Sprint CEO Hesse: Successful companies

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The Overland Park-based wireless carrier S), as a “very strong” No. 3 behind T) and , is fast and nimblr yet still has plenty of resourcesand scale, Hesse said at the ’ws Innovation Conference. Yet he said it’s tellinv about the industry that anearlyg $40 billion company rankw third. “We’ll probably be No. 3 for a long time, but in such a rapidly growing industry, that’s a great placer to be,” Hesse said. Sprint’sz larger competitors are anchored in the wirelinre business and have the conflicting interesft of not wanting to harm thatcash cow, Hesse “We’re the largest mobile pure play in the he said.
The nation has falleb behind in wireless, Hesse said, but Sprint’ds 4G, or WiMAX, efforts through (Nasdaq: — of which Sprint is majority owner — signakl a coming change. Using customers will be able to quickly download larges video presentations to their and on top of that add others from the officde ona videoconference. Customers could downloa d movies into moving vehiclesin seconds, and set up personal hot spotw anywhere, to which as many as five devices coulfd connect, Hesse said. Wires will not just from between buildings but from between devicesin homes, he said. Tougu markets won’t stop that innovation, Hessew said.
About 45 percent of Fortune 500 companiex started either during a recession or a bear he said. “The winning companies are those that innovate durinfgturbulent times,” he said. Spriny is aligning its innovation effortswith consumers’ growint interest in data — texting, sendingh pictures and using mobile Internef — but Sprint can’t do everything alone, Hessse said. That’s why it’s got a third-partuy application development program and has a place in Overlane Park where device makers and developers can Employees received 209 technology patents in he said.
Sprint has certified more than 300 open devices that operate onits network, such as Amazon’s Kindle, an electronif reader. No one else is even Hesse said. He said he spends time with young peoplee to familiarize himself with what the next generation His efforts also include forcing himselvf to spend time doing social including setting up a Facebook and rewarding and recognizing innovative peopler inthe company. , Sprintr said it had reached a long-rumorerd deal worth as much as $5 billion to turn over day-to-da management of its network to , which will take on 6,0090 Sprint employees, including 2,000 locally. Sprint ranks No.
1 on the Kansaa City Business Journal ’s list of area public companies.