say that "nothing has changed" since we announced his appointment the previous October. The board was scheduled to meet on Wednes- day, July 16. John Walter called me at home twice over the July 4 holiday week- end, showing increasing impatience with me for not taking a more active stance in stopping speculation about his status within the com- pany. I was becoming concerned that he might take unilateral action Tough Calls to reaffirm his intention of staying on at AT&T, making it more diffi- cult to announce his leaving in a face-saving way. On the evening of July I5, there were two sets of meetings in New York City that brought this drama to a close. The outside members of AT&T's board had gathered in one of the conference rooms at the Wachtell Lipton law firm. After meeting with Allen and hearing his concerns about Walter, they excused him and interviewed several other senior executives. In the end, they sat by themselves late into the night, wondering how they had gotten into this mess. In a hotel restaurant across town, John Walter was dining with the chairman of Korn Ferry, one of the executive search firms that had brought him to AT&T. He explained that there would be a showdown at the next day's board meeting. He would tell the board to choose between him and Bob Allen. He expected the board to side with him, and he would need to replace a number of executives. My name was at the top of the list. How People Relate to the Media The practice of public relations is not defined solely by media rela- tions. But that's what every CEO I've known has focused on, almost to the exclusion of other functions such as employee communications and community relations. One of my predecessors even defined the job as "making it possible for the CEO to read the Wall Street Journal in the morning without getting heartburn." While my own definition of public relations is a little more expan- sive, there is no doubt that what is reported about individuals and organizations can become the environment within which they operate. A