verizon communications

Fortune Staff

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

Fortune 500

Aggregate sales hit $37.8 trillion last year—an increase of 19%, the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history.

Global 500

The 25th Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list suggests that tech giants’ peers respect them as much as ever.

World's Most Admired Companies

Current All-Star Rank

Industry

Revenue was steady at Verizon and profits surged 24% as new CEO Hans Vestberg pursued a strategy of building the best 5G wireless network without diversifying i

Verizon Communications | 2023 World's Most Admired Companies

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Previous All-Star Rank

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Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications | 2023 World's Most Admired Companies | Fortune

The Associated Press

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[MUSIC PLAYING] SUSIE GHARIB: Hans, you said that Verizon is fiercely committed to diversity and inclusion, and you say that we all need to do more as corporations. What would you like to see? HANS VESTBERG: With my background, I've lived in seven different countries. I've seen the strength on diversity and inclusion over my years that I've been working, and I think that that's something that's really embedded in the core values of Verizon as well. Because, first of all, our customers are diverse. We need to be diverse as a company, because we are doing better business, and we give everyone an equal opportunity. So I think that is the core basis of it. The other thing, I think, with the latest development in the racial injustice, I think whatever we have done before doesn't really matter. We can say we have done great, et cetera, as a corporation, but the bar has just gone up dramatically for what is good right now. And that's what we need to continue to work with. I think we're working on several different things. And we do outreach to listen to as many people as we can to see that we take all responsibility as a large corporation. Because we have a huge responsibility. We have 135,000 employees. We have a supplier base that is enormous. We connect with more consumers than anybody else everyday in this market. So for us, it's important to see the diversity, this inclusiveness, embedded in everything we're doing, all the way from supply to financing to our own developing careers in the company. But to say that somebody is done or finished, that's not right. We all have a lot more to do to see that we are seeing that we have a really diverse and inclusive world. SUSIE GHARIB: You made a point about all of this when we spoke to Verizon employees right after the murder of George Floyd this summer. And you made a very emotional plea. And you said, we have to stand up to racism. You also directly addressed Black employees at Verizon, telling them they matter, and they have value. And you committed $10 million to racial justice charities. What impact did all that have? HANS VESTBERG: The impact was more about that we continued an open and even more broader debate, internal and external about it. Because it's not about one day, and you do a $10 million investment in this important organization. It's more about that you need to be open for the conversation and listen to things that you don't know or that you actually haven't heard before. For me, coming from a totally different background, it was so important to open up that dialogue and to listen much more than speaking. And that was the kickoff for very many open discussions in our company. But also I've done outreach to many, many leaders in this area and spoken to them and what they think we should do as a corporation and what are the most pressing things that we need to address. SUSIE GHARIB: If you reflect back over these last four months since you made that plea to your employees, are you seeing a change in the way that Verizon employees interact with each other? HANS VESTBERG: Yes. I definitely see the interaction and the openness and also listening to things that you need to know and things that have no words. And partly we are, of course, addressing them. But also speaking to external organizations about how they view the private sector being a part of this. Of course, I've also been very engaged in the Business Roundtable on the subcommittee for racial injustice. So I've spent a lot of time to learn how to bring it back to my organization as well. So I can clearly see that we're moving forward, but no one can even conclude any-- we're done or something. This is a long journey, and we just need to continue with it. And this is embedded in our core values. Diversity, inclusion makes a better company. There's no debate about that. SUSIE GHARIB: Can you single out one important example about what Verizon still needs to work on? HANS VESTBERG: I think that if we look at-- we just released our diversity report. I think we have a fairly good distribution on an overall level as a company, both from a board level and all of that. But there are parts of our middle management that we don't have equally good diversity, and that's something we need to work on. Because we all must reflect our society. We probably have a little bit more males than females than in our society. But other than that, we're a fairly good distribution. But there are areas in the middle of the organization where not enough leaders that are in this diversity. So we find, of course, places we need to do better as well. I think the other thing that we have been working on is, of course, our supply. And we have been very committed to-- to buy from minority-owned businesses. And we just continue to find new areas to do more in. And then we have been working with the bank sector to actually announce the first bond-- that was announced yesterday from Bank of America-- that is directed to minority-owned businesses for Black and Latinos, which we are partnered with to help with. So you can both do externally, and you can do it internally. But there's more to be done, but I think we are seeing progress. SUSIE GHARIB: You mentioned the board of directors. And looking at it, and also your senior leadership, you do have a mix of gender and race, women and people of color. It's not quite 50/50. What more would you like to do there so that you'd be satisfied, and why is it important that you have that proper balance from the very top of the organization? HANS VESTBERG: If I look at all the board, we have a very diverse board. I feel really good about that part. On the management team, we have a very diverse background from a diverse team with very many backgrounds, many nationalities. As you might know, I'm Swedish, and we have many other nationalities on the leadership team as well. I think in general, we are looking for having more females. But on the executive levels, we have actually dramatically improved the last couple of years. But there's always areas to work with. And we're not saying we're perfect. And we will continue work. We are transparent with our diversity report, with all levels of the company, per unit, et cetera, in order for our organization and all our customers and stakeholders to be able to look into us. SUSIE GHARIB: These days, the public looks to the CEOs who run giant American corporations to come up with solutions to all these difficult issues. As one of those business leaders, what do you see as your responsibility to bring about change? HANS VESTBERG: If you look in the hundred largest organizations in the world, and when 65%, 70% of them are large corporations. So our responsibility goes beyond, sometimes, Congress. So of course we have a big responsibility to speak out. But I think that you speak out when it's part of your strategy on something. You move forward. In our case, again, I mean, climate change, digital inclusion, human prosperity is areas that is really what we are driving as a corporation. So I think that's how you need to define it. It's not that it's going to be a lot of different opinions. That is not part of your strategy going forward. That's why talking about racial injustice is obvious for us, because that's part of our strategy, to have a diverse workforce, a diverse customer base, thinking about inclusion, because that's making our company better. 

