Turnarounds
Circuitbreaker
How Peter Leparulo rewired Novatel Wireless’ culture from the inside out
By Erik Cassano
Smart Business San Diego | August 2009
Page 1 of 4
When Peter Leparulo took over at Novatel Wireless Inc. in 2003, the wireless broadband access solutions provider was doing nothing right.
Novatel had just one customer, poorly managed distribution channels and dozens of new products in the research and development phase with no plan for implementing them. Financially, Novatel’s stock had traded for 11 cents — the lowest price in the company’s history.
“We had no cash whatsoever, our engineers were developing 42 new products, and nobody had any idea of what these products were going to do, nobody had accountability for whether these products were going to be successful,” says Leparulo, the company’s chairman and CEO. “It was basically throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.”
On top of that, the company was managed by what Leparulo described as a “very strange set of bewildering alliances” throughout the various levels of the company. The management system — or what passed for it — greatly decentralized authority in the company, creating roadblocks in the decision-making process.
“Responsibility was very dispersed,” he says. “Responsibility was decoupled from the resources needed to achieve any results.”
Leparulo needed to rebuild the business. But in order to rebuild it, he needed to eradicate a flawed culture that had grown deep roots within the company. To make it happen, it would take persistent communication around a new culture and vision for Novatel — and a willingness to part ways with anyone who chose to cling to the old culture.
