 |
||
|
|
||
| |||||||||||
This company's got legs Lucent may be little more than a couple of years old, but this is one toddler that already knows how to run. Lucent Technologies is one of the world's leading designers, developers, and manufacturers of telecommunications systems and software. Until 1996, Lucent was part of AT&T; now it is already the nation's leading manufacturer of both the hardware and the software of global communications networks - business communications technology, telephones, wireless networks, and switching equipment. The company boasts more than 140,000 employees in 90 countries worldwide, and a renewed focus -- high-end fiber-optic technology. On the cutting edge Lucent has recently moved towards concentrating on high-growth technologies like optical networking, Internet infrastructure, and semiconductors. To facilitate this transition, the company announced in March 2000 that it would incorporate its enterprise networking operations as a separate company in anticipation of spinning the company off to Lucent shareholders. The new company will consist of Lucent's PBX, cabling, and local-area-networking (LAN) businesses - which had a combined total of $8 billion in sales in 1999. The company received a major boost in June, when Lucent announced that it had signed a $1.5 billion deal with Verizon to supply the country's largest wireless operator with telecom equipment. Some helpful background AT&T and Western Electric founded Bell Laboratories in 1925 to conduct research and development. Soon after WWII the company developed the transistor, for which its scientists won a Nobel Prize. The transistor's "switching" ability makes possible the zillions of super-fast calculations needed to run your average computer. That was merely the first in a string of inventions that include the communications satellite, the solar cell, and the UNIX computer operating system. During the 1984 breakup of AT&T, the corporate giant was allowed to keep its research and manufacturing facilities, which came under the name of AT&T Technologies. However, AT&T later decided to spin off Lucent in what was the largest initial public stock offering in U.S. history at the time. The new company consolidated its operations and sold off its non-core business to become even more competitive in the quickly changing high-tech industry. Acquisition binge By separating from AT&T in September 1996, Lucent has been freed to do business with other telecommunications companies without conflicts of interest. As part of its efforts to boost its core businesses, Lucent acquired Agile Networks in October 1996. Agile provides advanced intelligent switching products useful for the Ethernet, as well as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) tech. In September 1997, Lucent nabbed Octel, which provides voice, fax and electronic messaging technologies. Lucent acquired Excel Switching, in 1999, for $1.48 billion. Excel makes programmable switches that allow telephone companies to easily update their networks without having to dismantle existing systems. By acquiring Excel, Lucent strengthened its core telephone network business. In its traditional telecommunications business, the company has also won some high profile contracts, including a three-year $700 million pact with Sprint PCS, a $280 million agreement with AT&T owned Telecorps, and a $100 million deal with Venezuelan carrier Telecel. While these telecom moves have made headlines, Lucent's splashiest acquisitions to date have taken place in the high tech world of computer networking and software. Lucent purchased Kenan Systems Inc, a phone-based customer service software maker, and acquired Ascend Communications for $20 billion - a move that strengthened its computer networking operations and surely vexed its rival, Cisco Systems. At the time it was announced, the Ascend deal was the largest ever in the high tech industry. In February 2000, Lucent purchased Ortel, a developer of components for cable TV networks, for $2.95 billion. These acquisition will help Lucent focus on transforming cable television networks to two-way, interactive communications media. May Day In May, Lucent said it would buy fiber optical networking equipment company Chromatis Networks for $4.5 billion in stock. The purchase of privately held Chromatis further strengthens Lucent's growing arsenal of products in the red-hot fiber optical networking market. The acquisition helps to shore up a weak spot in the Lucent product mix, as Chromatis makes gear for urban areas, a market Lucent was not involved in until now. Chromatis' Metropolis product allows multi-service traffic, such as voice, data and video, to travel efficiently on crowded metropolitan networks. The deal excludes the roughly 7 percent of Chromatis that Lucent already owns. The acquisition will be accounted for as a purchase, and Lucent expects the deal to be completed by July. The company also cut a slew of deals in May with industry heavyweights IBM, EMC Corp. and Sun Microsystems to develop technology for communications services. Lucent said it will work with the companies to develop equipment for businesses that offer high-speed communications services such as networking, data center services and Web hosting. Under the deals, Lucent, with its partners, will also create labs to test and demonstrate products and services for customers. The first lab, a $10 million facility, will be located at Lucent's Bell Labs in Holmdel, N.J. Lucent said it plans to build other labs in Hilversum, The Netherlands, Nuremberg, Germany, and Tokyo. Put up yer dukes, Cisco In the computer networking industry, the company is feeling the heat of competition. In June 1998, Lucent sued Cisco, the top networking equipment company that has begun encroaching into Lucent's turf, alleging infringement of eight data-networking technology patents. Cisco countered with a suit of its own. After one year, both suits were settled out of court in an undisclosed agreement. So long, and farewell In November 1999 Lucent announced that it would