strong was paid to take a long view and to think the unthinkable. Sometimes that means changing your mind as circumstances change. We had not made the media and financial analysts part of that process, SO it is not surprising that they were not prepared to make the journey with us. Tough Calls Furthermore, we had not anticipated that, when reporters reduced our corporate strategy to bumper-sticker dimensions (i.e., "one-stop shopping"), they had developed a stake in it. In reality, putting multi- ple services on one bill had not been as high a priority for Armstrong as it had been for John Walter. Armstrong's approach was more so- phisticated. He knew that, while customers said they wanted every- thing on one bill, they weren't willing to pay for this. On the contrary, they expected a discount for buying multiple services. Bundled bills were an invitation for price cutting. Furthermore, they had very little stickiness. If customers could get a lower price for a service some- where else, they would take it, even if that meant getting multiple bills. The best bundles were those that combined services in such a way that they couldn't be pulled apart-for example, a "bucket" of wireless and long-distance minutes. Next in terms of stickiness were services that ran on the same infrastructure-for example, high-speed data ser- vice that ran over cable TV lines. Nevertheless, to reporters, "one-stop shopping" became Armstrong's original goal and breaking up the company became its antithesis. Finally, the breakup of AT&T was an emotional issue for millions of people. We belatedly began addressing this in Armstrong's speeches and in direct communications with key stakeholders. "AT&T, this American icon," Armstrong said, "would have been only a memory if we hadn't taken these steps."IO In the aftermath of the restructuring announcement, I kept re- minding Armstrong that he and I were the only people on the face of the earth who read everything written about him. No one else did. Despite very heavy media coverage (an estimated