In the mid-1990s, the city council of Tacoma, Wash., was so angry over Tele-Communications Inc.'s poor service record that it formed a competing cable company. That was the situation Anne McMullen walked into when she accepted the Tacoma general manager position at TCI, now AT&T Broadband.
McMullen, currently AT&T Broadband's area director for the South Puget Sound region, had spent more than a dozen years in the cable business ? moving from marketing to business operations to general manager ? when TCI offered her the Tacoma position. During the nine years she worked for TCI (prior to the offer), McMullen remembers saying to colleagues that she wouldn't touch Tacoma with a ten-foot pole. The systems' employees were extremely unhappy, McMullen says. ?The reputation was such in the community that they were having a difficult time representing our company.?
?It wasn't a good time,? says Steve Kipp, AT&T Broadband's director of communications for the Washington market. TCI's relationship with the city had soured over problems that ranged from poor customer service to a system that needed an upgrade, he adds.
Despite Tacoma's problems, McMullen's alternative ? a GM position in Seattle, where TCI's relations with its customers and the city were equally poor and which would have required a move from Olympia, where McMullen was quite happy ? wasn't much better. Recognizing an opportunity to make her next career move, McMullen accepted the position in August 1998.
While in Tacoma, McMullen did a lot of listening ? to the franchise authorities, to the city council, to her employees ? to try to turn things around.
In groups of 12, the system's employees told her what was going on with the plant, the call center and the customers.
?It was sort of a dumping session initially, but I always went in and said, ?Well, I want to hear what all the issues are, but I also want to hear what we can do about it,?? McMullen said recently. She then tracked every issue raised.
?I had what I called small fixes, or quick fixes, things you could do right away, like [getting] a new refrigerator,? she says. As things were accomplished she would report back to the employees.
She took a similar approach with the city authorities, meeting with community leaders and working with city franchising authorities. A year into her Tacoma tenure, a city councilwoman, Sharon McGavick, said she had seen a marked difference in the cable system and credited McMullen with the improvements.
It took McMullen two years to upgrade the Tacoma system; her success there led to a promotion to area director in charge of all operations for the Tacoma, Olympia, Aberdeen and Bremerton systems.
Throughout her career McMullen has juggled family responsibilities ? her kids are now 11 and 14 ? and volunteer work.
Several years ago, Charles Shelan, executive director of Community Youth Services, a United Way agency based in Olympia, approached McMullen about a scholarship program he wanted TCI to sponsor. ?She agreed almost immediately,? he says.
In addition to joining the organization's board of directors, McMullen got the system to do dozens of public service announcements for CYS. McMullen also helped select award winners from the program's participants.
McMullen ?has good spirit,? Shelan says. Not only is she cheerful and optimistic, but she relates to people on all levels and garners respect, he adds. In early 1998, CYS nominated McMullen ?Woman of the Year.?
Community service has always been important to McMullen, as evidenced by the two years she spent in Colombia organizing women's groups and teaching nutrition as a Peace Corps worker in the late 1970s.
McMullen's first cable job was as a marketing assistant at CBS Cable in New York City, back in the early 1980s. From there, she moved to San Francisco, eventually marrying a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. In San Francisco, she worked in marketing for Viacom, was promoted several times, worked in governmental affairs and then became marketing manager for the North Bay territory, in Marin County.
After a short stint in Alaska, where her husband, a consultant, was opening an office, she moved back to California and resumed working for Viacom.
By the time she was recruited by TCI, she had experience in every aspect of running a system. As her experience broadens ? and AT&T Broadband's need to cut costs grows ? so do her responsibilities: the Auburn, Wash., system was recently added to her purview.
AT&T BROADBAND
South Puget Sound region Includes Aberdeen, Auburn, Bremerton, Olympia and Tacoma systems
HOMES PASSED: 700,000
SUBSCRIBERS: 430,000
MILES OF PLANT: 10,000
BASIC CABLE RATE: $12.27/month; 36 channels
DIGITAL CABLE: $34.99 to $74.99/month
HIGH-SPEED INTERNET RATE: $35.95 to $45.95
HIGH-SPEED CUSTOMERS: Proprietary
ADVERTISING: Local advertising sales force
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