Woman of the Year: Susan Marshall

For most of us, life has a way of passing by long before we complete the list of things we want to do. Given the means, most of us would love to climb a mountain. Or visit the ends of the Earth. Or travel to exotic locales. But its a fact that many people never have the chance to cross off more than a few items on that to-do list.

But not Susan Marshall. Whether its her professional or personal life, Marshall simply goes out and does. Shes hiked up mountains. Shes been to the Orient. Perhaps more impressively, shes made AT&T Broadband the largest provider of high-speed data service in the world.

That just do it attitude has paid off handsomely for AT&T Broadband, where Marshall is senior vice president of data services. Under her guidance, the company recently announced it had connected its one-millionth high-speed data customer, having added 200,000 customers in the third quarter of 2000 alone. That was a whopping growth rate of 60 percent over the previous quarter and more than enough to get the company to its goal of 1.1 million customers by the end of the year.

As the person responsible for melding MediaOnes data business into the AT&T fold and guiding the company into a future characterized by unprecedented competitive pressure, Marshall is putting her problem-solving and management skills to use every day.

Susan has prevailed in a very difficult environment, observes Steve Dukes, who worked alongside Susan during his tenure at Tele-Communications Inc. Shes a very organized person who spent enormous amounts of time nurturing the data side of the business. If it wasnt for her discipline, the industry would not be as far along with deployments as it is today.

Dukes, who has since gone on to found Imaginary Universes, a strategic and technology management company, says Susans demeanor and work ethic should be credited for her success. Theres an old management axiom that you give the most important work to your busiest employee because theyre the ones who get things done. Susans a doer.

Its that seemingly innate ability to cut through artificial barriers and solve problems quickly that eventually brought Susan into the cable industry in the late 1980s. She originally began working with Peter Barton back in 1987 at Cable Value Network, which was struggling and needed to redefine itself to stay viable.

I was part of an outside SWAT team that would go in and look at operational and technical processes, recalls Susan. I ended up spending eight months there, working to define their policies and procedures.

Roughly two years later, after Marshall returned to Los Angeles to focus on other distressed companies, Barton called. In the meantime, he had returned to TCI and was dabbling in a secret pet project that required her business acumen.

I sat down in his office and he said, Before we say anything, you need to sign this non-disclosure agreement. And I just looked at him because I didnt even know what he wanted me to do. Trust me, he said. I took the pen, looked him in the eye and signed it. That was a weird experience.

Without knowing it, Susan had signed on to help form a new, interactive service called Watch and Win (it later was renamed to Zing Systems Inc.). Undaunted, and intrigued, she helped Barton and CEO John Reardon negotiate affiliation agreements with the likes of MTV, Fox, The Weather Channel and others. She also hired John Lappington, a former Scientific-Atlanta engineer who had struck out on his own and formed ESP, to evaluate and develop the technology that would be used for the service.

Although Zing would eventually fail as a company, Marshall was one of the last to leave. It was painful because it was something I felt like Id given birth toand to watch it wither away was difficult. I had a chip on my shoulder and wasnt certain I wanted to come back to TCI.

But Bruce Ravenel, who was then president of TCI Internet Services, encouraged Susan to stay engaged, at least as a consultant. He steered her toward a small start-up company called @Home, and suggested that she become involved.

As a friend of Mother Earth, Susan spends as much time outdoors as possible. In particular, she loves to hike and snowshoe in the Rocky Mountains, where shes also planning to build a new house.

It didnt take much convincing. I joined the company because it was smack in the middle of where this industry was going to go, recalls Marshall. As one of a few TCI personnel working with about 50 from @Home, Susan developed the installers training program and even helped train the installers. We were a start-up company, so we all wore a lot of different hats.

Susans rapid rise into senior management might seem incongruous to some, given her early professional background. Her first job after she graduated with a mathematics degree from the University of Maryland was in the aerospace industry. That first project involved consulting and software development for Strategic Air Command in Omaha.

Being at SAC was interesting, because they didnt have any womens bathrooms, Susan recalls. Always the trailblazer.

But shes also never let her gender get in the way of progress. I have never felt discriminated against, she says. I do believe that women have to achieve more to be recognized initially. But if you look at AT&Ts executive team, at least one-third of (CEO) Dan Somers direct reports are women. Its been proven that all-male or all-female teams dont solve problems as well as mixed gender teams.

