Building a winning team of products.(comparison between baseball teams and telecommunications industry )

In late winter, when frost still covers the ground in many of your service territories, baseball's spring training brings together pitchers, catchers, infielders, outfielders, coaches and managers to hone their crafts on fields doused in sunshine.

For the most part, veteran players report for duty and produce the same impressive results on the field. But each year, coaches and players alike are looking to see if a standout emerges from the ranks of the rookies. A pitcher with a killer curve ball? A slugger reminiscent of Babe? Anyone who can help to turn an ordinary team into an extraordinary team.

One can draw a comparison between the goings on at spring training and those in the telecommunications industry. As rural telcos, your "veteran players" are those tried and true services like plain old telephone service (POTS) and long-distance. Your commitment to providing those services to your customers--despite the obstacles--is what has given you staying power.

Baseball teams count on contributions from their veteran players to make things run smoothly on the field. Similarly, your telcos rely on your basic services to keep customers connected and your operations running smoothly. But just as there are upstarts waiting to show their stuff on the baseball field, there are new telecommunications services ready to prove their usefulness and appeal to consumers.

A good baseball manager knows he must strike a balance between his old, reliable veterans and the exciting, new, and sometimes untested, rookies. Those rookies could well be the catalysts that spark his team to a championship season. The trick for telco managers isn't all that different. You, ...