When C. Michael Armstrong became chairman and chief executive of AT&T; last fall, he inherited what looked to be one of America's last business dinosaurs: balky Baby Bells were frustrating Ma Bell's costly drive into the $110 billion local service market, a much-publicized mass layoff of 40,000 employees had failed to boost business, and worst of all, the largest U.S. telephone company (1997 revenues: $51.3 billion) was stuck on the sidelines, while upstarts such as WorldCom and MCI were teaming to deliver everything from long-distance service to high-speed Internet access. "This marvelous industry was growing in double digits globally," Armstrong explains....
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