Interview With AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson

Have you ever been frustrated with some product or service and wish you could have just a few minutes to talk to the company's CEO? I sure have. Brian Lam was given just that opportunity when he sat down to chat with none other than the AT&T Emperor CEO Randall Stephenson for a chance to find out more about the man behind it all.

To give a basic impression of the man, Randal Stephenson appeared to be a tall, older man with weathered skin and perfect teeth, and speaks with a sort of Southern gentlemanly drawl; all-around the stereotypical CEO you would expect.

Unfortunately he only had 10-15 minutes to conduct the interview, so this would only be enough time to get to know the man. More pressing questions would have to wait until another time.

To give you a clue about Mr. Stephenson's background, he started out at AT&T with a job in the computer room he got from his brother."I started the old fashioned way. I got a job through my brother, who was doing installations. I started in the computer room." So this means he does have technical knowledge. It's good to know about the technology behind it all.

"My brother is still an installer. They tried to promote him but he still likes what he does. Sometimes he comes in and says 'You son of a bitch, what are you guys doing up there?!'" The Marketing exec next to him said, "He's the only one in the company who can get away with saying that about Randall..."

He also commented that at times the bureaucracy can sometimes filter out information about the company and their wrongdoings by the time it gets to the top of the heap where he resides. His response to being asked about the Pearl Jam fiasco where AT&T was accused of censoring artists on stage was something to the tune of "We do WHAT?!"

One way or another, it looks like AT&T is doing what they can to make themselves a new company, but there's really no good way of telling what exactly is going on. Listening is a good start, and there is evidence of that.

He didn't get to it in this interview, but Lam has promised to ask him about the view from the Death Star office and to complain about his reception when he gets another chance to interview him.

[via Gizmodo]