 all the RBOCs' computer dalli- ances are gone, at millions of dollars cost to their poor shareholders, who mistakenly thought they bought shares in a "safe utility." To show how different the computing and telecom businesses are, let's look at each management discipline. Let's compare a computer company to a local telephone operating company, Bell or independent. Apologies in advance if this seems trivial. It's not. I don't have the space; but if you want to pursue this fasci- nating subject, e-mail me on HarryNewton@MCIMail.com. Differences between a "computer" company and a local telephone company: Sales. The computer industry is obsessed with selling. Every senior executive in any successful computer company is a great salesman. In contrast, telephone company executives are lousy salesmen. They've never had to be good - all their customers are captive. If you have a business in New York City, who else can you get dial tone from? What choice do you have? The telephone company actually has one "customer." It's called the Public Service Commission, the local state regula- tory agency. That agency determines how much or how little money the phone company makes. The problem is that the local phone company doesn't see the agency as a "customer." It sees the agency as an adversary, an enemy who is always trying to reduce the telephone company's efforts and legiti- mate rewards. So the "sales" approach is always wrong. It's xviii - The Telecom Handbook THE TELECOM HANDBOOK always, "Let me earn more money. Gimme. Gimme. Gimme." It should be, "I'll do this for you and the fine people of this State if you let me earn more money." The nice people who work at the PSC, who earn far less money than the telephone company executives who visit them, naturally resent this high- handed "Gimme. Gimme. Gimme." approach. And they typically do everything within their meager power to mess up the telephone executives' placid and pleasant lives. Innovation. Computer companies only sell stuff if they sell new stuff. To live they must in