Customer Reviews

Tough Calls: AT&T and the Hard Lessons Learned from the Telecom Wars

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The back cover says that this book is "an up-front seat for the roller coaster ride" and a "look at how a great company tumbled" that will give us a "tour of AT&T's wild ride" and "chart the dissolution of an American icon." Not one of those comments is even remotely warranted.

I was expecting to find interesting insider discussions of important questions like:
* Did AT&T make any mistakes during the "trivestiture" in January 1996 (akin to giving away the wireless licenses to the RBOCs in the 1984 breakup)? Martin doesn't say, beyond talking about the PR fallout of the layoffs, which right off the bat were themselves only a side issue of the broader business strategy.
* Was pursuing cable the right strategy for Armstrong to implement? Probably, but Martin doesn't weigh in on this.
* Did AT&T overpay for MediaOne? Of course, but again Martin is silent.
* Did AT&T further compound its cable problem by putting poor executives (first Hindery and then Somers) in charge of broadband? Not a peep.
* How should AT&T have handled the $2 billion @Home acquisition? Silence.
* Were all these problems unavoidable due to AT&T's pre-1996 succession planning problems? The only aspect of this question that Martin bothers to discuss is the PR fiasco surrounding Walter's departure. As if that were the most important aspect. He strikes me as having an exaggerated sense of his importance to the organization.

AT&T was a corporate icon for 130 years and had 4 million stockholders. Surely there were "hard lessons learned" as the subtitle claims, lessons that are valuable in the broader context of the modern corporation. However, from reading this book you would get the impression that AT&T's only mistakes were in communications. Martin gives us an incredibly myopic view of just the PR efforts related to AT&T's various missteps. Outside the PR business, who cares? Nobody! This could (indeed should) have been the business book with the broadest appeal in a decade. Instead we got a book that only PR people could stomach. It was so monumentally boring it literally put me to sleep. I bought this book to read about AT&T; if I cared about Martin's actions I would have bought his biography instead.

Despite naming the first chapter "Don't dance to the music of your own buzz" it seems that Martin has done exactly that. His book is the ultimate example of form over substance, confusing the important business questions facing AT&T with the buzz surrounding him and the communication of the answers to those questions. Whether the answers were the right ones or not, Martin is unwilling (or unable) to say. If this book is an example of the caliber of executive thinking at the level of Executive Vice President at AT&T no wonder the company sank so far so fast.

Dick Martin pulls no punches in his review of AT&T and the PR efforts he led while head of the company's communications team. His insights come from his PR leadership during some of AT&T's most tumultuous times. The inner thinkings of CEOs, CFOs and more are on display as the company tackles increasing challenges in the marketplace. Martin appears most insightful when he shines the spotlight equally bright on the company's PR efforts he led -- what went right, what could have gone better, and what went wrong. A good read for those interested in corporate leadership and the communications that often accompany it.

I have known Dick Martin for many years, but personally and not professionally. The topic of this book was of immediate interest for two reasons: I know many persons in the telecom industry who no longer have jobs; and I know many persons whose retirement funds and savings have been hurt as a result of their declining telecom shares.

I found this book to be honest, insightful, and of tremendous value to any organization seeking to accept to the whitewater environment of our society today. Dick minced no words about failures, erroneous judgment calls, or the strengths and weaknesses of the various leaders. He also gave perspective that filled in the blanks of the public perception of AT&T's moves and developments over the years. He connected the dots brilliantly to show the powerful impact that the criminal behavior of WorldCom had on AT&T. Due to WorldCom's crimes (publicly acknowledged) AT&T was forced to make decisions believing that the numbers reported by WorldCom were accurate when they were, in fact, fabrications. How sad for everyone.

The style is sparking and clear, which is not surprising since it is written by Dick. Read this book if you are interested in what has happened to the telecom industry or how to have your organization avoid some of the pitfalls that waylaid many of the dreams of AT&T. It is so refreshing to read a "no spin" book where honesty is transparent to all on every page.

"Tough Calls: AT&T and the Hard Lessons Learned from the Telecom Wars" is a no-holds-barred look behind the scenes at AT&T's executive offices as the company weathered the turbulent telecom marketplace over the last 20+ years. Martin's compelling writing covers the rise and fall of the company's top executives; the discussions and events that shaped the company's strategy; the things that worked and those that failed miserably. With remarkable candor, Martin assesses the company's strengths and, all too often, weaknesses, and applies that candor to his own performance as head of AT&T Public Relations. It's must reading for current and would-be PR practitioners, but also for anyone who wants a peak beneath the kimono of an American corporate icon.

