 had more than four million shareowners. Just sending them a letter cost several million dollars. Early in Armstrong's tenure, we eliminated our quarterly shareowner reports to cut costs. This was penny-wise and pound-foolish. If anything, we should have spent even more to make the report as compelling to read as possible. It would have been worth it to deliver our message to individual investors free of third- party commentary. And our research showed that the most effective way to win community leaders' support was to meet with them indi- vidually. People who had met an AT&T representative at a social or civic event were far more likely to support the company than those who knew us only through the media or our own advertising. Person- to-person communication is the medium of choice for crucial matters at critical moments. You can't detect the currents of society unless you're in the pool up to your neck. We managed to beat back the Bells' efforts to keep AT&T out of their local markets largely by cultivating grassroots relationships with like-minded individuals and organiza- tions. CEOs need direct lines of communication with the four groups who are most critical to their success: their employees and their em- ployees' families, their customers, their investors, and the leaders of the communities in which all these people live and work. That means writing a lot of letters, holding a lot of meetings, and giving a lot of Tough Calls speeches. In the first five months of 1998, when Armstrong came out of his self-imposed period of silence, he gave almost twice as many speeches as Bob Allen had in the same period-forty-four in all. He averaged six and a half days a month speaking to employees, custom- ers, public officials, and investors. And while he was hitting the speak- ing platform, we were also identifying and cultivating allies who could help spread Armstrong's message. Of course, it is impossible to avoid the media entirely. Nor would this be a particularly good idea if you could. You just need to be carefu