Julie Laulis

President & COO, Cable One

This past year Cable One completed its spinoff from Graham Holding as an independent, publicly traded company—and Laulis couldn’t be more confident about the move. “After years of explaining our shift in this direction, we believe that our continued strong financial results provide compelling evidence that our strategy is sound,” she says. What’s more, the company is close to completing the rollout of 1 gig service across all service areas, is ramping up its enterprise business products and sales, and continues to improve operations efficiency, with the attrition of more than 5 percent of headcount in the past 12 months.

What advice would you give your 13-year-old self?

The advice I would give my 13-year-old self could fill a book! One of the major pieces of advice I would center on is harnessing my energy and drive for “all” things. At 13, I was trying to do everything – academics, athletics, church and family 110 percent of the time. I would advise myself to prioritize and focus more than I did.  I have a plaque in my office that says, “I can do anything, but I can’t do everything.” I thank my friend for that kind reminder to my current self.

Which current programming best reflects the kind of women’s roles you like to see and why?

Honestly, I watch very little TV (but am on the Internet almost round the clock)!  I asked friends to tell me about programming with strong female roles and they struggled to come up with very many. Each could name one program, but I think this low report out says so much about the perceptions of contemporary woman and about the lack of strong, competent portrayals of women in content. Sounds like there is work to be done in this area.

What’s been the biggest story in cable this year?

To us, the biggest story in cable this year is Cable One’s successful transition to an HSD and business services-centric focus. After years of explaining our shift in this direction, we believe that our continued strong financial results provide compelling evidence that that our strategy is sound.  I couldn’t be more proud of our Cable One team for this accomplishment!