Carrie Charles: The race to 5G is on and the battle for talent is getting fierce. Welcome to 5G Talent Talk with Carrie Charles, a podcast dedicated to helping you face the future workforce head-on. Navigate this challenging talent landscape with innovative strategies to attract, retain, and engage people in this new world of work. Only here on 5G Talent Talk with Carrie Charles, CEO of Broadstaff Talent Solutions.

Welcome and Introduction

Carrie Charles: Welcome to 5G Talent Talk. I’m your host, Carrie Charles, and I’m thrilled that you’re with me today. I’m also excited to have my guest today, Joe Pellegrini. He is the president and COO of Great Plains Communication. Thanks for joining me, Joe.

Joe Pellegrini: Thanks, Carrie. I appreciate you taking some time today.

Joe Pellegrini’s Telecom Journey: From College Graduate to COO

Carrie Charles: Yes, yes. I remember I met you years ago at a conference and I’ve always had such incredible respect for you, so I’m really excited about this conversation. But first, let’s hear about your past. How did you get into telecom? How did you get to your seat today?

Joe Pellegrini: Yeah, it’s really a true telecom journey for me. It started way back when I graduated college and got a job with Southern New England Telephone on the ILEC side. I started in the construction division, got asked to move over to management, and then actually took part in a layoff. That was kind of my first larger telecom experience. I was six years there, but Fibertech was really picking up, so I jumped in with Fibertech. I was there 12-13 years, then Fibertech got bought by Light Tower, Light Tower got bought by Crown Castle, and that allowed me to step away. At that point in time, I figured I wasn’t going to be interested in being part of the bigger business, which opened up the opportunity with Everstream. We grew that business unbelievably over those four years. It’s been almost two years now that I’ve been at Great Plains. I stepped into this seat to continue doing what we’ve been doing for a lot of years: looking at systems and processes, growing the business, and ensuring that the customer experience is absolutely the best it can be. So, yeah, just a true 26-year telecom journey for sure.

The 113-Year Legacy of Great Plains Communication

Carrie Charles: I want to hear the Great Plains Communication story, but first, when we spoke, you said that the company has been around for 113 years?

Joe Pellegrini: Yeah, taking good notes. Yeah, 113 years. It’s a weird just. We are one of the oldest infrastructure providers across the Midwest. It started in Creighton, Nebraska, as a local telephone company. As technology and communications changed, business changed with it. We were actually one of the first providers across the Midwest to lay fiber and start to produce fiber-fed services. The growth over the years has been absolutely outstanding. Committed to the customer, willing to grow in all sorts of rural America as well as urban, and so really a committed business to providing to the underserved and unserved as well as the business community, the tower community, and all the rest that we can put on our platform.

What Sets Great Plains Communication Apart in Telecom

Carrie Charles: What makes GPC different?

Joe Pellegrini: Ah, wow. I think there’s a few different things, but I would say the fact that we have six different business units that we continually feed and care for. We are not a pure-play fiber-to-the-home, we’re not a pure-play enterprise, we’re not a pure-play fiber-to-the-tower. We have a really robust wholesale business, we work with carriers, we do a decent amount of work now with the hyperscalers, not just providing service or connectivity for them but also being a point of presence inside the facilities to ensure that we can offload and onload services as well. Having a broader-based business as opposed to a single-shoot business allows us to dial up or dial down the business in each of those market segments.

A perfect example is MDU. We just started the MDU business about three years ago wholeheartedly, and last year the MDU group grew 96% in one year. We saw it as a market opportunity, turned the dial up, put the proper resources and dollars and people behind the effort, and we’re gaining those dividends now, which is very impressive, the growth over the three-year period.

GPC’s Role in Digital Equity and BEAD Funding

Carrie Charles: I know that you’re a player in digital equity and BEAD funding as well. Talk about how GPC is going to participate in the BEAD funding.

