I used to work for NW Ayer, one of America’s oldest advertising agencies. Ayer was responsible for many memorable campaigns, including AT&T’s “Reach out and touch someone.” Of course, that was back in the day when AT&T was synonymous with the landline telephone (and when you didn’t have to use the word “landline” to describe it).

How far we’ve come. Through three decades of turbulent change, today’s AT&T still has 30 million landline customers. Incredibly, however, the company’s wireless customer base is more than two-and-a-half times as large, at 77 million. If there ever was an example of an industry experiencing changing dynamics (see Chapter 3 of When Growth Stalls) this is it.

The challenge facing AT&T’s current management is staying relevant in an increasingly changing marketplace. That’s why their exclusive partnership with Apple on the iPhone was such a boon to subscriber growth. But nobody’s sitting still in this industry, and growth is never guaranteed. Especially in turbulent times.