To: Tim Luke who wrote (18847 ) 10/23/1997 3:41:00 PM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to
Lucent to focus on high-growth markets
Reuters Story - October 23, 1997 12:06
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NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Telecommunications sytems
maker Lucent Technologies Inc on Thursday named two chief
operating officers and created a series of businesses to better
focus on the industry's faster-growing opportunities.
Lucent said its reorganization, effective November 1, will
focus it more clearly on high-growth areas such as wireless,
semiconductors, data networking and optical networking.
Lucent, which formerly consisted of three business units --
Microelectronics Group, Business Communications Systems and
Systems for Network Operators -- will create the series of
smaller businesses in order to better focus on customers in
high-growth markets.
Lucent said that in nearly all cases, customers will
continue to be served by the same sales and service people who
work with them now.
"I've described Lucent as a group of hot businesses,
tightly focused on its customers, markets and competitors,"
said Lucent Chief Executive Richard McGinn.
"Our reorganization is designed to provide more focus to
the business internally, while giving a single face to our
customers externally. We are organizing for growth," McGinn
said.
Lucent named two chief operating officers to oversee the
reorganization effort: Dan Stanzione, 51, and Ben Verwaayen,
45.
Stanzione was named COO and executive vice president. He
will remain president of Bell Labs, Lucent's research and
development arm.
Verwaayen was named COO and executive vice president. He
joined Lucent in September after being president of the Dutch
PTT and chairman of Unisource, a consortium of European
telecommunications companies and AT&T Corp .
Together, Stanzione and Verwaayen will support the newly
organized businesses, with Stanzione having oversight for
technology and product architecture decisions, and Verwaayen
taking the lead on globalization efforts, an area with 70
percent of Lucent's growth opportunity, Lucent said.
Lucent also created the Office of the CEO, which will
report to McGinn. The office will have overall responsibility
for corporate strategy, policymaking, corporate performance
targets, business development and handling of other major
issues facing the corporation.
In addition to McGinn, Stanzione and Verwaayen, the Office
of the CEO will include Don Peterson, chief financial officer,
and Patricia Russo, executive vice president of corporate staff
operations.