Joe Pellegrini: Yeah, so I think that’s a two-part question for me. The history behind our involvement, GPC’s involvement in government-led efforts to solve for the broadband piece is 15-20 years old in its current iteration. It’s led by one of the leaders in the business, Ken Fister. He has spent an incredible amount of time, energy, and effort on this. He actually came from AT&T before this on the policy side and has been with us for 15 years. We participate in a whole ton of programs already: Capital Projects Funds, Broadband Bridge, Next Level 3 and 4 in Indiana, a reverse auction here in Nebraska, and the new enhanced AAM program.

For the BEAD piece, BEAD gets a whole ton of air time. Everybody’s talking about the $42.5 billion and whether it’s going to be like RDOF 2.0. We hope it’s administrated much more robustly than prior. We will absolutely participate in BEAD. We’re excited about our participation, but it will be in a thoughtful manner because we participate in so many governmental programs right now. We have had a ton of success in each of these programs, bringing services further and further into rural America, solving for digital inequity. We’re waiting for all the rules to get clarified in every state, and then we will thoughtfully participate across our footprint where we feel we can succeed, bringing services to local constituents and ensuring that we land where we’re supposed to within the governmental time frames.

Maintaining a Strong Company Culture Over a Century

Carrie Charles: Let’s switch gears a bit to company culture because I’d love to hear not only about the culture of GPC but how you’ve been able to maintain that culture over 113 years. Obviously, I’m sure the culture has evolved and transformed over that time period.

Joe Pellegrini: It has. It really has transformed since we’ve now been PE-owned. Grain Management took ownership in 2018 and they’ve been a tremendous partner, really helping ramp up the company. David Grain and his team came to us with a strong telecom understanding as well as tower, so they understood the space but stood alongside us and helped move the business forward. Before that, it was family-owned, so it was a slightly different version of things in terms of spend and year-over-year growth.

The culture is a wonderful place to be. We have folks who have been here 25, 35, 40 years, and others who have been here just days. Having those internal folks who have the history with them, when we bring folks in, it gives them a healthy understanding of the history and the effort it takes to continue being a positive work environment and delivering to the customer. People stay because it’s an interesting place where they’re continuing to learn and grow, and solving for and delivering on the commitment to the customer.

Secrets Behind GPC’s High Employee Retention

Carrie Charles: You mentioned that you have someone who’s been there 25 years. That’s incredible retention. Talk more about your secret to your unusually high retention.

Joe Pellegrini: I would say it’s respecting the employee, no matter what level, pay grade, or title. We have over 400 employees, and 50% of them work and live in the communities they service. It creates a collaborative atmosphere where we want to succeed for the business and for the customer. It’s about respectful, truthful engagement and allowing people to be part of the business. It’s not just about doing tasks but being part of decision-making and understanding why things are done, which fosters a fully engaged atmosphere.

Fostering Employee Growth and Development at GPC

Carrie Charles: How do you prioritize growth and development for your employees?

Joe Pellegrini: It’s allowing people to be responsible for their decisions. Asking someone to participate in the decision-making, execution, and sharing in the success or failure builds a stronger, more well-rounded employee base. We promote folks in leadership, teach, mentor, and allow them to participate in culture events and 360 feedback. We also have an internal training program and bring in external vendors for leadership development, fostering a continuous growth mindset.

Embracing Remote Work at Great Plains Communication

Carrie Charles: What are your thoughts on remote work versus hybrid versus in-office?

Joe Pellegrini: I am 100% on board with remote work, and Great Plains Communications has embraced it fully. We have employees in all four time zones now. The systems and processes allow us to attract world-class talent to a regional business, which positions us to grow. Technicians are tougher to work remote, but for office staff and executives, remote work allows us to bring in talent from various locations. We treat folks like adults, and our remote work policy is working well for our business.

GPC’s Vision for the Next 5 Years

Carrie Charles: What is your vision for GPC moving forward, let’s say, the next 5 years or so?

Joe Pellegrini: Continued thoughtful growth. We have a long-term vision and participate in regulatory programs funded through 2039. We focus on the thoughtful deployment of capital and flexibility to adapt to market forces. It’s about making enough decisions to occasionally make mistakes and learning from them to grow the business. Continued development across different segments and solving for customer needs is our priority.