Verizon is in the thick of reorganization, trying to claw back ground from T-Mobile and AT&T. The layoffs and cost programs are getting headlines, but the company is still slowed by internal issues that are structural rather than strategic.
Every major part of the business (Consumer Group, Business Group, Consumer Sales, and Network) runs like its own little kingdom. Each one has its own infrastructure team, its own asset management approach, its own platforms, and its own favorite vendors. That setup guarantees duplication: similar work gets done multiple times with slightly different tools, standards, and contracts. Then layer on several consulting firms and managed service providers tackling overlapping scopes across those same areas, plus internal supervisors whose primary role is to oversee the vendors. The result is expensive redundancy that drags down speed and inflates costs without improving outcomes.
Many of those supervisor positions actively push back against meaningful offshoring or clean outsourcing, often raising security or control objections. Yet T-Mobile and AT&T have been offshoring large pieces of retail support, IT, and back office functions for years by using proven safeguards and achieving real savings. Keeping these roles protects headcount in the short term, but it also protects bureaucracy and, in too many cases, creates space for favoritism where vendor selection has more to do with relationships than performance.
Competitors who centralize infrastructure, limit vendors, and draw clear lines between internal and outsourced work simply move faster and spend smarter.
Verizon needs to follow suit.
A Four Step Plan to Remove Internal Drag
1)Unify infrastructure under one team
Combine network, IT, cloud, security, and asset management into a single group that serves every line of business.
End the “my division, my solution” mindset. This single shift could eliminate 20% to 30% of redundant effort and sharply accelerate delivery.
2) Tighten vendor control
Move to one or two preferred vendors maximum per major category. Require open competitive bidding, publish performance scorecards, and conduct regular audits to block favoritism or kickback risks. Stop letting every group pick its own suppliers.
3) Set firm make versus buy rules
Decide once which capabilities stay fully in house, which go fully to managed services, and which are clean hybrids.
Replace layers of supervisor oversight with automated monitoring tools and exception based reporting. Phase out roles whose main purpose is to babysit outsourcing.
4) Reward company wide efficiency over silos
Change bonus structures so managers and executives are judged on cross business metrics: lower duplication, reduced vendor spend per unit, and faster project cycles, not just their own division numbers.
Support union discussions with fair retraining and severance packages so routine work can be offshored the way competitors already do successfully.
These steps are not complicated or untested; they mirror exactly what T-Mobile and AT&T execute to stay lean and quick. Putting them in place would cut the waste that quietly erodes our edge, free up capital for customer innovation and network leadership, and show the market we are finally operating like one unified and competitive company instead of a collection of mini empires.
The reorganization is the perfect window. Fix the structure now, and the turnaround stops being incremental; it becomes real.