Ron Ponder
leads

into the
information future

by Bill Wagnon

One can learn a lot growing up on a farm. Just ask Ron Ponder, whose job today is about as far removed from the Arkansas countryside where he was raised as Dorothy and Toto were from Kansas. But the story of Ponder's trip down the yellow brick road wasn't just a dream. His Emerald City is world communication giant AT&T, and a combination of working hard, teamwork and good people, and growing up on a farm have helped him reach the top of his field.

Some 1,000 miles northeast of his birthplace, Ponder today lives in the beautiful New Jersey countryside near New Vernon and commutes 5 miles daily to his job as executive vice president of AT&T's Operations and Service Management Division in Basking Ridge. It's something he never dreamed of while feeding livestock and doing chores as a young boy on his grandfather's Southern Arkansas farm. Sure, life on the farm and watching his entrepreneur grandfather helped lure him into the business world, but he had designs on being a teacher, a college professor, not necessarily the leader of some 50,000 employees (49,750 more people than lived in his hometown of Wesson, Ark.) and mastermind behind a $52 billion company's information systems and networks.

And Ponder, who received his doctorate in business administration from Mississippi State in 1975, says he got where he is today by using those early experiences.

"I work hard," he explains. "I've always believed you have to put a total effort into everything you do. I think I got this from the farm. You have to work hard there, as well as in any other endeavor you undertake.

"And I like to play as part of a team. I believe in teamwork and building teams. I believe in people. The most important thing you have around you is your people, and I've always tried to surround myself with the best people I could find; the brightest, best people possible. And it has always paid off, and has been exactly the right thing to do."

Ponder was a rising star in corporate information systems when AT&T showed its commitment to information management and its commitment to customer service in 1993 by hiring him as the company's first chief information officer. Since that time, he has built a team at AT&T, a squad some have even called the "Dream Team," whose No. 1 goal is to "get customers and keep customers."

Ponder previously had headed information systems at Federal Express and then Sprint, with the focus at both companies on increasing customer satisfaction through the use of technology. But now, he was being called on by the world's third largest company to re-engineer its massive computing and communications structure, a task InformationWeek magazine called at the time "the biggest, most ambitious information technology project under way anywhere."

He led an information services team of 25,000 people throughout the company, including 26 chief information unit heads. Within five years, the team had to "enhance the company's information services while dramatically cutting the cost and time required to deliver those services."

"I came to AT&T to overhaul its information systems to bring advanced, competitive offers to customers without any disruption in existing service," Ponder explains. "We were spending an enormous amount of time on the operations, but we weren't spending enough time on the customer."

The bottom line, he says, is to get and keep customers.

"My philosophy always has been that you have to stay focused on the customer," says Ponder. "You really have to stay close to the customer and understand what they need. I believe that you use the power of technology to get and keep customers. You don't use technology just for technology's sake.

Ponder's team has been working on building a single, unified information technology architecture that will enable AT&T business units to share selected data about customers. This, along with other changes such as taking back the billing from the local companies such as BellSouth, will go a long way toward AT&T's goal of total customer satisfaction.

"You will see over time a lot of customer support processes re-engineered," he notes. "Better customer care, better customer processes, improved billing, integrated customer care, and integrated billing. Thus there will be a reduction in costs and a greatly expanded and more reliable network."

Four years into maybe the toughest task a chief information officer has ever faced, and definitely the most ambitious information technology project in AT&T history, Ponder says he and his crew are doing just fine.

Earlier this year, AT&T split into three separate global companies focusing on communications services, communications systems and technology, and computing. Ponder, in the newly created position of executive vice president of the Operations and Service Management Division, is responsible for much of the operations of the new global communications services company, which will retain the AT&T name. With revenues of more than $50 billion last year, it is the world leader in the communications services market. AT&T is no longer just a long-distance telephone service provider, but also has cellular phone, Internet connection, and direct TV services, among others.

