Sprint CEO Dan Hesse's plan to fight AT&T and Verizon: 'doing the right thing'

Sprint wants to be the "good guys." Another way to put it: Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is betting that nice guys don't always finish last. "At Sprint, we describe it internally as being the good guys, of doing the right thing," said Hesse.

That moral component pervades many of the PR-friendly activities Sprint engages in, from eco-friendly recycling programs to distracted driving prevention, but it also, Hesse says, informs what would otherwise seem like calculated business decisions like continuing to offer unlimited data. The topline example is Sprint's place in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which since Hesse's four-and-a-half-year tenure as CEO have gone from worst to first amongst carriers. Hesse says that "doing the right thing" when it comes to better customer service not only makes customers happier, but saves the company money: "Customer care costs are roughly half of what they were four and a half years ago."