8 | DTC
eat-dog world of corporate rivalry.
Gates was responsible for a $1.2 billion
network with Verizon and had “several hun-
dreds of millions” in capital at his disposal.
At DTC, he says, it’s been an atmosphere
where people haven’t had to worry about
quarterly earnings and thus had a much bet-
ter opportunity to “ease into competition.”
That’s not as much the case now, as com-
petitors have increased in numbers to in-
clude Comcast, Charter Communications,
DirecTV, Dish TV, AT&T Wireless, Veri-
zon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint.
“We are in as deep as everybody else,” he
says, “and that’s the hardest cultural issue
that I have, making people that work here
now understand that the competition is here
and we have to be on our game better than
ever.” In terms of a five-year plan, it’s a similar
script for DTC.
While Gates acknowledges technology
will make quantum leaps in that time frame
– “some propeller-head right now could be
out there inventing the next whiz-bang that
changes the dynamics of the entire world,”
he says – the essentials of day-to-day funda-
mentals will not change.
And even as the trend of businesses op-
erating in the cloud continues to push the
upper limits of efficiency, a reliable service
