b'FOREWORDLou Borrelli is CEO of the National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC), representing independent cable and broadband operators across the U.S. He brings nearly five decades of experience in the connectivity industry, having built and led companies spanning cable operations, broadband services, and remote production facilities.Lou BorrelliCEO, National Content & Technology CooperativeFO R E WO R D THEN: BUILDING ON BOOTSTRAP FOUNDATIONSThen, Now, Next:My journey began at UA Columbia, a local cable company where I learned the business from the Four Decades ofground up. This was before IBM PCs, when we manually calculated budgets using number two pencils and green bar paper, balancing to the penny. My boss Connectivitytaught me that if you know where all the pennies go, you would understand how the dollars work. That Innovation lesson in financial fundamentals proved invaluable as I helped build Marcus Cable from 35 employees and Looking back on, or, thinking about 48 years in the15,000 customers to operations with 2,500 employees connectivity industry, I\'m struck not only by how muchserving 1.3 million customers.has changed, but also by how much has remainedThose early decades taught me that success in this constant. Customers today want the same thingsindustry isn\'t about having an Ivy League MBA or they wanted when I started in 1978: control over theirtaking endless business classes. It\'s about being a content, control over what they pay, and value forsponge absorbing lessons from mentors who would their investment. What\'s transformed is our ability tobelong on a cable industry Mount Rushmore and deliver on those expectations, and that transformationremembering how you want to treat people when it\'s is continually evolving. your turn at the helm.The cable industry I entered nearly five decades agoThe industry\'s entrepreneurial DNA was forged was primarily small operators providing broadcastby independent, bootstrap, multi-generational signals to remote communities with satellite networksbusinesses that refused to accept limitations. These just beginning to launch. As new markets developedoperators didn\'t just deliver television; they built the and independent operators realized they lackedfoundation for today\'s digital economy.the scale to reach their business and community objectves, consolidation was the opportunity to achieve what they couldn\'t accomplish alone. ThatNOW: EMBRACING CONVERGENCE foundational principle of collective strength remainsAND TRANSFORMATIONas relevant today as it was when the National Cable Television Cooperativenow the National ContentToday, as CEO of NCTC, I\'m leading an organization & Technology Cooperative (NCTC)was formed 41through its own transformation from a programming years ago by independent operators seeking betterpurchasing cooperative to what I call a "universal programming deals. essential service strategic partner." 5'