Quality First Spending Philosophy

"When providing good service required buying some costly equip- ment, McCaw hated to hear the fact stated as if it were a negative. As Donahue puts it, "He would get upset with us. He'd say, 'If you built it the right way, and you're taking care of customers, we'll make it back tenfold. Don't worry about capital. I'll worry about that.' " There was McCaw's faith again, denying uncertainty. The message was always the same: Build it right; keep customers happy; quality wins. That mantra was a crucial element of McCaw's success, though far from the whole story."

"customer. He'd say, "Tel l me how much money you need to do that, and I will get the money if you can build me a long-term fran- — — chile." He was^fcvaysHmlnlang about the long term."

"largely disappeared from press coverage. More amazingly, McCaw largely disappeared from Nextel itself. Hardly anyone inside Nextel ever saw him. Tim Donahue, Nextel's number two, said, "I talk to him rarely." When they did talk, McCaw's advice was simple—the same message he had delivered at McCaw Cellular—move fast, but don't skimp on quality. Beyond that, he refused to talk about details. "Report- ing to him is like reporting to the wall," Donahue said. "You tell him you want to do something and he says, 'Well, okay.' " A little weird? Yes—and it worked."