How Verizon’s CEO is rolling out his ‘play-to-win’ playbook—and fending off Elon Musk

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Good morning. Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell writing this morning. Dan Schulman hates losing. For the past few years, he watched from his seat on Verizon’s board as the telecom giant lost market share, hobbled by internal bureaucracy and risk aversion.

“We were a big, lumbering giant that had fallen behind,” Schulman told me on the most recent episode of the Fortune 500 Titans and Disruptors podcast, admitting the board should have moved faster to make a leadership change. “We had processes where you needed something like 35 signatures before you could move forward.”

Schulman, who had been the board’s “hit-by-a-bus” successor, was named CEO in October 2025. At his first all-hands, he spoke candidly, without slides or notes: Verizon was losing. Layoffs were necessary. (Schulman would cut more than 13,000 roles, the largest layoff in Verizon’s history.) The culture had to be redefined. And the company’s tech stack needed to be rebuilt from top to bottom. (Schulman estimates there will be 100 billion AI agents in the next few years, driving an explosion in data traffic and network demand.)

“Culture is the single most important thing in any transformation. It is what holds you back or can propel you forward,” Schulman told me.

Schulman laid out a transformation plan he expects to take three years. He walked me through his playbook, including how he’s using AI to boost performance marketing and raise customer satisfaction, his views on AI-driven cybersecurity threats, and how he’s setting clear KPIs across 10 workstreams.

One year in, Verizon is beginning to see results, and it’s facing new challenges like Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Schulman says he hasn’t spoken with Musk recently. But he’s preparing for Musk to follow through and become a direct Verizon competitor.

“We’re not standing still. We’re assuming that what he says is what he’s going to do,” Schulman told me. “We need to be ready and prepared…We are going to have a radically different look and feel three or four…

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