Can Sprint Nextel’s Directors Help the Ailing Telecom to Turn Itself Around?

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- As the downward spiral in earnings continues at Sprint Nextel Corp (NYSE:S), which announced on Monday $500 million in first-quarter losses, investors will be carefully scanning company statements for any sign that the company has a turnaround in the offing.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer made comments that seemed to promise investors that the company does indeed have a plan:

“While the business will continue to face challenges in the short term, we are making progress in methodically attacking the sources of our performance issues. In the first quarter, we implemented a new, more focused brand campaign, we executed on our plans to take costs out of the business, and we made progress on the larger organizational and strategic decisions that we believe will lead to improved profitability in the long term," said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse.

"We have strengthened our hand with last week's 4G announcement, which captures and leverages the value of Sprint's sizable spectrum holdings, provides Sprint with additional financial flexibility, gives us a time-to-market advantage over our competitors in the important growth area of wireless broadband, and allows Sprint management to focus our resources and attention on improving the performance of our core business,” Mr. Hesse added.

Yet investors will want to know whether or not the company’s Directors have contributed their insights in the shaping of this strategy for future growth.

NewsVisual decided to create an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map in order to illustrate the business connections of Sprint’s Board of Directors as a method for assessing their knowledge of business and for determining the likelihood that the telecom’s Management Team would benefit from the former’s advice.

The Knowledge Map shows that several of Sprint’s Directors have strong business connections to other companies where they most likely have the experience of having to make critical business decisions, like the ones confronting Sprint now.

For example, because Director William H Swanson is also the CEO/Chairman of Raytheon Co and Director Frank M Drendel is also the CEO/Chairman of CommScope Inc, these two Sprint Directors would certainly have faced similar competitive pressures in their own companies’ markets.  They would, therefore, most probably have some insights to share with the Management Team.

Likewise, the following two Directors would most probably be able to offer sound advice because of their widespread involvement with other companies:  Director Gordon M. Bethune is also a Director for Honeywell International Inc, Willis Group Holdings, Prudential Financial Inc, and Aloha Airgroup Inc; and Director James H Hance Jr is also a Director for Cousins Properties Inc, Duke Energy Corp, and Rayonier Corp.

Click here for a fuller and an interactive version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).