She applied her mathematical skills back in those early days to missile targetinga role that eventually grated on her personal beliefs enough to reconsider her choice of employers. Im a dove, and I finally decided I needed to get out of military oriented work. Susan joined a consulting company, which gave her access to companies like airlines, the U.S. Postal Service, banks and utilities. She traveled the country and earned the equivalent of an MBA from the School of Hard Knocks at the same time.

We would go into companies and help them bridge the gap between technology and business by developing strategic systems plans and refocusing their energies. But one of the things that bugged me about that was that I never got to see any of those plans come to fruition.

Today, Susans making up for thatin spades. At AT&T, shes been involved in everything from hands-on operational issues to more strategic processes, according to Richard Green, president and CEO of Cable Television Laboratories. Susans been a major contributor to the DOCSIS process, he says. Shes spent a lot of time and effort to make broadband really work, from the nitty-gritty technical aspects all the way up to management-level issues.

Susan shrugs off the accolades, noting that she was simply doing what it took to ensure success. As the business evolved, I took on product responsibility and business development and just started touching more and more pieces of the business, Susan says. Working with engineer Michelle Kuska, Susan helped transfer the DOCSIS specification into real products. I got involved more from the business side, making sure the technology would serve the business needs. The risk you run, when something is technology driven, is (developing) technology just for technologys sake.

One of the first things I got involved with was security issuesand thats when I asked to be on the DOCSIS certification board. I needed to understand the issues and the costs involved.

Today, CableLabs has the certification testing mechanism running like a well-oiled machine. At least 35 product suppliers are currently building cable modems, and more than 100 different devices have been certified to date.

But it took a while to get up and running, Susan says. I remember the first certification board meeting. It was two, 20-hour days. We all sat in these rooms and we just thought, well never get anything certified. It was scary.

But it was worth it. Who would have ever thought we would have that many cable modem vendors? Its just inconceivable. And to the people outside the industry who said this process was very closed, I say, it is anything but closed.

Much of that criticism has come from people and companies that were anxious to get product certified, built and placed on retail store shelves. Incredible pressure was applied by large, well-known companies to speedand perhaps compromisethe certification process. CableLabs and the certification board resisted the pressure, however, choosing instead to err on the side of conservatism.

If wed gone off prematurely and certified modems just to get them certified, it would have been a disaster, notes Susan. DOCSIS, to me, represented a shift in power from the manufacturers to the cable operators. We used to be slaves to companies like General Instrument and Scientific-Atlanta on the video side. The cable operator is in the catbird seat now, and its become a very competitive world. When we were first buying modems, they were $495. Then they dropped to $395. DOCSIS came about and modems dropped to $200 to $250. And now were looking at $120 to $150. Its incredible.

But does that mean the modems have become commodities? I dont think so, Susan says. Clearly, everyone is focused on cost, but there are still a lot of vendors trying to find ways of differentiating their product on the basis of functions and features.

In fact, its still early enough in the process that relationships with retailers are still being formed. So early that for at least the next year, at least 85 percent of the modems will be purchased by AT&T and offered on a lease arrangement with customers, versus customers buying the devices at retail outlets. It wont stay that way for long, however.

The fact that the cable industry has existed forever with no retail suggests that it doesnt happen overnight, says Susan. Fortunately, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Doug Seserman has built a strong retail team for us. These folks know retail. They know the retailers and they know how to strike deals. We just announced deals with Best Buy and Radio Shack, and were doing business with Circuit City and CompUSA.

That said, Marshall believes its important to leverage the Internet as a vehicle for commerce, too. We need to do a better job using online channels, she says. When we pitch our service now, we dont make the customer aware that they can buy the modem. Well get there, but theres just been so much to do.

Im most excited about our online ordering system, says Susan. Were the only cable operator, to the best of my knowledge, that allows customers to go to the Web, put in their address, find out if theyre serviceable, order and buy the product and schedule its installationall without ever talking to an operator.

Youll see a lot more of that in 2001. I think its going to be our breakaway year for retail and e-tail channels.

That breakaway could be fueled by Susans biggest projectAT&T Broadband Choice. Thats the service name given to the companys efforts to open its network to multiple Internet service providers and give consumers a choice of providers. But providing open access is fraught with operational and logistical issues that require understanding before they can be solved.

I want the customers to have choice, I want them to have convenience and I want them to have customization, says Susan. But that doesnt mean AT&T intends to abandon the relationship it has with its customers. In fact, quite the opposite is true. We are not going to be a big, dumb pipe, she insists. We are not going to be invisible to the customer. We will have a desktop presence.

