orola wrote to express his support (and to apol- logize for a Motorola executive who was quoted in the Wall Street Jour- nal as saying, "The only thing Bob Allen and his managers know how to do is turn out the lights"). Betty Beene, the president of the United Way of Tri-State, sent a handwritten note with her favorite saying: "Don't take it seriously. And don't take it personally!" But it was very personal, even before AT&T's largest union marched on Allen's home in Short Hills, New Jersey, and dropped an empty casket on his front lawn, representing all the workers he had "executed." Allen, an only child, is soft-spoken and a little stiff except on the golf course, which is where he truly relaxes. The game suits his per- sonality-he's quiet, focused and deliberate. He keeps his own coun- sel and seldom dominates the conversation in business meetings, preferring to ask questions and listen to the give-and-take of a debate. Unassuming and low-key, he has even been described as "stoic." He is the kind of CEO who pulls the big levers and leaves the details to others. He certainly doesn't torture himself over big decisions-he set the wheels in motion to buy McCaw Cellular at the end of a single twenty- minute phone call with his chief negotiator, in which Allen said less than five sentences. It ultimately cost AT&T $12.6 billion. The com- pany would later spend about another $8 billion expanding its wireless footprint through acquisitions, but in 2000 and 2001 AT&T mone- tized its investment in AT&T Wireless to the tune of almost $30 billion before spinning off the remainder to its shareholders in July 2001 at a value of about $20 billion, which would increase to $41 billion under the terms of its 2004 merger with Cingular Wireless-not bad for a CEO who has been criticized for his acquisitions. But Allen also does not dodge responsibility for mistakes. When the Wall Street Journal asked him to defend the ill-fated acquisition of NCR, his answer was crisp and unequivocal: "I studied it. The board believed in it. I tho