Universal Broadband:a Moral Necessity

Bill Kennard's ascension in January to the chairmanship of telecom giant AT&T is important in several respects. He is one of the few blacks to serve as independent chair of a public company board (John Thompson at Microsoft and Mellody Hobson at Starbucks are two other notable examples.). And he marks another important move away from the U.S. practice of giving the chairman's title to the CEO (John Stankey took over that job.)

But it also positions him to play a key role in a critical post-pandemic policy debate: ensuring every American has access to a broadband connection. With the rise of virtual education and virtual health, not to mention the rapid acceleration of virtual commerce, connecting every American is "a fundamental necessity," Kennard says.

Kennard, who served as chairman of the FCC during the Clinton administration and ambassador to the E.U. in the Obama administration, was Ellen McGirt's and my guest on our Leadership Next podcast this week. He talked about the race to 5G, the challenge for AT&T to "disrupt itself," and the value of a telecom company owning a media company (AT&T merged with Time Warner in 2018.)

But I thought he was most compelling when talking about why companies today need to get involved in issues once seen as the province of governments -- like universal broadband. He noted the active role his predecessor, Randall Stephenson played in lobbying Congress for a policy reform bill -- hardly something that directly affects AT&T's bottom line.

Here's how Kennard put it:

“The board at AT&T, like all boards today, is focused on the role of corporations in society. Increasingly you are seeing corporations step into the vacuum where government leadership has sometimes failed or just can’t get the job done, and you are seeing corporations stepping up... Corporations are increasingly questioning, what is their role in society? How do corporations help solve the challenges of income inequality and racial inequality in the country, and political instability.? These are questions that corporations have to address in order to be successful in society.”

That, of course, is exactly the change in leadership that prompted us to launch Leadership Next. You can listen to the full Kennard interview on Apple or Spotify, or check in on other business leaders working to reinvent of capitalism here.