In the past few newsletters, you\u2019ve read about the governor\u2019s broadband initiative and how it is leaning heavily on electric cooperatives to deploy broadband in much of rural Tennessee.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s something I\u2019ve given a great deal of thought to in recent weeks, and I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that telcos and rural electric providers are not as different as we may like to think. Furthermore, starting with those similarities and then building on our individual strengths, I believe it\u2019s going to become increasingly important to develop strong relationships and solid partnerships with our neighbors in the electric business. <\/span><\/p>\n At the end of the day, we do have much in common. We are experts in our respective fields and are responsible for tackling the most rugged, rural areas in our great state in order to bring service to our customers. We are all small and independent companies in industries often dominated by billion-dollar corporations. <\/span><\/p>\n In most cases, telcos and electrics are both pillars in the communities they serve, investing millions of dollars into infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economies through the jobs we create, and thousands of dollars in sponsorships, donations, scholarships and other support. <\/span><\/p>\n Many telephone cooperatives even got their start at local electric offices and through the REA. <\/span><\/p>\n During my time at Ben Lomand Connect, we had good relationships and open communication with several of the electric providers in our service area, including Caney Fork, Duck River, Sequachee Valley Electric and others. If you don\u2019t have open communication with nearby electric providers, I urge you to start having those conversations. <\/span><\/p>\n I recently heard some good advice from a GM at a telco in another state. He and his team have successfully navigated partnerships with electric cooperatives. In two of the partnerships, the electric cooperative and the telco \u2014 and, ultimately, the customers \u2014 enjoyed great results all the way around. Their other partnership didn\u2019t turn out that way. He said that in the end it essentially came down to mission statements. In the partnerships that worked well, the electric cooperatives and the telco had similar mission statements that governed their company culture and helped inform leadership decisions. In the partnership that didn\u2019t work out as well, the differences in the mission statements of the companies should have been a dead giveaway that they weren\u2019t going to be compatible. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Does your mission statement permeate your company? At every level, everyone in your company should understand why you\u2019re doing what you do. Your mission statement should be your company\u2019s guiding light. <\/span><\/p>\n I hope everyone will take a moment this week to read your company\u2019s mission statement. In this time of change, I firmly believe it\u2019s a good idea to remind ourselves of what we\u2019re all about. That mission should help guide your everyday decisions \u2014 and help prepare you for potential partnership opportunities that may be just over the horizon.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the past few newsletters, you\u2019ve read about the governor\u2019s broadband initiative and how it is leaning heavily on electric cooperatives to deploy broadband in much of rural Tennessee. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve given a great deal of thought to in recent weeks, and I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that telcos and rural electric providers are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}