"We're global," says Ponder, "and we're moving into local telephony as fast as the telecommunications reform will allow. It's an exciting, but a challenging time to be working at AT&T."

Just as Ponder puts the customers first at AT&T, so did he at Federal Express and at Sprint.

At Federal Express, where he was senior vice president of the Information and Telecommunications Division, Ponder oversaw an organization of more than 2,000 professionals and managers responsible for all software development, computer operations, and telecommunications support, and helped introduce a variety of innovative new technologies such as a worldwide package-tracking system and wireless networks. He led the expansion of the company's superhub at the Memphis Airport, where at the time some 600,000 packages passed each night on their way to next-day delivery, and he was part of the senior management team instrumental in initiating and implementing the quality program that won the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.

"I did almost everything you could do there," remembers Ponder. "The two years I spent enlarging the superhub-the sorting facility-was a wonderful opportunity."

Ponder also oversaw the development of Federal Express' package-tracking system, which had to be able to handle the hundreds of thousands of daily calls to trace packages. One part of the system included a portable bar-code scanner and computer, complete with miniature keyboard, screen, and significant storage capacity. Developed under Ponder's leadership, the scanners could be carried on the courier's belt holster and used to log in where the package came from, where it was, and where it was going. The scanners also could validate zip codes to eliminate routing problems, provide package routing guides, and log proof and delivery time.

"That scanner took many years of intense effort to develop," recalls Ponder. "But it was the type of technological development that we needed at the time to satisfy the demands of our customers, and that was to know at any given time, within 30 minutes, the status of their package."

Ponder left Federal Express in January 1992 to become executive vice president and chief information officer for Sprint Communications in Kansas City, Mo., where he was responsible for all information management and technology initiatives for Sprint's long distance, local, and cellular service operations. He was charged with improving customer service at a company where such service had failed to keep up with the company's rapid expansion. Before he left, Sprint already had realized an average 40 percent improvement in product-development time, every bill was being sent out early or on time, and customer service representatives were able to perform billing inquiries or check the status of large accounts in 45 seconds as compared to the 24 hours it previously took.

While Ron Ponder has firmly established his position as one of the stars in corporate information circles over the past 20 years, he also was able to fulfill that dream of being a college business professor. Shortly after receiving his Ph.D. from Mississippi State in 1975, he taught for a year in the College of Business and Industry. He followed that with a year at Georgia State University and five years at Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, where his consulting work eventually led to his entering the corporate information technology field with Federal Express in 1977.

"I knew when I entered college that I wanted to study the business field," Ponder says today. "I was influenced by my professors in college, and I decided I wanted to teach at the college level.

"And, I'm fortunate I was able to do that, but sometimes plans change," he laughs.

At age 54, Ron Ponder has worked his magic at Federal Express, Sprint, and now AT&T. He still works hard, sometimes 65 hours a week. When he can find time, he sails, bikes, and spends time with his wife, Carol, and the rest of his family. He's a Southern boy who has found a home in the Northeast. And for the time being, Ron Ponder's future remains in New Jersey and with AT&T.

"I still have a lot of work to do here," he says. "I enjoy AT&T, and I enjoy the countryside of New Jersey. We like it here. We like being in the country, but close to New York City. With the amount of work I have left to do here, I just have not planned the next step."

Although he probably is the most recognized chief information officer in the world, Ron Ponder still harks back to his Arkansas childhood and what it has meant to his career. "I learned a lot on that farm," says Ponder. "My grandfather owned a general store, a feed business, and ran a farm, so he was a very busy merchant there in the county. I learned a lot from him, watching him work and be successful.

"He was a businessman and he influenced me a lot. And I knew that I wanted to be a businessman too, and one day be successful like him."

And, that you have, Ron Ponder.

Editor's Note: As this issue of Mississippi State Alumnus went to press, Ron Ponder was asked to oversee the Global Network and System Planning for AT&T, using his previous experience in re-engineering network design and systems. He was asked to take a look at the global reach of AT&T's networks, as well as its alliances and partners around the world.