Mike:
About a year ago, I heard Mike Armstrong speak at the Yale School of Management to a
packed room of mostly graduate students and professors. I was very impressed.
His comments are now pretty well known. When he took the job he knew that long distance
was a commodity business and would die, and he had devised a strategy to own the subscriber
by building wireless, cable, and even DSL access- but most of this is known from public
statements, so I won't go into that here. I do believe he told the board up front that he took
the job to change ATT from the old LDcompany into a new access and broadband company-
so, I suspect they will support him through the current storm of criticism.
I was impressed because he spoke without notes. After making a few jokes about being an
IBM salesman, and the lessons learned from that, he launched into a very technical
presentation (bits per second were mentioned in every other line). A friend of mine, who is a
traffic engineer, compared notes with me, and we found he only made two mistakes, and they
were more likely verbal gaffs than technical understanding; I'm not sure I could have done this
without notes. We might have been the only two people in the room to understand him.
The room was full of Yale management students, and they asked the usual questions of "how
did you change corporate culture", and "how will you guarantee universal access to all citizens",
and "what about women in management", but no one really commented on his main points and
strategy. Mind you, the man picking the students out to answer questions for some reason
mostly picked women and ignored the aggressive men; yes, it turned out he was a former
Clinton official.
Replying to one question, he also demonstrated that he personally used the web, and
understood it fairly well; something I suspect many CEO's don't.
When leaving the room, one Yale Management student next to me shook his head, and said
"That guy was just too technical", but in a tone of voice as if that the problem was with Mr.
Armstrong and not himself- the poor man didn't realize that a good manager ignores the
technical stuff. His friends agreed.
My conclusion is these management students are the guys who go out to Wall Street and
become analysists and other creatures of the market- they are still saying that Mike doesn't get
it, as they rush about in the latest mad panic.
ATT has a good strategy, a good manager, and a lot of uncomprehending press. The strategy
will take another year to execute, I guess. I'd bet on Mike as well as his Strategy. |
