Apr 23, 2016
Zayo Response
10yWe agree, Zayo has a great infrastructure and we have achieved this through many strategic acquisitions. You are factually incorrect on your growth assertion. Zayo has grown organically every quarter of its 10 years existence. This is an incredible accomplishment, and a great source of pride. This has been enabled by having a great team of employees, spanning from account executives to construction managers to fiber engineers to NOC technicians (and many more). Most of our sales come from doing repeat business with our customers -- we earn this only by doing a great job for them. Our ability to acquire is linked to our performance on past acquisitions. If we weren’t creating value for our investors, our acquisition history would have ended long ago. The “solid network” and “strategic assets” are the result of great performance of our employees as they’ve integrated the acquisitions and run the business. You use the expression “silohed”. I assume you are referring to the way we break up our overall business into strategic product groups. We do this to apply business focus and discipline -- allowing teams of people to work together to deliver effective products to their customers in a way that creates equity value for our investors & employee-owners. We do things differently than many in our industry. Our results have been undeniably great -- this leads to a conviction on certain unorthodox approaches. Those who stubbornly want us to adopt their ways are often disappointed. Judging solely from your “deaf ears”, this is possibly the case with you. Your lack of understanding about the success we have had probably contributed to the “deaf ears” reaction you have felt. We produce a ton of financial disclosures about organic growth and overall performance -- to conclude we have done this without taking care of employees and customers is simply naive. That, my friend, would be impossible. Perhaps if you would have spent time understanding the facts, and learning about how well our system has worked, you might have developed a different perspective. I’ve learned some people find it easier to just to assume they are correct, and aren’t open to learning new things….even if the facts are right at their fingertips. We know we are far from perfect--and we learn from our newer and older team members. Constructive and thoughtful feedback is the path to influence our direction and culture. Confusion about our accomplishments, and disrespect for colleagues and our methodologies, usually leads to disappointment.