Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg explains the company’s reorganization

Verizon
Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg speaks at a news conference
in Stockholm
Thomson
Reuters

• Speaking at Business Insider’s
  IGNITION Conference, Hans Vestberg explained the impetus behind
  the massive business reorganization the company announced in
  November.
• The company is now comprised of
  Verizon Consumer Group, Verizon Business Group, and Verizon
  Media Group.
• The reorg will help the company
  leverage its best assets, which Vestberg described as the
  network, distribution, and brand.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg has
been running the company for just four months, but he’s already
brought seismic changes to the company.

In November, Vestberg reorganized
the business that was split between wireless and wireline
businesses and created three main business segments: Verizon
Consumer Group, led by Ronan Dunne; Verizon Business Group, led
by Tami Erwin; and Verizon Media Group, led by Guru
Gowrappan.

Speaking at Business
Insider’s IGNITION Conference in New York on Tuesday,
Vestberg explained the impetus behind the change.

He called it a “logical and
natural step in order to leverage all of the best assets we have
in Verizon which is the network, the distribution, and our
brand.” 

A change for a company of
Verizon’s size, with roughly 160,000 employees and 150 million
customers, required conversations with “tremendous” amounts of
internal executives and shareholders, Vestberg said.

And much of the change leads back
to Verizon’s network and the company’s plans for 5G.
Vestberg started at Verizon in
April 2017 as chief technology officer. The business
reorganization was the natural next step after the work that the
company has put into place to transform its network, he said.
Verizon’s 5G network will spur innovation around the world,
according to Vestberg.

“There are three and a half
billion people having a smart phone today,” he said. “It’s the
biggest mass market of electronic devices that you’ve ever seen
in mankind.”