W-b Enforcement Of Meters Resumes

Ann Bruno 
January 2, 1998 
Ann Bruno Of Thomas Street, Edwardsville, Died Friday At Wilkes Barre General 
Hospital Shortly After Admission.

By PAMELA C. TURFA; Times Leader Staff Writer
 Sunday, January 04, 1998 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1D 





DALLAS TWP.- Before he was tapped to head Commonwealth Telephone
Enterprises, Michael Gottdenker solved problems for the world's largest
cosmetics company. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Before he could pick out Dallas on a map, Gottdenker, a Revlon vice
president, developed a reputation as business "Mr. Fix-It." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And, before he made the trek from New York City to the Back Mountain,
Gottdenker worked down the hall from superstar model Cindy Crawford. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Crawford's photo- signed "Love, Cindy" and hanging on his conference room
wall- isn't the only piece of Revlon that Gottdenker brought with him. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Many of the strategies he's using to shape the nation's 13th-largest
independent telephone company were learned in the beauty business. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Take lipstick, for example. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Revlon, the national leader in lipstick sales, decided a few years ago to
concentrate on selling more lipsticks. Not more cosmetics of a different kind. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 More of the same. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The result: The company saw a pickup in every other aspect of its business,
says Gottdenker. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 That's why his vision for the 100-year-old Commonwealth Telephone starts
with "perfecting the core business"- doing what the company always has done a
little bit better. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Take telephone lines. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Two years ago, the company had a 3 percent penetration for second telephone
lines. For the rest of the industry, penetration was in the teens. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Customers told Commonwealth that the installation fee was a major reason
they didn't subscribe to a second line. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 So the company dropped the fee- and orders for second lines went from two
or three to 75 to 100 per day, even with a five- or six-week installation
wait. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 No longer subject to the old rules of a monopoly industry, Commonwealth
also is going head-to-head with Bell Atlantic for customers in the traditional
Bell service area; building its long distance and Internet service businesses;
and providing customers with packages of local, long distance, Internet and
data services on a new state-of-the-art transmission system. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The key, Gottdenker says, is the company's competent work force and its
energized, focused leadership. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "My vision begins with building off a really solid foundation that existed
for decades before I got here." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Business-minded &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Gottdenker- pronounced "Got-den (rhymes with pen)-ker," with the accent on
"den"- knew from adolescence that he wanted to go into business. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He started his first company- a lawn-cutting service- when he was 12. A
neighbor's mower broke and he stepped into the opportunity. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He sold the business, essentially a list of customers, when he was in
college for $800 to $1,000. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Before Revlon, he worked as an investment banker specializing in real
estate and corporate finance. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Gottdenker was hired away from Revlon two years ago by C-TEC Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer David McCourt. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He first met McCourt for lunch in August 1995 at the urging of a mutual
friend. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 McCourt was looking for someone to head Commonwealth Telephone, one of
three companies under the C-TEC umbrella. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 It wasn't until their second meeting that Gottdenker learned the job on the
table was in Dallas, Pa., not Princeton, N.J., the C-TEC headquarters. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 This fall, when C-TEC spun off Commonwealth Telephone as a standalone
company, Gottdenker was in the right place at the right time to take over the
reins. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 To Commonwealth, he says, he brought an outsider's perspective. Not only is
he from outside Northeastern Pennsylvania (he grew up in northern New Jersey),
he had no experience in the telecommunications industry. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He also brought a new style of management: high energy level, questioning
and more accessible. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He says he asks a "gazillion" questions that often put managers on the
spot. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Managers have reacted by adapting and changing or, in a few cases, leaving.
He acknowledges frustration on the part of some managers, but says he hopes
there is less frustration now than two years ago. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The majority of people who are here have found it to be invigorating." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I have strongly held views. ... At the same time, I have no compunction
about changing my mind," he says. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 His first day on the job at Commonwealth, an assistant took him to his
office, showed him around, left and shut the door. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 When the company's executive area was remodeled last summer, he opened
everything up: Administrative employees now work in a common area surrounded
by offices of glass walls. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He also has tried to make a personal connection with the company's
1,000-plus work force. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He wanted to meet employees and started by calling workers on their
birthday. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The first week I did it I had two or three employees who were convinced it
was a practical joke." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I care deeply about people. I don't care if you're the head of a Fortune
500 company or the person who empties the wastepaper basket at the end of the
day." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 On the move &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Since Nov. 1, the price of Commonwealth stock has risen from 22 to more
than 26, and the year-to-date increase in share price is more than 160
percent. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Not bad for a company that exists in the shadows of Bell Atlantic, one of
the country's most powerful telephone companies. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Commonwealth is ideally situated to take on that competition, Gottdenker
said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The traditional Commonwealth territory covers 5,200 square miles with
400,000 people and 250,000 phone lines. Draw a circle around that area 12
miles out, and the additional 1,200 square miles are home to 2 million people
and 1.2 million phone lines. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 That's why Commonwealth, with rates 50 percent of Bell Atlantic's, is
targeting neighboring communities for growth. Already, the company has begun
to sign up customers in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Hazleton, Harrisburg,
Lancaster and Kingston. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 It also is modernizing its transmission system- an improvement required by
state law- and using the new state-of-the-art network to offer customers
packages of telecommunications services. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The company also has proposed changing its rate structure- a process known
as "rebalancing". Under the proposal, Commonwealth would increase the base
rate by $3.50 per month in exchange for increasing the local calling area and
dropping charges for some optional services like call waiting. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Gottdenker defends the request, which is pending before the Public Utility
Commission, as fair. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The company would make no more money under the proposal- a third of the
customers would actually pay less, a third would pay about the same and
another third would pay more. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And, the company's rates, which have gone up in 19 years, are among the
lowest in the industry. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It used to be that going to the PUC was akin to going to the principal's
office. I saw this law as an opportunity to work together." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The proposal, he says, is a win for both shareholders and customers. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And, it's a win for Commonwealth Telephone. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The prospects for this company have never been as good as they are today." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 TIMES LEADER/BOB ESPOSITO &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Michael Gottdenker says his vision for the 100-year-

Dedicated To The Core **see For The Record 1/6/98 Commonwealth Chief Eyes Direct Line To Success With New Strategy