*** Proof of Product ***
Exploring the Essential Features of “Dick Martin – Tough Calls”
An insider’s account of how AT&T tried to cope with competition, economic turmoil, and media scrutiny addresses valuable business lessons from AT&T’s experience while looking at key events in the corporation’s recent history.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Former AT&T PR head Martin records his take on Ma Bell’s descent from blue chip royalty, offering an insider’s view of the corporation’s struggle to reorient itself to a world in which its longtime cash cow—long-distance service—was becoming a profitless commodity. CEO Michael Armstrong’s late ’90s attempt to counter this trend by expanding into cable, wireless and business services forms the centerpiece of the book. Ultimately, AT&T ran out of time as the overly exuberant market collapsed and the company had to break itself up once more, this time in order to stay afloat. The journey was highlighted by mega-deals, leadership missteps, PR blunders and outright fraud. Martin also offers an eye-opening analysis of the impact of MCI WorldCom’s fraudulent financial statements, which, he says, lowered AT&T’s sales by $5 billion per year. Martin lightens the endless carnage with portraits of the telecom industry’s top players, describing, for instance, how a new AT&T president was unable to tell the reporters at his first press conference the name of the long-distance company he uses at home. The result: “Run AT&T? He apparently couldn’t even spell it. And so forth.” There are lots of good PR and leadership lessons here. (Nov.)Forecast:Anyone sussing out AT&T’s remaining potential—or hurt by the telecom bubble’s demise—is a potential customer here.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Martin, head of AT&T’s public relations during the tenure of CEO C. Michael Armstrong, describes Armstrong’s leadership and that of his predecessor from 1996 to recently, when the company was acquired by Comcast. (Armstrong did not participate in the writing of this book.) The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a death sentence for stand-alone, long-distance service, from which AT&T derived 80 percent of its revenues and 100 percent of its profits. Armstrong arrived in 1997, assuming one of the greatest challenges in American business, and designed the right plan for the company. He would have survived some mistakes but lacked the time to overcome years of fraud perpetrated by his main competitor, MCI Worldcom. While Martin focuses upon missteps, we also learn of Armstrong’s successes, including wireless and data business acquisitions and developing a $4 billion outsourcing program in less than four years. Martin, a public relations veteran with 20/20 hindsight who conducted numerous interviews for this book, presents an important corporate story with lessons for those fighting today’s battles. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Buy this book for your boss this holiday season, both to entertain and educate. — PRWeek November 2004
“Dick Martin has written a surprisingly interesting, blunt, and dishy account of the crackup of Ma Bell.” — The Boston Globe
“The book is loaded with fascinating”inside baseball” style tales, told artfully and with humor rarely found in a business book.” — DSL Prime (e-newsletter)
“[the book]provides some priceless lessons for executives elsewhere on how to feed the insatiable media machine.” — Financial Times
‘This book is well written and full of details that would interest public relations managers and students..” — Public Relations Review
Dick Martin has written a powerful and important book of value to decision makers. — The Journal of Business Strategy
This book is well written and full of details that would interest public relations managers and students. — Public Relations Review
From the Inside Flap
For better and for worse, few companies have been so prominently and constantly in the public eye as AT&T. Through decades of growth and dominance, followed by its 1984 breakup and a litany of well-documented troubles, the company has soldiered on, by turns thriving and hanging on for dear life.Perhaps no individual experienced as much of the roller-coaster ride as Dick Martin, an executive vice president and 30-year AT&T veteran with both a birdÂ’s-eye view of and a crucial role in the companyÂ’s bumpy history.
Tough Calls is the ultimate inside look at how AT&T tried to cope with a “perfect storm” of fierce competition, economic turmoil, and punishing media scrutiny. Mixing unflinching candor with love for the company he helped steer—and clear respect for many of his long-time colleagues—Martin takes you through boardroom and back room to shed unprecedented light on: * How the 1996 bungled announcement of 40,000 layoffs nearly destroyed the company * How flawed succession planning precipitated sharp declines in AT&TÂ’s stock price * The never-ending, ugly turf battles with the “Baby Bells” brought on by the AT&T breakup * How even small interest groups can have a tremendous influence on business decisions, and how the media are largely responsible for determining what is business news on any given day
Tough Calls is also a cautionary tale to be heeded by all businesses, using AT&TÂ’s experience in the brutal telecom wars as a backdrop for new strategies in weathering unforgiving business conditions. Just a few of the lessons to be learned include: * How to avoid the most common mistakes that executives make, such as being held hostage by unrealistic expectations, waiting too long to make critical changes, and building their celebrity rather than their credibility * How to balance internal and external communications, and how and when to deal with the business media * How to improve relationships between PR executives and the “C” suite—CEO, CFO, Chief Counsel, etc.–and how to make public relations more strategic * How to build and sustain favorable brand recognition and investor allure even in the face of bitter competition and unpredictable market conditions
As candid and fascinating as it is constructive, Tough Calls is itself a call to attention and to arms, in preparation for the many battles that every business must eventually face, against fierce adversaries, and even within its own camp.