In order to do that, AT&T built a service agent that facilitates the choice, convenience and customization needs. Much like an electronic program guide helps customers wade through scores of digital video channels, the service agent is being designed to help data customers select from a variety of service packages offered by multiple ISPs. Through this agent, customers will be able to pick an ISP, change minimum and maximum throughput speeds and even have different ISPs assigned to different family members.

ISPs want customers to have one-click access to them, yet we dont want to be a dumb pipe, reiterates Marshall. Were trying to develop a solution where the AT&T brand is present, but you see the ISP brand, too.

The concept is currently being tested in Boulder, Colo., where eight different ISPs have chosen to participate in a six-month open access trial to 500 people who will be asked to strain the system. As of press time, two ISPs were up and running and two more were nearly ready, according to Marshall. The rest will come early in 2001.

AT&T intends to take what it learns in Boulder, scale it larger in size, and repeat the process in Boston sometime later this year. But will that timetable be rapid enough for those who have called for open access to cable networks?

Were spending $20 million in Boulder and will probably spend a similar amount in Boston, asserts Marshall. The FCC realizes this is complex and that it doesnt happen overnight. Theyre looking for sincere actions. Were putting our money where our mouth is, and were working very, very hard. Its the right thing to do.

But while some ISPs are encouraging AT&T to open its network, there will be those that disagree with the method by which the giant MSO intends to accomplish the task. Some ISPs wont be happy unless we completely unbundle the network and just lease capacity, Marshall asserts. I think there are a lot of nuances about broadband access that are opening these ISPs eyes. They realize this is a whole new business model. Many of them have just offered access and e-mail. I think the battleground will become the portal and content. Youll need to have compelling applications. Some of these ISPs will have to figure out what their value proposition is.

That could include the very ISPs that grew out of the broadband revolutionnamely, Excite@Home and Road Runner. Creating those companies was exactly the right thing to do five years ago because we needed to prove there was demand (for high-speed data service), Marshall observes. But the industry has evolved and we think well be able to bring more customers to our network if there are more ISPs available.

Were trying to come up with a solution that benefits three different constituencies, she adds. Its got to benefit the consumer. Its got to benefit us. And its got to benefit the ISPs.

That said, AT&T intends to offer Excite@Home as a preferred portal, but will extend that preferred status to other ISPs as well, Marshall notes.

Despite an often insane work schedule, Marshalls closest friends point out that she forces herself to nurture friendships and give her time to volunteer efforts.

She strives for balance, notes Leslie Ellis, an industry analyst who has known Susan for several years. She works like a maniac, yet she finds time to work with a local, elderly shut-in, too.

The fact that thats noteworthy also comes as a surprise to Marshall. Im into my family and my friends, she notes. I like spending time with my grandmother, whos 91 years old. Ive been trying to get back to see her regularly.

This self-described dove is also a friend of Mother Earth, and strives to treat the planet with deference. I love hiking and snowshoeing and being outdoors, says Susan, who can be seen on various Rocky Mountain hiking trails with Fred, her dachshund, comfortably inserted in her backpack. She also loves to garden: I took a composting class and have become a composting proselytizer, she says proudly.

Other interests include reading and music, though she admits those two things have taken a back seat to getting a house built near Steamboat Springs, Colo. Designing this house is sucking all of the creative juices out of me right now, she laughs. Its a brand new experience to work with an architect and give him my 101 ideas and see what he does with them.

In the meantime, she hasnt let the lack of a house keep her from enjoying her property. I put a teepee on the property this past summer and stayed there, she says. I even took conference calls while I was on a hammock outside the teepee. Unfortunately, I get excellent cell phone reception on my property, she says, grinning.

With the Boulder trial up and running and soon to expand to other markets, Susan knows that shell have to seek balance between growing the data business while staying abreast of a changing marketplace. Looming on the horizon are issues related to streaming media over the Internet, home networking, DOCSIS 1.1 certification and making modem installation simpler for consumers. The plate is full. But thats when this can-do lady is at her best.

I get very engaged with my staff and challenge them often, she notes. I give them a lot of rope, but not enough to hang themselves. My role is to knock down roadblocks. To be a good leader, you have to know where youre going. Its a safe bet that she knows where the trail leads.

E-mail: rbrown@cahners.com