iet of a judge's chambers, but the court of public opinion is swayed by simpler ideas, especially if they are tied to emotionally charged symbols. This page intentionally left blank Work Inside Out Toward Your Customers A new CEO should devote the first 180 days to intense learning, first from employees, then from customers. His or her entire focus should be on building employee morale and aligning the work- force behind a single vision of what, together, they can do for the company's customers. Only when that seed has taken root, should a CEO's attention include the media or sell-side financial ana- lysts. A new CEO who defines success in terms of the company share price will pay attention to all the wrong things. Armstrong Mike Armstrong used to say that Mondays were his favorite day of the week. It wasn't just for effect; it was obvious he really meant it. He would literally bounce as he walked from his Porsche to the elevator that would take him to his fourth-floor office in Basking Ridge. It wasn't that he had a hard time filling his weekend-the two or three briefcases under his arms were evidence of the mail and memos he had churned through when he wasn't on the golf course, doting on his grandchildren at home, or motorcycling with his sons-in-law through the Connecticut countryside. He simply relished the chal- lenges the work week would bring. In fact, it was the sheer challenge of re-righting an American icon that had drawn him to AT&T in the first place. Tough Calls Armstrong and his wife Anne had just completed building and furnishing their dream house in Manhattan Beach, California, a short ride from his office at Hughes Electronics. They had lived in it for seven days when the headhunters representing AT&T called him for a second time in less than a year. Things were going well at Hughes. In fact, better than "well"-Hughes, which was controlled by General Motors but had public shareowners, was GM's best-performing unit and its stock price had increased 300 percent since Armstrong had taken over. Alth