Dick Martin had an excellent position inside AT&T with which to report on the "perfect storm" of technological change, intensifying competition, and government intervention (both by Congress and the courts). At the same time, the industry was melting away with the advent of cellular, its biggest competitor (MCI WorldCom) felt free to slash prices because it was making up its financial results as it went along (forcing AT&T to lose about $5 billion in revenues/year), and AT&T was seeming going in circles - diversifying (eg. into cable) - then returning to its roots, promoting new outside leadership (eg. Walters, from a printing firm) - then firing, opposing Baby Bell entry into its long-distance - then supporting (with conditions), etc.

Unfortunately, Martin does not provide a structured summary of these events - instead he remains mired in the details of P.R. actions and responses associated with them - a topic of little interest or importance.

I read with great interest "Tough Calls" from back to cover; and cover to back, as I was very familiar with AT&T; having spent many years in senior sales positions for "ma bell". In the final analysis; Dick Martin's woeful tale should be a case study of those who believe stock value is created by "spinning" reporters, rather than by listening to customers.

In all 268 pages; no where, not once; does Mr. Martin detail a discussion; or even a meeting with a paying customer of AT&T. Ultimately, it is fitting that AT&T was bought by a competitor -and I am sure that there will be layoffs in the PR department; and SBC's stock price will rise as a result.

The real lesson of the "Telecom Wars" is the same as most wars; that disengaged leaders make poor leaders. Mr. Martin's tales are most appropriate - and unfortunate for AT&T, er SBC; stockholders and customers.

A sub-title for this book could be - 'How to grind an old and proud company down to nothing.' I was a supplier to AT&T during much of the time covered by this book. (To be sure, AT&T was a major customer of mine, I was a minor, very minor supplier by their standards.) I watched the operations of AT&T from the outside while one bad decision after another was made.

Most of this book deals with the final collapse of the company from the tail end of the Bob Allen years through the rotating door presidency that followed. The rotating door was bad, but my own belief is that the trouble started much earlier with the agreements Allen made to get into the computer business at any cost. He basically gave away the corporate jewels, the monopoly they had to get into computers (through the purchase of NCR) and then AT&T blew the computer business. I remember a senior manager moving into the computer business whose major previous claim to fame was setting up the first 911 call center. Boy, was he skilled at inter company politics, cost the company millions but he survived to go on to greater heights. And all this was happening while the communications technology was exploding.

After that, the Tough Calls, as Mr. Martin calls them became necessary if for no other reason than to survive. If there is a single incident to use as an example of over paid incompetent executive leadership, it is AT&T.

This book is written from the standpoint of the public relations department. I can't fault their actions. They had an impossible task. In fact, this book could serve as a primer on how to handle PR during a long sequence of disasters. It makes for great reading.

TOUGH CALLS lets the reader peek behind the curtain of corporate "publicspeak" protecting the senior managers of every large corporation. Martin takes us on a fascinating tour of "carpetland" at AT&T during its most tumultuous years, as the one-time colossus meets challenge after challenge, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but getting more bloodied at each stop along the way. Eventually, the patient just loses too much blood and drastic steps are required to survive. Whatever you may think about whether the timing or financial structuring of AT&T's cable acquisitions was prudent, whether the incessant price-cutting by its competitors was unreasonable or even illegitimate, or whether Mike Armstrong had the right strategy but made the wrong adjustments, TOUGH CALLS puts you in the room with AT&T's top decision-makers as they face the issues that ultimately determine AT&T's fate. Martin gives us a surprisingly candid look inside a major, major American company that we are unlikely to get from anyone else with his access and perspective. This is a must read for every board member and every senior manager at every large publicly-owned corporation (and for all the wannabees for those positions), as well as for every institutional investor putting money at risk in those enterprises.

Dick Martin was a VP of communication/marketing sat AT&T and offers a unique perspective on why they collapsed. Frankly I think he is wrong and the reasons offered in End of the Line are far more on track. Martin takes his inside perspective and focuses on his department only which leaves a lot of the problems out. He tries to show the ego war between the top executives which does come out to be interesting but the long term strategic goals are not illustrated very well here. It is written decently enough but could definitely offer more information. A good follow up to End of the Line if you are really interested in AT&T otherwise I would skip it.

I ordered this book in order to read it during my vacation. I was hopeful that it would convey some general history and broad lessons associated with the collapse of the most powerful telecommunications company on the planet. Instead, I found that the book focused primarily on the PR experience of the author which was somewhat contributory, but ancillary to the steps and mis-steps of the AT&T decline. Overall, I found this very disappointing.

I am reading "End of the Line" by Leslie Cauley and am finding it a much more interesting view of the AT&T rise/decline. The book is better written and much more informative. My 2 cents.