Being skilled in attracting and retaining talent is the standard organizations strive for – developing that talent into leaders is a separate feat few can achieve. How does Larry Moore Jr. do it? In this episode, Carrie Charles sits down with the Chief Operating Officer of Roaming Networks to discuss the “Roaming culture” they’ve developed and how it has paved the way for increasing retention. The two also discuss the servant leadership Larry practices, and how he mentors his employees into higher-level roles. Tune in to learn more about the healthy workplace practices infused in their culture that promote diversity, engagement, and development.
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Developing And Retaining Talent With Larry Moore Jr. Of Roaming Networks
I’m excited about our guest. I have Larry Moore, the COO of Roaming Networks. Larry, thanks for joining me.
Thanks for having us. The entire Roaming family thanks you for giving us this opportunity.
Larry, when I first met you, one of the things that were so fascinating was your story, where you’ve come from, and how you got to where you are now. In fact, it was so inspirational and I get chills even thinking about it. Can you talk a little bit about your story and how you got to where you are?
First and foremost, I got here because of the great mentors that I’ve had in my life, the family around me that has always supported me, hard work, and opportunities. I started out as a tower climber as a young kid, trying to find my way in the world. I was taught about the industry from climbing the towers to the management side and the great companies that I’ve been a part of.
The first company I was ever a part of had set that foundation. They set the expectations that you do everything right, and all the little things count. They add up to the big things to the chance of getting to be a construction manager for one of the big turf vendors and moving through my career as the senior CEO, GM, director of market, and director of all safety for that turf vendor to an operations manager for a union-based company to a vice president of a little company in Florida. Here we are, COO. It’s an easy twenty years, but I’m blessed to be where I am, and I know that. The people who have supported me are the reason I’m here.
That is a testament to our industry and what’s possible, everything from coming in as a tower tech and moving to a C-level role in telecom. This is a message to everyone to bring more people into our industry and say, “It is possible. Look at this.” I’m excited about talking to you. Why Roaming Networks? What drew you to this company?
It was timing. There was a time when I was figuring out what my next steps were going to be and taking my time. Roaming was reaching out to me, and I did not know that I was flying to Chicago and moving two guys from Belgrade, Serbia. I couldn’t even tell you where Serbia was on the map. I walked into that room and had an interview like I’ve never had. For three-quarters of a day, they sat there and told me about Roaming, where Roaming is going to go, and what Roaming’s visions are.
The big thing that makes Roaming different is, we’re trying to think outside the box.
They asked me to be a part of it. I left that meeting knowing that doing it was the right opportunity. We only have so many great opportunities in front of me. There’s nothing like this culture. It’s different than anything I’ve ever seen. I don’t care if it’s the CEO or the COO. If we all got to grab a harness and go up the tower and help somebody, we will.
Larry, tell me about the story behind Roaming, who you serve, and what do offer.
Roaming started in 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia. In 2017, the CEO came to the United States. He had a vision, a goal, radio access, and passive optical networks. We’re serving carriers with turf vendors. We’re serving our employees by buyer growth to giving them opportunities to grow in their careers. The growth can be overwhelming some days, but it’s so rewarding. We had 74 employees to 300 in 12 months. It’s an amazing feat. We’re not taking our foot off the gas. I can see that number double by 2023 if we keep going the way we are, especially with the partnerships that we have and the faith that our customers have at this point.
On the wireless side and wireline both?
Absolutely.
What would you say makes Roaming different?
The big thing that makes Roaming different is we’re trying to think outside the box. We’re trying to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. Roaming is more than just Roaming. If you look at the Roaming group, we have so many different facets with electricity and wireless sites. In our software, we’re building our own safety platforms. We have CloseOut. It’s out there. It’s all over. We had that in 2022. We built that platform by doing other parts of it. We didn’t like the improvements that they would like to see on it.
It’s the same thing with a project management tool. We have one that’s not been released yet but it’s good enough, and then the back-office staff that we have. I’ve hired 100 engineers sitting in the Belgrade, Serbia office that can answer any of your questions. It came about because when it comes to CloseOuts and safety, our team didn’t think that everybody else was getting it right. “Let’s build our own tools and manage this ourselves.” It’s led to where there are a couple of carriers that are using our platform for safety, quality, and even tracking the guys out. It’s great.
It’s having all those tools in place and the ability to go to a designer back with a grade and say, “This isn’t working for the redesign. Let’s make it look this way.” The next time you open the platform up, it looks that way. It’s not something out of the box, which most companies have. This is going to answer all of our safety and quality concerns around that.
That’s some serious growth you’re talking about. I wrote 74 to over 300 employees in 12 months.
That’s just in the US.
You went to five offices. What do you attribute that to?