Dick Martin was executive vice president of public relations, employee communications, and brand management for AT&T from 1997 to 2002, capping a 32-year career with the company. He has trained executives at numerous Fortune 500 companies in the techniques of handling media interviews. He has also written for the Harvard Business Review, the PRSA Strategist, and the PR Encyclopedia. Mr. Martin lives in Summit, New Jersey.
“Tough Calls is an easy call—in fact a ‘mustÂ’ call —for anyone in the business community who wants an up-front seat for the roller-coaster ride of what once was America’s foremost corporate icon. As AT&T’s senior public relations officer, Dick Martin had a say in every major decision (not all heeded). But this is not ‘kiss and tell’—rather, it is a well-documented account of how the monopoly of Ma Bell disintegrated and rendered AT&T ‘one of the pack,Â’ competing as a provider of telecommunications services.” —Harold Burson, Chairman, Burson-Marsteller
“Martin has written a landmark book—an inside look at how and why the telecom business changed and what we can expect in the future. ItÂ’s a must-read.” —Robert L. Dilenschneider, CEO, The Dilenschneider Group, and author of Moses, CEO: Lessons in Leadership and The Corporate Communications Bible
“Tough Calls is an unvarnished insider’s look at how a great company tumbled. But Dick Martin has made it more: it’s an indispensable guide for decent executives who want lessons in how to survive in turbulent times and fast-changing industries.” —Walter Isaacson, President, the Aspen Institute, former Chairman of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine
“In a fast, entertaining read, Dick Martin gives us a rare behind-the-scenes tour of AT&T’s wild ride through the last decade—analyzing every major battle, the strategies used, what worked, what didn’t and why, plus a host of colorful characters who reshaped not only Ma Bell but the entire telecom industry.” —Jeff Kagan, Telecom industry analyst
“Tough Calls shows the moves and countermoves, the egos and superegos of the giants. Mike Armstrong, Brian Roberts, John Malone… all march across the pagesÂ…all bright, all strategy-driven, all trying to be ‘brightest boy.Â’” —Howard Anderson, Senior Managing Director, YankeeTek Ventures, founder of The Yankee Group
“One of the best business books I have read! From his ringside seat in the executive suite, Dick Martin charts the dissolution of an American icon once so strong, so secure, its stock was recommended for widows and orphans. Blow by blow, the whole story is here. His brilliant analysis of AT&T’s strategies and maneuverings is more than worth the price of the book.” —Ray Brady, Business Correspondent (ret.), CBS News
About the Author
Dick Martin was executive vice president of public relations, employee communications, and brand management for AT&T from 1997 to 2002, capping a 32-year career with the company. He has trained executives at numerous Fortune 500 companies in the techniques of handling media interviews. He has also written for the Harvard Business Review, the PRSA Strategist, and the PR Encyclopedia. Mr. Martin lives in Summit, New Jersey.
Dick Martin was executive vice president of public relations, employee communications, and brand management for AT&T from 1997 to 2002.
Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Amacom Books; First Edition (January 1, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Dick Martin
Dick Martin writes about public relations, marketing, and ethics. He has authored six books and numerous articles for such publications as the Harvard Business Review, Chief Executive, and the Journal of Business Strategy.
Capping a 33-year career with AT&T, from 1997 to 2003, he was Chairman of the AT&T Foundation and executive vice president responsible for the company’s public relations, employee communications and brand management worldwide. The Holmes Report called his first book, Tough Calls, one of the five best PR books published in the first decade of the 21st century and “by far the best book about the realities of working in corporate communications for a large American corporation.”
A book he co-authored with Donald K. Wright – Public Relations Ethics: How to Practice PR Without Losing Your Soul – grew out of popular workshops in PR ethics that he has conducted for such organizations as the Institute for Public Relations, the Page Society, and the PRSA.
His most recent book is a biography of Marilyn Laurie, his predecessor at AT&T and the first woman to join the executive committee of a Fortune 10 company. Marilyn: A Woman in Charge was published by the PRMuseum Press in September 2020.
Martin was one of the first recipients of the Arthur W. Page Center’s Award for Integrity in Public Communication. He is a trustee of the Museum of Public Relations.
He is married to the former Virginia Beck, creator and co-producer of “The Magic Garden,” a New York area television program for preschoolers in the 1970’s that still has some renown on YouTube . They have three grown children, four grandsons, and live in Summit, NJ, and in Washington, DC.
Please see the full list of alternative group-buy courses available here: https://lunacourse.com/shop/
