Spectrum COO Nick Jeffery starts making changes

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Spectrum COO Nick Jeffery(Source: Spectrum)

Let it be said that no moss grows under new Spectrum COO Nick Jeffery.

Jeffery started in that role on September 1 to head up major changes to Spectrum's go-to-market strategy (with a stated goal to bring it back to broadband subscriber growth), improve customer service and goose the company's net promoter scores, and, more generally, to embark on what he recently referred to as "The Great Cable Comeback."

While many of Jeffery's specific moves are still to come, it didn't take long for the exec to make some significant changes to his organization to nudge the company in a new direction.

'Move faster with fewer layers'

According to a memo obtained by Light Reading, on Monday (October 12) Jeffery announced a "simpler, flatter, operating structure" aimed to help Spectrum "move faster with fewer layers, and to focus on our two biggest priorities – returning to core Internet growth and improving customer service."

Related:Former Frontier CEO Nick Jeffery to join Charter as COO

Those structural changes include the coming departure of Adam Ray, Spectrum's chief commercial officer; and Sharon Peters, Spectrum's chief marketing officer. Both will be leaving the company at the end of the year, Jeffery explained.

Ray, who has been with Charter for more than 20 years, has served in that capacity since 2022, overseeing areas that include marketing, residential sales, Spectrum business and "Community Solutions" (i.e. bulk services for multi-dwelling units). Ray's role won't be replaced.

Peters joined Charter in 2016 to help with the branding transition following its acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. More recently, Peters helped to oversee the introduction of the Spectrum brand to the former Cox Communications markets following the close of the Charter-Cox merger on August 20. Jeffery noted that Simon Cassels, currently chief creative officer at Spectrum, will serve as interim chief marketing officer while the company conducts a search for a full-time replacement for that role.

Revised reporting structure

Jeffery also announced his other direct reports: Cliff Hagan (customer operations); Tom Monaghan (field operations); Christian Ruiz (Spectrum Consumer); Keith Dardis (Spectrum Business); Jeff Breaux (Spectrum Wholesale, including RapidScale and Segra, two units previously acquired by Cox that will continue to operate separately); and Paul Woelk (business planning and business intelligence).

Two other roles reporting to Jeffery are in process. He said a search is underway for a head of integration and that Spectrum is finalizing a person to serve as chief of staff.

Related:Charter-Cox deal is a wrap, with 'Spectrum' brand to take over in mid-September

While many of those individual roles aren't changing, Jeffery stressed that the "new organizational structure means we can move faster, be clearer about who is accountable, and more quickly fix the things that get in the way of our customers and our people."

And he made it clear in the memo that Spectrum needs to do better with its broadband scale, video assets and mobile offers, noting that the company, in recent years, has "failed to marshal those advantages into a winning strategy and have underperformed the markets, and our own expectations."

Spectrum and Jeffery enter the 'show-me' phase

Jeffery will now try to engineer a turnaround at Spectrum as he did previously at Vodafone UK and more recently at Frontier Communications, which saw metrics improve across the board before being sold to Verizon.

Last month, Jeffery outlined the drivers of his decision to take on the COO role at Spectrum in a LinkedIn post, noting that it's fair for some to wonder why he'd spend five years building Frontier's fiber story only to head to a company that some might see as "just cable."

While he holds that it's a fair question, he pointed to Spectrum's ongoing network upgrades, footprint expansion, improved video results, and its success in creating convergence bundles by combining home broadband and mobile.

And he also sees Spectrum's scale as an advantage following the recent merger with Cox.

"With competitive pressure, increasing costs of capital and more rural builds, margins will compress and the economic case for marginal fiber builds will stall. Given there are 1,000+ small broadband providers across the US, consolidation is coming – it's just math and a huge disruption. All the while, Spectrum is now the largest broadband provider in the free world and already has massive scale economics, with more to come," he wrote.

And he took a jab at fixed wireless access (FWA), a constant thorn in cable's side, calling its economics "shaky" amid its use of fallow capacity. He also views satellite as a complement more so than as a major competitor, even as some, like Starlink, are poised to deliver more speed, coverage and capacity with a new generation of satellites.

So, that's pretty much the set-up. Now, Spectrum enters the show-me to see if Jeffery can truly put the company on the offensive and deliver on his vow to lead what he calls "The Great Cable Comeback."

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