'Employment deal' | AT&T CEO admits mishandling of culture 'evolution' amid memo controversy

AT&T CEO John Stankey told attendees at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit that he waited too long to confront the cultural shifts he believed the business needed to make.

He said he placed the need for “culture evolution” on a long list of priorities instead of elevating it early and driving specific actions to reinforce it.

His comments follow extensive discussion sparked by a memo, originally reported by Business Insider in August, which described AT&T’s move toward a “more market-based culture.”

The memo led to debate about how much loyalty employees could expect from their employer. During the summit conversation, WSJ Leadership Institute president Alan Murray suggested that Stankey’s delay may have explained why the communication surfaced only this year.