d." You, as an outsider, cannot assume that phone compa- nies are motivated to increase their sales and their earnings. Remember, their earnings are limited by the local PSC. Whatever you do for them and I stress whatever you do for them - you can never do what the local PSC can do much less painlessly and with much greater effect; i.e., get them money. Moreover, no phone company executive has any significant number of shares in his own company. Even at the highest level. Virtually anyone that has ever relied on the phone com- pany to do anything in a speedy, intelligent manner has gone broke waiting. I can present you with lists of companies. The acute lack of motivation translates into deliberate glacial speed, which will kill any outsider's motivation. Speed. The phone company works at its pace, not yours. You may build yourself a palatial $100 million office complex. xxii % The Telecom Handbook THE TELECOM HANDBOOK You want to be in on January 1. All your contractors may be on some form of motivation, bound by a written contract. Except one. The phone company. Your "written contract" with the phone company is the tariff which the phone company has filed at the PSC. That tariff typically states that if they're late installing their lines, tough. You wait. You can scream. And screaming often works. But it's very exhausting. In fact, dealing with the phone industry is always exhausting. In short, don't believe any promises they make about delivery. Ever. Homegrown. The phone industry never hires from outside its own industry. That's not 100% true. They have been hir- ing some low level, not-too-bright executives. But you won't find any senior executives. Even IBM went outside for its new boss. You won't find that happening in the phone indus- try. The executives are very protective of their own secure, overpaid positions after all, you, the customer, can still make a phone call, etc. So why should you complain? You some- times sit in meetings with these people, as I have done, and wonder which planet they just s