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Carl Roberts is a strong advocate of using time productively. As a man constantly on the go, the group vice president of Verizon Global Wholesale is often reliant on his Blackberry, iPad and laptop to keep up to speed with his company’s global activities. “I like to cram as much as possible into the day because I hate any blank spaces,” he says.
Roberts’s day is often structured according to time zones. A string of calls during his hour long commute in the morning allows him to receive updates from Verizon’s Asia-Pacific team before they sign off for the night, closely followed by checking in with his team in Dubai.
With this taken care of, Carl’s attention soon turns to Europe for the remainder of the morning, followed by North America in the afternoon.
By engaging in regular calls with his team across the globe, Carl keeps his finger firmly on the pulse of Verizon’s global business, something which he believes is imperative in the fast paced world of wholesale. “It is important to have very frequent touch points because we’ve got a lot going on, it’s a lot of different geographies to cover,” he says.
Roberts estimates that he spends between 90 and 100 days per year travelling. Flights are one of the rare periods of operational downtime during his working day, although he admits that much if his journey can be spent with his mind firmly on the job.
The jet-setting lifestyle sounds glamorous, but Roberts’s back-to-back meetings often leave him with precious little time to explore the sights. With Istanbul’s Bosphorus as the stunning background to this interview, Roberts does point out that even the most fleeting of visits can provide inspiration for places to return as a tourist – Turkey being a prime example.
On days when he is not catching a “red eye” early morning flight from the airport, Carl likes to wake up at 6am and start his day with a 5km run. An avid sports fan, his interests also include soccer and rugby, the latter of which he particularly appreciates for its values of respect and fair play.
In the evenings, whether he is at home or abroad in a hotel, Carl likes to unwind with a glass of wine and a good book or film. He is keen to emphasise the need to relax and spend time with family when the working day is over. “It is important to plan those times when you do take a break and switch the Blackberry off, because otherwise you won’t be able to survive,” he says.
