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Editor's Note: Following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we sent out an e-mail to several thousand readers soliciting stories about how they and their businesses had reacted. We also asked for thoughts on how business will change in the aftermath. We are devoting the letters section in this issue to some of those responses. Be assured that we use the list judiciously. We send out a question just a few times a year. About two weeks before each issue hits newsstands, we also send those on the list an advance copy of an especially timely article. We don’t rent or sell the list of e-mail addresses to anyone.Given the unprecedented nature of the incident and the impact on individuals, their families, our company, and our industry, I would say that our disaster-recovery process at Scudder worked as well as we could have hoped. Despite their shock, our employees rallied to recover during the crisis. Departments cooperated better, decision-making was crisper, our willingness to take calculated risks increased, as did our sense of urgency and commitment to re-establishing confidence for shareholders. Now we are building on these capabilities and making them part of our normal processes. Obviously, the terrorist events created an extraordinary sense of urgency, but we learned a lot about ourselves as we worked through the process, and we are trying to figure out how to apply those learnings in the future. —Bill Glavin
Soon after the attacks on Sept. 11, there were estimates of human casualties and direct financial impact. What remains to be fully assessed is the impact on productivity and growth. This ought to be the focus of anyone in a leadership role. Explicit efforts such as rebuilding the World Trade Center are critical. Yet we in corporate and community organizations must do more to rejuvenate the American spirit. Leaders must face up to the monumental task of motivating employees and reassuring them that we will achieve the goal of making America a better place by continuing with greater determination on the path toward freedom, prosperity, and peace. It will take great sacrifice from everyone to achieve our goal. The only way that it will happen is if chief executives and community leaders become more visible and reach within themselves to find renewed hope, passion, and commitment. I have been an American citizen for about 15 years, but I became a true American when I saw the wide-open hearts of Americans and the force of courage in our eyes following the attacks. —Bal Agrawal
The first job of executives during these frightening times is to strike a balance between offering human support and dealing with tough business issues. Companies that have reached out to support recovery efforts, have been involved in fund raising, and have shown sympathy through action will engender loyalty and understanding not only from employees, but also from customers, partners, and the general public. Now is the time for chief executives to prove that they are human leaders rather than spreadsheet jockeys. The initial reaction of many CEOs is to cut deeply, which may ameliorate near-term cash-flow difficulties and please shortsighted stockholders and financial analysts. But that might backfire. First, there were definitely quiet signs that the U.S. economy was beginning to stabilize before the attacks. Second, we should never underestimate the resiliency of the general public and the governments of the free world, which can unite and literally will themselves back into a positive economic frame. There is almost an unspoken sense that the U.S. will refuse to let terrorists undermine quality of life. —Evan Quinn
I anticipate that organizations will become more spread out. This means people will use videoconferencing and other forms of “telepresence” and fly less. Productivity won’t fall as a result. It will actually improve. I also would like to see more companies become truly paperless. One way to make paperless environments a reality is to enact policies where paper can’t be stored or transmitted—except when legally required. I would get rid of copiers and file cabinets, cut down on printers, and install convenient and appropriate scanners. —Gordon Bell
Our first priority after the attacks was to make sure all of our people were accounted for—they were—and ensure that no one took unnecessary risks in the hours after the World Trade Center collapsed. Our second priority was to make sure that our payment systems continued to operate and to coordinate a communications and recovery effort among our banks, the Federal Reserve, and other partners. We work together to clear and settle all U.S. global payments each business day, and Sept. 11 was no different. Keeping operations running throughout the crisis allowed us, in a small way, to restore confidence to the people and institutions that had been badly shaken by the attacks. It was gratifying to know that commerce and the payments infrastructure continued to operate despite the horrific tragedy that was taking place just blocks from our offices. —Jeffrey Neubert
I lived in Europe in the 1980s, when Americans were targets of such terrorist groups as Baader-Meinhof and the Red Army Faction. I learned to take extra safety steps and become more aware of my surroundings, but I continued on with my daily activities. This is the bane of terrorists. Corporations can take prudent steps to ensure the safety of their employees and also enjoy an added economic benefit. For example, teleconferencing can be used rather than flying people in for an hour-long meeting. The worst thing companies can do is adopt a “hunker down” mentality. This plays into the hands of the terrorists. As a country, our greatest strength isn’t our powerful military, but our more powerful system of free enterprise and financial growth. —Larry Pritchard
Over the next few years, companies will need to emphasize organizational agility. What Sept. 11 proved is that we can’t predict the future and companies must be prepared for the unexpected. Creating an agile organization means investing in multiskilled people and keeping them. Corporations have to stop treating people like commodities to be hired and fired at the slightest sign of economic uncertainty. Agile organizations also invest in flexible technologies. Despite the dramatic investments made in technology over the past several years, many of the tools have locked companies into rigid ways of doing business. Monolithic enterprise-resource-planning systems, customer-relationship-management packages, custom Web applications, and network infrastructures aren’t easily reconfigured or redeployed to handle the unexpected. Being agile means having a flexible supply chain. Tightened borders and increasing numbers of inspections over the past few weeks have forced companies operating just-in-time manufacturing strategies to scale back production. Parts and production materials have been hard to come by. Manufacturers must begin to invest in alternative supply sources, smarter forecasting, more intelligent inventory policies, and backup physical locations. —Scott Chizzo
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