing the basics. Build a well-run machine. Then you’ll not only withstand any amount of change—you’ll be ready to capture the biggest opportunities your company has ever seen.
Because the wrapper may look different, but the gift inside? That’s the same for all of us.