We got great partners on the carrier side and source side who want to see us succeed and grow with them. We also attribute that to our recruiting, HR, vision, goals, and CEO. We’re able to recruit from other countries. We’ve got a good system down. At one point, we were recruiting from four different countries. Now, we are not at that. We had a little bit down to 4 or 5, but we’re getting to replace that up. These are skilled employees, people that’s been climbing for ten-plus years. We have been doing another test for the ability to climb it. The people are from Serbia, Russia, those countries, and the United States. They’re only missing their NWSA, and that’s it. It’s within 300 people. That’s one of the largest things I’m very proud of.
One of the biggest problems in our industry is workforce and finding these crews, people, and skilled labor to do the work. It’s not the work that is the problem. It’s the people. That’s a challenge that you definitely have a strategy that’s working, which I love hearing. What are your goals in the US? What’s your vision? What are you building?
The more diversity that we can give the company, the better all of us are going to be. We can learn from each other.
The ego side of me wants to say the best telecom company in the US is what we’re doing. I truly believe that. Finding our own solutions to the challenges is what’s going to continue our growth and that can be in how we pick up the employees and take care of the customers. The sky’s the limit. I saw the men and women that are out there working through that. These employees have their own visions and goals. They talk about it a million times, “Please come take my job because you know what it means. I did mine.” We’re going to be in all 50 states, but we’re taking one step at a time, one state at a time. We’re making sure we do it the right way. Make sure they don’t think as before because there’s a big opportunity.
I love what you said, “If you take my job, it means that I did my job.” I want to hear more about the Roaming culture and what pieces of the Serbian culture have you adopted in the US. Is it different? Is it similar? Let’s talk a little bit about that. The diversity sounds incredible.
When it comes to the Serbian and US coast, it’s a great mix. You have two proud countries with their love of freedom and love of faith, hardworking, and goal-driven. They want to do the best they can every day for their companies and families. Bringing those two cultures together is probably the easiest thing. The Serbian culture is so high and patient. I’m surrounded by them every single day of my life there. The culture is not a problem.
In sixteen nationalities, there is cultural differences, but from day one, the Roaming is like, “This is our culture and everybody is invited into it.” The more diversity that we can give in the company, the better all of us are going to be. We can learn from each other. Being COO, I can still learn from a tower technician. I can learn something every single day. I hope I pass my knowledge I have as much as they pass their knowledge on to me.
How do you keep so many different people sitting in different countries engaged? You said you have teams in ten countries.
It’s ten countries. I’m over in the US. We have leaders in all those other countries, but we all stay engaged. We have one group president that keeps us engaged. He’s a great leader, making sure that we’re all doing the same thing the same way. I’ve talked about CloseOut, and all the other companies out there that are using our project management tool. They’re going to start using the scoping tool that we’re also building. We’re making sure that every market we go into if that’s another country or another state, that we eat everything, the processes, the procedures, and the culture as close to together as we can.
We’ve talked quite a bit and I’m happy, too, because Broadstaff is staffing for Roaming. I’ve had some time to talk to you a lot about what you’re doing and about Roaming. You mentioned something about you sending questionnaires to your team each week. Tell me about that.
We do. We use a program every Friday. They get three questions and this was done internationally in every country that we have. It is for them to tell us how they’re feeling and what their aggravations are. It’s just three simple questions. It’s an open box where they can put anything they want. Every Tuesday we go over the feedback. If there’s something that’s discouraging or they’re not happy about certain things, the HOUR team or I will pick up the phone and call that person. We’ll see what it is and solve it, instead of letting it linger out there, and one person will tell people that there is a problem. If we can get ahead of it, we’ll get good results out of using that platform.
I was in a meeting. We were talking about how companies use employee satisfaction surveys. They have an employee satisfaction program, and many times that’s once a year. When I heard that you have this questionnaire that you send out once a week, that is brilliant for retention, especially in this world.
If you do it once a year, the employee feels like you only think about them once a year. If you’re giving them a platform or a voice to talk to every week, I, the CEO, or one of the officers will make sure our doors are open for the guys. They’re going to respect us and know that we’re there for them. They’re the most important key to this. Without them, I don’t get through my day.
Something that I get asked a lot is how to retain field workers and tower techs. You hear a lot about retention all over the place. How to retain your team? It’s typically not specifically designed for field workers. I know that you and I talked before about this idea where you talk about flipping the org chart. I want to hear more about that.
I’m going to give a silent shout-out about this to somebody who I count as a mentor. This was a few years ago. I can remember sitting in the room and he mentioned something about an organizational chart relationship. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I said, “Let’s flip that upside down. I want to know what they do going out in those little towers, digging the ditches. They’re climbing the poles for aerial fiber.” The strongest part of any company is its employees. I get the pleasure of being able to see them grow, be successful, be there for them when they need us, and give solutions to challenges that they might have. Some of them may be too young or too old. Let’s take care of the people who take care of us.
