Verizon's outsider CEO rebuilt culture first — and added 650,000 subscribers (interview)
Dan Schulman took a losing, risk-averse Verizon in late 2025: culture reset, 13,000 layoffs, no price hikes without value — and 650,000 new subscribers.
What was changed
In an HBR IdeaCast interview with Adi Ignatius, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman — the former PayPal chief who was Verizon's lead director before reluctantly taking the job — describes what he found nine months in: five straight years of market-share losses, a fall from the industry's largest market gap to its lowest P/E multiple, churn rising, customer satisfaction falling, and a company that, in his words, 'was willing to be prey.' The network sat at the center while the customer did not; a proud, hierarchical, process-loving culture was, by his own rating, a 2 on a 10-point risk-appetite scale.
His reset put culture ahead of strategy. Every all-hands runs without slides: 'we are losing... we need to play to win' — not a slogan, he says, but a way of life. The customer reorganization runs under the banner 'every customer has a name': simplified pricing, loyalty rewards for tenure, and an end to price increases without real value, replacing what he calls preying on complexity for profitability. To fund customer investment he created a 'war chest' — including 13,000 layoffs in his second month, announced facing the whole company. AI-era reskilling runs alongside.
The early results, as Schulman reports them: about 650,000 subscribers added in his first quarter after a long run of losses, and the stock's biggest one-day rise in 18 years the day it landed. He frames the equation as churn down, customers up, revenue following — provided efficiency holds — and cautions it is still early days, with the ambition that top line, bottom line and customer satisfaction all move in the same direction.
Why it worked
Culture, not strategy, was the binding constraint: no plan could execute through a company that scored itself 2 out of 10 on willingness to take risks.
The hard cut came first and visibly — 13,000 roles in month two funded the customer 'war chest' without borrowing against the future.
Pricing had become a churn engine; ending increases without real value and simplifying plans attacked the dissatisfaction at its source.
Straight talk replaced decks — employees already knew the company was losing, and leadership admitting it gave permission for the revolution Schulman asked for.
What can be applied
Culture is a turnaround's critical path: say the losses out loud, move risk appetite where it is stuck, fund the customer with hard cuts early — and results can show within a quarter.
Aftermath
As of the August 2026 interview, Schulman was nine months into the job, calling the turnaround early but pointing to the first-quarter subscriber gain and the market's reaction as proof the organization could rally. Loyalty pricing, the 'every customer has a name' service program and AI-focused reskilling were the visible fronts; the multi-year test is whether churn stays down and revenue follows.