Blindsided is the authoritative guide to crisis management. This "how to" handbook gives essential advice that every manager needs to know when a crisis hits. Written by CMI Founder/CEO Bruce Blythe, it's a fascinating, easy-to-read guide that draws on Blythe's 20+ years of experience as a pioneer in crisis management.

  Somber Workers Remember their Friend, CFO who Perished
September 18, 2001 Daily News of Los Angeles



They gathered at noon in the bright sunshine, 300 co-workers and strangers holding hands and shedding tears in a simple remembrance of souls lost on the darkest day in America's history.

That scene Thursday in Chatsworth was repeated across the land last week as America's work force began the collective process of healing its broken heart while waiting for the hammer of retribution to fall. This unprecedented attack on America was especially felt within corporate America.

So it was a time to memorialize, eulogize and vent.

"It was very touching," Suzy Avramides of Studio City said of the ceremony organized by Sensor Systems to honor Edmund Glazer, who worked next door at MRV Communications and died Tuesday when an American Airlines jet slammed into New York's World Trade Center.

"There is the terrible pain of what just happened. We hope the people that did this can be brought to justice," she said.

Organized terrorist attacks killed thousands in New York and Washington - the death toll is likely to equal about 10 percent of the soldiers killed during the 12 years of fighting in Vietnam - and were being taken personally at companies with ties to the San Fernando Valley area.

In addition to MRV, employees mourned at Amgen Corp. in Thousand Oaks. At IPC, a hospital services company in North Hollywood. At Boeing Co. in El Segundo. And at the Beverly Hills office of Cantor Fitzgerald, the big New York bond trading company that lost more than 700 of its 1,000 employees in the attack on New Yorks' World Trade Center.

In addition to Glazer, MRV's chief financial officer, the roll call of local business people killed included Dr. Yeneneh Betru, 35; Chandler Keller, 29; and Dora Menchaca, 45. They were aboard United Airlines flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon.

Betru was a pioneer in the new medical speciality of hospitalist and was IPC's director of medical affairs. Menchaca was consultant director of clinical research at Amgen. Keller was an engineer at Boeing.

Each company held its own memorial to honor its dead.

Experts in crisis and grief counseling agreed that companies were taking the right actions at the right times.

And getting some religion, regardless of the source, could not hurt either.

"One thing I've noticed is that people who have a spiritual grounding, a relationship with whatever God they chose to handle these things, do the best. It's very interesting, and to some degree, this is a come-to-Jesus (moment) for a lot of people,'' said Bruce T. Blythe, the chief executive officer of Crisis Management International Inc., an Atlanta-based company that is working with more than 250 companies who want to help their employees deal with the tragedy.

His company also dealt with major natural disasters and the Trade Center bombing in 1993.

He suggests companies take five basic steps, beginning with the start of business on Monday, if they have not been implemented already.

--Meet the company's human needs before focusing on the work-related needs. And make sure there is good communication in both directions.

--Assess the attitude and feelings of the the families of workers. This can keep problems from cropping up.

"The general message I would give to a CEO or general manager is how you handle a crisis can lift you up. Companies have been transformed by handling these things well. But they can also bring you down,'' Blythe said.

--Don't expect 100 percent productivity right away. Blythe likens this kind of crisis to a case of the flu. Worker energy will be diminished but will eventually bounce back.

"Don't push the river. Let it flow and people will recover much faster,'' he said.

--Communicate, communicate, communicate. Blythe said this is the life blood of good crisis management. And managers have to be as good at receiving information as they are at passing it out.

--Anticipate setbacks. Blythe says its very important for management to step back and look for complications that may arise.

Local companies that lost workers seem to be doing that.

Nearly 5,000 Amgen workers gathered on the grass at the Thousand Oaks office on Friday for a private ceremony honoring Menchaca, who had been in Washington discussing a prostrate cancer drug with Food and Drug Administration officials.

Once the company confirmed her death, the senior managers crafted an e-mail sent to all employees.

"We are saddened to report that the terrorist attacks in the U.S. have touched the Amgen family very directly. Today, we mourn the loss of our colleague and friend, Dora Menchaca,'' it said. ``Amgen is very fortunate to have had Dora as part of our family for the past decade.''

Her colleague, Dr. MaryAnn Foote, said that Menchaca will be missed but would want the work to go on.

She had traveled around the world with Menchaca, and they sometimes spent 18 hours together on a plane.

"I can't deny its been a very difficult week for us. We have a team structure and we will get things done. But we will definitely miss Dora and her scientific input,'' Foote said.

Amgen is a big company, and size can buffer this kind of shock.

IPC and MRV are smaller, and that seemed to make the pain sharper.

Glazer's memorial was held Friday afternoon.

"That will help a lot of people express their emotions, but, from a business standpoint, I don't know what will happen,'' said Anne-Marie Frisch, the company's stock options administrator. ``We're such a small office, we didn't expect we'd know somebody that was on one of those planes. It was just absolutely shocking.''

MRV is also urging workers to take advantage of the employee assistance program, which offer counseling to help works deal with the traumatic stress.

Dr. Michael Glasser, medical director of Glendale-based Cigna Behavioral Health of California, said it is normal for workers to feel a wide range of emotions from the disaster.

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