The strongest part of any company is your employees.
Larry, you are the epitome of servant leadership. It’s an inspiration to me, talking to you and understanding your heart, how you lead, and what’s important to you. I know we talked about this interview and you said, “I don’t want this to be about me. I want this to be about Roaming. That’s part of it, but Larry, I want to hear more about you because that servant leadership style that you have is incredible. It’s something that all leaders need a piece of. Tell me about what principles guide you as a leader.
It goes back to my parents. That’s where it started. Having the right mentors throughout my career, it developed more and more for every position that I took. My team’s always going to be more important, but I would attribute it to my mom. She’s an amazing woman. She’s the hardest worker. She’s successful. If you would make one person smile every day, even if it’s somebody you’ve been paying every day, take care of people who take care of you. That’s what I’ve learned from her and from my family. They make me who I am and the foundation of life.
That’s what keeps me up with life. Your family makes you realize who you are. I still look in the mirror and see Larry, the tower climber. It’s all about passing on my knowledge, mentoring, coaching, and staying what legacy I can leave. Hopefully, several years from now, somebody else is on this with you and they’re talking and saying, “Larry Moore taught us this.” That is something I would like. We all get caught up in the rat race. We all want to make money. I don’t think those are the most important things in the world. Leaving a little bit of a mark and that we help somebody through is exactly what we should do.
That way of thinking is what you’re going to need as a company moving forward to be successful and retain paying. Roaming’s got it right.
We’re getting it right. To be here is awesome. We’re moving 1,000 miles an hour every single day, but we all have a smile on our faces and doing the right things every day to continue the growth. It might be cliché that the sky’s the limit.
With the way that you’re growing, Larry, I would say that the sky may not be the limit. I would say we’re going into the stratosphere, way beyond. It’s so exciting to see that. I have to say a big part of that it’s top-down. I agree with you about flipping the org chart because you know that everyone is so important in a company. It’s not just the leaders. There are the people that work for them. It is a company, top-down, the culture.
I’m seeing who you are, you leading the US team, and all of this growth. I’m looking at your heart. I love it when you said, “I look in the mirror and I see Larry, the tower climber.” You know that saying, “Never forget where you came from.” You get everyone and understand who works for you. You care. You have a big heart. That is the culture for the future. I commend you for that.
A lot of people can say they try to make their company a family, but I can honestly say it is family at Roaming. You blend in, fit, and get where this family’s going. If you don’t, it’s fine, but we’re looking for those leaders that want to be a part of that family. The CEO and I always talked about this. We’re never going to take this off our board. Let’s not lose touch because then we’re going to lose the whole Roaming culture. That’s the one thing that is most important from the owner to the stockholders all the way down to our leaders that are out in the field now.
Larry, this has been an inspiration to me and to everyone reading. How do we find out more about Roaming Networks and the jobs that you have available? I’m sure you have plenty.
RoamingNetworksInc.com is the easiest way to find us. We’ve always got the technician spot open. We’re recruiting in different countries, but we’re recruiting right here, too. We wanted American-based crews. From tower technicians all the way up to the project managers, we’re growing so fast. We need good leaders and family members, so we can continue to grow this. That’s going to be on the wireless side. There are board operators and rig operators out there ready to put fiber in the ground. If you’re ready to climb a tower with Roaming and build infrastructure for downtown here in the US, let’s do that, too.
This has been great, Larry. Thanks for being on the show. I’m excited. I love all that you’re doing. You’re a light to the world, Roaming, and the entire team at Roaming. I know that you’ll accomplish all of your goals.
Once again, thank you from the Roaming family. We appreciate the opportunity to be here.
You got it. We’ll talk soon.
Important Links
About Larry Moore Jr
Growing up on a small West Virginia horse farm a son of a Hand Glass worker and a postal worker Larry was taught the value of hard work and dedication early in his life. As the COO of Roaming Networks Inc., he leads a fast pace and growing team for Radio Access Networks and Passive Optical Networks in construction and Engineering. Larry started his career as a Tower Technician over 20 years ago and has held the positions of Tower Foreman , Construction Manager , Project Manager , Operations Manager, Director, and Vice President before taking his current role. Passion for knowledge of safety and educational standards he gained his CSHO through the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services program.
The drive to mentor and coach the next generation of Telecom leaders Larry strives of sharing his real-life experiences and knowledge to the brilliant and talented furture leaders of our industry. A belief for family in his personal and career life he believes that all the little things done correctly daily is what makes us great at what we do no matter what it is. A man of family, faith, and college football everything is based around his beautiful wife Sharon , two sons Austin and Josh , and the WE ARE fighting spirit !!
“One Team with One Goal”
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