o get the word out," he said as he hung up. There wasn't much else I could say. I knew he was probably on his way out. But I hoped we could handle it in a way that did minimal damage to either his reputation or ours. I had had my first hint that Walter might be in trouble in March, when Allen called me into his office to tell me that he planned to make Zeglis a member of the board and its vice chairman. It seemed that Zeglis had been offered the CEO job at an Illinois utility. Until that moment, Allen had assumed that Zeglis was not interested in the top job. Now, he realized, not only was Zeglis interested in it, but others saw him in those terms. When Mandl left, Zeglis had stepped in to run the company's vast consumer services organization, and had discovered that there was no particular magic to operational management. Furthermore, he had been decidedly unimpressed with John Walter and knew that he could do whatever Walter could do. Allen, who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Walter, didn't want to lose Zeglis. So he offered him a vice chairmanship, if the board agreed, with the tacit assurance that the company's succes- sion plans were not set in concrete. When I warned Allen that Zeglis's appointment would be interpreted as a lack of confidence in Walter, he simply smiled and said, "I know that." He didn't need to say more. The fly in the ointment, however, was the company's proxy. We Tough Calls were already printing three million copies, and they listed all the direc- tor nominees to be voted on at the May annual meeting. Reprinting them was not an option, even if we were willing to spend the money- there wasn't enough time. And adding Zeglis's name in a special sup- plement to the proxy would raise even more questions. The company's bylaws permitted directors to be elected by the board between meet- ings. So Allen told Zeglis that he would be made vice chairman and a director as soon after the annual meeting as was practical. That turned out to be mid-June. By then, Allen could barely stand t