Leadership Summit 2026: AT&T CEO John Stankey on Developing Technology and Talent in the AI Era
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Welcome to the HBR Idea Cast. I'm Alison Beard. There was a time when running a legacy institution was a sure path to success. But incumbency can now be a liability too, if leaders aren't able to adapt. to quickly shifting industry dynamics. It's a balancing act. How do you change strategy without losing the parts of your culture and business worth keeping?
ATT CEO John Stanke has spent more than four decades inside the technology Bellwether. But when he took charge, he didn't try to preserve the status quo. He sold off major businesses, refocused the company on connectivity, and began reshaping a culture built over 150 years to compete in a market that's changing faster than ever. I recently spoke with him as part of our HBR Leadership Summit, and we talked about why culture changes more slowly than strategy, how to reinforce corporate values through every talent decision, and why in-person collaboration is so important during periods of transformation. Here's our conversation. When you stepped in as CEO, you made a quick strategic pivot. You sold off media assets, and I said refocused the company on its connectivity roots. And you've also spirited a cultural shift toward more market based thinking.
So what are the first steps in getting a large workforce like yours on board with both strategic and cultural change? I think the strategic aspect of it is a lot easier. in the cultural aspect of it. Uh from a strategy perspective, it starts with being really aggressive and consistent about your communication and that communication has to start with the rationale of the strategy that's believable to your employees that they can look at and say, Yeah, I can get behind that.
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