be eliminating nearly 1700 jobs in conjunction with its move away from installing wiring in office buildings. The company no longer installs wiring and technology has made repairs less frequent and time consuming. As a result Lucent will cut the related positions in an effort to cut costs. The company plans to cut the jobs through voluntary buyouts and reassignments. Can you land a 747 in New Jersey? Lucent has gone on an agressive campaign to upgrade its products, services and management. It hired a new CFO, Deborah Hopkins, formerly of Boeing, in an effort to boost its bottom line and sagging stock prices. Lucent also announced the outsourcing of up to 60% of its product line with the hopes that it can now focus almost exclusively on the manufacturing of high-end optical devices -- a move designed to allow greater competition with Cisco and Nortel. Microelectronics Spin off In July 2000 Lucent announced plans to spin off its microelectronics unit, which made silicon chips and optoelectronic parts such as lasers and would be a player in communications and semiconductor industries. Lucent planned to float up to 20 percent of its shares in what could be the largest IPO ever; some analysts anticipated a $20 billion showing. The microelectronics unit had posted $4 billion in revenue in the four quarters before the announcement; 75 percent of the group's sales came from competitors. Lucent believed the division would accelerate growth for the microelectronics unit, which in the third quarter was growing twice as fast as Lucent. The company expects to launch the IPO by the end of March 2001. A new tide Lucent acquired Spring Tide Networks, a closely held switching-equipment company, for $1.3 billion stock in July 2000.
Lucent maintains an employment web page named 'work@lucent' that can be reached from the company's web site at www.lucent.com. The web page provides access to current job listings, college recruiting information, and an on-line application program. After applicants complete their resumes online, Lucent keeps them in its "electronic files" and matches them with new job opportunities that arise. Lucent has a Financial Leadership Development Program, a 24- to 30-month intensive program for those with degrees in accounting, finance, or other business-related fields. Lucent also offers internships and co-ops year round for interested students. Those who are looking for a position in a specific field, take note of an insiders explanation that "by sending a resume to HR, you trigger a process where your resume is scanned and sent through an optical character recognition system. Key words are pulled out, and anyone within the company seeking a matching keyword is sent the resume. For example: ATM, software, object technology, DSP."
The rise of Lucent Technologies Relative newborn Lucent is still making the transition from a "tradition, technocentric view of the world" to a more "customer-focused and entrepreneurial climate." Employees say Lucent's company culture is "undergoing rapid change. In Bell Labs, the culture is moving from 'academic' to being high-relevance and having a big impact on Lucent's business." Not only is this shift "creating new opportunities every day," it has also helped make the company more "exciting" and "dynamic." Employees say that morale at Lucent is currently "higher than ever before" and that they feel "empowered" to tackle the "thorny challenges" that are part of their work, thanks in part to their "universal access" to the "best in current technology." Individual empowerment at Lucent, however, does not mean working alone. Employees praise the "extensive exposure to executives and other upper management officers," the continuous feedback, and the way in which they are treated as "essential team players" from the first day on the job. Diversity: The global village, at the lower levels One longtime Lucent employee reports that "staff comes from all over the world. There is a particularly large segment of our staff of Asian background, led by China, India, Bangladesh and Korea. Europeans, Canadians, African-Americans, Middle Easterners and Hispanics are also heavily represented." Lucent employees also teach at African-American engineering schools. However, another insider says Lucent is "above average for large technical corporations for minority and female representation at most levels, but there are still few that have advanced to senior level positions. There are 10 Group Presidents, and of those only one is a woman." The sartorial split: techies v. marketing "Lucent is a very large company," so the culture varies quite a bit. "Bell Labs is the most relaxed area, very much like a university environment. There are lots of jeans, T-shirts and sandals in the summer, without a necktie or pantsuit in sight. But there are other areas of the company, especially sales, marketing and business areas, with direct contact with customers, where suit and tie for men and dresses for women are expected." The physical ambience "ranges from fair to pretty darn good, depending on whether you are at a 30-year-old building or a new one. Nowhere are we shabby." 90% approval ratings Support for employees at Lucent varies somewhat. While department-level managers have secretaries "some male, some female," most employees "type their own reports." However, "everyone has a PC or terminal with shared printers nearby. Office supplies are usually available in a stockroom. We all have access to voice mail on our phone lines. Most have company-owned PCs at home and Lucent will pick up the cost of an extra phone line or long distance charges for network access from home." A Lucent manager tells Vault.com that "in a recent survey of employees, the question 'Would you recommend Lucent as a good place to work?' got more than a 90 percent 'yes' response. That's very high for any company."
Business communications systems;Consumer telecommunications;Microelectronics; Network systems
3Com;Cabletron;Cisco Systems;Nortel;Siemens More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
