[notyourday]

On the other hand most of CEOs that "kind of" manage to perform or totally flop typically don't have any in depth knowledge of what their company actually does.

Compare the CEO of Verizon who built it into what it is today - Ivan G. Seidenberg against a CEO of Sprint or Global Crossing at the time. Notice that the CEO of GlobalCrossing at the time is the current CEO of T-Mobile. It is well known that he had no clue about products of GlobalCrossing or technology behind it and therefore could not realize its competitive advantages. On the other hand he clearly understands the mobile phones which is how he managed to take a T-Mobile from a pissant company that no one cared about to a company that forces ATT and Verizon to respond.

[zhdc1]

It also helps that T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom) is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.

Not discounting that their positioning in the states has improved in the last couple of years, but they should be to do (and finally are doing) more than just forcing ATT and Verizon to respond.

[notyourday]

DT bought VoiceStream in 2001 and renamed it into TMobile. For 11 years TMO was a pissant company even with all that DT "knowledge" and money. Even Sprint and Nextel laughted at it.

It took Legere becoming a CEO 11 years later for anyone to start taking TMO seriously. And boy they do.