The Verizon CEO details the company's commitment to its employees.

Hans Vestberg reflects on his role in a changing world

Leadership

Vestberg details the company's commitment to its employees.

[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: 5G will bring with it, you know, 100 times the capacity of our 4G networks. It will also bring 20 times the speeds, and it will bring much, much lower latency or, like, single digit latency. You know, multiples times, like faster than the blink of an eye. SPEAKER 2: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: So when you look at all of those things in isolation, it's interesting, and we can do a lot with that. But when you start to combine them is where you get fascinating use cases. It's really where the excitement is. Use cases in education and telemedicine, for retail, for businesses, AR/VR is really going to take the world by storm. SPEAKER 2: Right. SPEAKER 1: And each of those things leverages some of the 5G capability in different ways. And AR/VR, in particular, is a great example of something that really doesn't work that well on 4G networks. SPEAKER 2: Right. SPEAKER 1: So you need to have the low latency, that responsiveness, and you need to have the bandwidth in order to make something like that work in our mobile world. SPEAKER 2: Right. Now all of this sounds very cool. SPEAKER 1: Yep. SPEAKER 2: Especially if you're a consumer and you've got a smartphone in your pocket. But some of the things you just mentioned are actually more interesting from a business standpoint. SPEAKER 1: Oh, absolutely. SPEAKER 2: Where do you feel are the biggest opportunities in some of those areas you've discussed for 5G? You know, is it telemedicine, or is it entertainment and AR and things like that? What's the biggest there? SPEAKER 1: There's applications you can think about in almost every vertical. You think about smart manufacturing is something we're particularly excited about. SPEAKER 2: Sure. SPEAKER 1: So how can you take what happens in manufacturing or in warehousing and not just introduce robotics, but introduce virtual reality in a way that people don't have to man the equipment and you can make quick changes? So the possibilities there are really, really endless, being able to pull up, like, a virtual screen. And we think about this in our own environment, because we operate large data centers. SPEAKER 2: Right. Of course. SPEAKER 1: So how can I make changes to hardware without actually being there, but feel like I'm there? SPEAKER 2: Right. SPEAKER 1: That's the promise for manufacturing. Education, I've just got to speak about it. I'm so passionate about it, and I think it's really exciting what can happen there. So we talk about distance learning. We have capability today for distance learning, but it goes beyond just that when you talk about 5G. You can think about really immersive learning. So if you want to learn about the ocean floor, we can make it feel in the classroom like you're actually there. That's the type of environment that we want to create. And we need to work with people. It's not any one place, any one company. It's going to take us all to sort of figure this out. 

Insights: B2B is Where 5G Technology Will Make the Biggest Splash

Uncategorized

5G will have 100 times the capacity of 4G networks.

B2B is Where 5G Technology Will Make the Biggest Splash

"5G will bring with it 100 times the capacity of our 4G networks," says Verizon networking chief Nicki Palmer. (November 2018)

five g will bring with it, you know, 100 times the capacity of our four G network. It will also bring 20 times the speed, and it will bring much, much lower later. You're like single digit lead, you know, multiple times, like better than a blink of an eye. So when you look at all of those things in an isolation, it's interesting, and we could do a lot with that. But when you start to combine them is where you get fascinating use cases really were the excitement use cases in education and tele medicine for retail for businesses, A R V R is really gonna take the world by world by storm and each of those things leverage is some of the five capability in different ways, and air V R in particular is a great example of something that really doesn't work that well for G network. Right. So you need to have the low latent see that responsiveness and you need to have band with in order to make something like that work in our mobile world. Right now, all of this sounds very cool, Yeah, especially if you're a consumer and you've got a smart phone in your pocket, but some of the things you just mentioned are actually more interesting from a business standpoint. Do you feel are the biggest opportunities in some of those areas you discussed? 45? Is it telemedicine or is it entertainment? And they are like that. What? What's the biggest? Their their applications. You can think about it. Almost every vertical you think about Smart manufacturing is something were particularly excited about. So how can you take what happens in manufacturing or in warehousing and not just introduce robotic but introduce virtual reality in a way that people don't have to man the equipment and you can make quick changes? So, like the possibilities, there are really, really unless being able to pull up like a virtual screen. We think about this in our in our own environment. We operate large data center. How can I make changes to hardware without actually being there? So But I feel like I'm there. That's the promise for manufacturing education. I just got to speak about him so passionate about it, and I think it's really exciting what can happen there. So we talked about distance Learning way have capability today for distance learning. But it goes beyond just that. When you talk about five G, you could think about really immersive learning. So if you want to learn about the ocean floor, you know we can make it feel in the classroom like you're actually there. That's the type of environment that we want to create. And we need to work with people, not anyone place anyone. Company is going to take us all sort of figure this out.

Verizon Communications

Company Information

World's Most Admired Companies
As of 2/1/2023

Verizon Communications

Company Information

World's Most Admired CompaniesAs of 2/1/2023

World's Most Admired Companies
As of 2/1/2023