When the alligator is about to bite: at Control Data, we believed we could do anything, no matter how tough, and that innovation would overcome all obstacles. Were we set up for a crisis!(CRISIS MANAGEMENT)

• Author: Price, Robert M.

EVENTS THAT BLOCK our objectives and progress can be sources of great frustration. Some companies--and people--are able to cope, quickly regain their footing, and right themselves. Others are incapacitated; still others rage against the currents they have no hope of overcoming--in either case, they aimlessly drift or vainly fight until they drown.

Crisis management starts with having resilience and courage--and being able to discriminate between the ordinary frustrations of the daily grind and challenges that are inherently strategic. Such discernment is more rare than one might think.

I recall one member of my management team who had an unusual propensity to get frustrated and irritable over relatively minor problems, especially if they threatened his ego. I developed a shorthand and somewhat humorous way of helping him deal with this by labeling his issues as either fleabites or alligator bites. There were not a lot of alligator bites.

The ability to deal with the day-today irritations while conserving one's intellect and energy to focus on dealing with true crises is a mark of an excellent executive. For just as personal voyages are interrupted or endangered by unexpected and violent storms, journeys in business strategy are beset with sudden and unexpected forces in "strategic space." Control Data's principal times of crisis over 30-plus years cover a goodly spectrum of cause, effect, and response.

Strategic and personal pain

"There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full." The feeling expressed in Henry Kissinger's classic comment is all too often the same as that experienced by businesspeople subjected to sudden violence in the forces of strategic space. "Alligator bites" such as a frame-breaking technological change, severe economic recession, unfair practices by a giant competitor, or the self-inflicted wounds caused by lack of management diligence result in strategic and personal pain. Dealing with them requires action that must be taken quickly and decisively. That action may involve some combination of strategic redirection, legal proceedings, painful workforce reductions, and financial restructuring. Dealing with true crises requires clarity of vision, a cold appraisal free from personal bias, and desire. It also requires a willingness to take risks.

Too much, too soon

Control Data enjoyed relatively smooth sailing for nearly 15 years following the recession-induced crisis of 1970 and the subsequent departure of early innovators such as Jim Thornton and Seymour Cray. These were years of success both in financial terms and in the growth of services into the major business we envisioned. To be sure, there were problems and setbacks in each business area, even an operating loss for the computer business in 1974. Those things demanded attention but were rather quickly remedied. We also encountered considerable frustration in trying to communicate the essence of the company's services strategy. The inevitable commoditization of computing hardware was generally unrecognized in the industry, the media, and the investment community. The services strategy was being built on a solid foundation: serving the computing and information needs of business via network access to information databases and computing applications. Twenty years later, in the era of the Internet, such ideas are evident.

The services strategy also embraced the more iconoclastic and community-sensitive view that there was a business opportunity in the...