Walking the walk

Richard Ellenberger governs his life based on a story about Gandhi. While Gandhi was on a pilgrimage via train across India, followers blocked the tracks, forcing his train to stop. To reinforce their beliefs, the followers begged Gandhi for a message. To appease them, he wrote them a note. It said, "I walk the walk."

The story speaks volumes to Ellenberger, president and CEO of BroadWing, because, "no matter what you say you will do in life, if you don't actually do it, it won't get done," he says.

Since arriving at Cincinnati Bell in 1997, Ellenberger has accomplished a lot. He has met every employee, initiated a region-wide deployment of asymmetrical DSL (ADSL), created a virtual city in Cincinnati called ZoomTown, introduced wireless services and completed the merger with IXC Communications that formed BroadWing.

Ellenberger says the merger happened at an ideal time. With AT&T focused on cable modems, MCI WorldCom focused on the Sprint merger, Qwest Communications sorting out the U S West merger and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and data CLECs absorbed in buildout, BroadWing will "take quick, smart action and seize opportunities that other carriers can't get to," he says.

BroadWing is big enough to have the availability of a large-scale network but small enough to be creative and clever in delivering customer solutions that will help the company grow rapidly in data and IP, Ellenberger says.

"We are known to strike so fast, you never saw us coming," he adds, quoting his favorite motto for BroadWing. He plans to take Cincinnati Bell's successful ADSL initiative, the ZoomTown virtual city project, and more to other regions, thanks to IXC's extensive fiber optic network. BroadWing also plans to offer voice over IP, he said.

Throughout his telecom career, Ellenberger has worked in sales, reception, installation and management. He also spent several years as a high school business teacher. He attributes his success to "never leaving any of those jobs behind." He interacts with every employee to demonstrate how each person fits into the bigger picture of BroadWing, he says.

Ultimately, Ellenberger says, he wants to look back at the people who've helped him achieve his goals and see that they have achieved the same.