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Toni Murphy was named senior vice president for Comcast's Keystone Region in January.
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Ask me about ... leading telecom strategy while the world is watching

Photo courtesy of Comcast

Ask me about ... leading telecom strategy while the world is watching

Taking on a new role in a pandemic is tricky. For Toni Murphy, that’s meant working at a company whose services have become crucial for many of us working and learning from home — and whose services had to adapt to the new normal. In the third quarter of last year alone, her employer Comcast reported picking up 633,000 new high-speed internet customers.

Ms. Murphy, 38, from Peters Township, was recently named senior vice president of Comcast’s Keystone Region, where she will oversee operational, strategic and financial performance for the Philadelphia-based company in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. She’s worked in the cable and telecommunications industry since 2008.

The interview has been edited for space. 

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Let’s start with talking about your job. What are your responsibilities?

I just assumed my post in January as our regional lead and essentially what I’m responsible for is all of the financial, operational goals associated with the Keystone region. I have the distinct pleasure of leading a large team of diverse leaders across a variety of functions and essentially I'm responsible for thinking about the strategies and the landscapes to make sure they are able to do their very, very best work.

I lovingly say that if I do my job well, I get out of my team's way. 

What’s a regular day like for you?

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I usually start my day with just assessing where the business is and I do that a couple ways. We obviously are very engaged in customer feedback ... so I’ll check in and see what were some of the comments of their experiences the day before and make sure that we are giving kudos to our leaders who have done a great job and our employees who have done a great job.

And then I obviously look at our business results to make sure we’re performing where we want to be and assessing where the market is. I’m always trying to stay ahead of where customer sentiment is in terms of products and services just in the industry.

Obviously, right now with the change in administration that has implications, too.

You mentioned the change in administration. How does that change your role at Comcast?

We’re just very conscious that we’re in the middle of a pandemic so that's going to help us think about how we take care of our employees, around the virus and making sure people get vaccinated. 

Our industry really hinges upon what's happening in the home: Are people going back to work? Are they going to be staying home still? So certainly want to be staying abreast of those changes as well.

How has COVID-19 impacted your role and what is going on at Comcast?

Right away we knew as a company that with this change of folks working from home that we were going to have to step up and support the U.S. economy in whatever way we could, in a very thoughtful way.

So one of the things we did, we extended our internet essentials program all throughout last year. We created partnerships with different organizations such as Pittsburgh public schools, Ambridge school district, the housing authority, and giving all these organizations 60 days of free internet essentials to make sure we were keeping families connected.

We didn't want to have the internet being a reason why students would be left behind.

How has the financial and strategic planning side of it changed?

It hasn't changed much. We've always been a company that is ready for any outcome and any adjustment and change. We’re very flexible in our thinking and we’re really guided by our customer feedback, we’re guided by customer sentiment. We’re constantly looking to innovate. I think that last year taught us that we were always ready.

We haven’t really talked about the racial injustice side of this but as a company, with the aftermaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and certainly Breonna Taylor, we did make a commitment to fighting racial injustice in our own way — upwards of a $100 million commitment.

That incorporates things like the Comcast RISE program where we are supporting local businesses all across the U.S. through marketing efforts and renovations and all sorts of things to give those businesses what they need to stay on their feet. I think you’ve heard about the Black experience, which is a new channel that we’ve created that allows people to see the great content that amplifies Black voices.

What are some of your specific goals for the role? What are you hoping to accomplish?

One of the first things I did with my team when I took on this role was to come up with our team charter, who do we want to be as an organization and a team?

Part of what I'm trying to do right out the gate is create an environment where that vision can come to life, so listening to our employees, listening to our customers. We do call back customers often to get feedback from them on how we're doing, I like to get out in the field to spend time with our technicians and our retail associates to see what their experience is like and how we can improve our business there.

Lauren Rosenblatt: lrosenblatt@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1565. 

First Published: February 22, 2021, 11:30 a.m.

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Toni Murphy was named senior vice president for Comcast's Keystone Region in January.  (Photo courtesy of Comcast)
Photo courtesy of Comcast
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