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.

  The Aftermath
By Christopher Oster



Mark Barton. The gunman. The lunatic. The deranged day trader who'd gone on a shooting spree through the Atlanta offices of both Momentum and All-Tech Investments this summer, killing nine, wounding thirteen and finally putting a bullet through his own head.

Mark Barton changed a lot of things on the murderous afternoon in late July. He blinded All-Tech office manager Kath Vancamp, 38, with a shot to the temple. He left trader Yuzef Liberzon, a 39-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, with brain damage that prevents him, so far, from being able to speak. Trader Charlie Williams, 56, has to use a cane to get around after being shot in the chest and thigh.

But there's one thing Barton didn't change: the grip that day trading has on the people who lived through the shooting. Of the 25 traders who survived, SmartMoney has found that 17 are back trading at the very same offices where they ducked under desks or scurried through doors to escape the rain of Barton's bullets. Fred Herder walked through All-Tech's doors on crutches, with a slug still in his lower spine, to resume trading two week after the shooting. Even 60-year-old All-Tech trader Harry "ed" Higginbotham, still recuperating from the four shots he took including one in the head, mutters through a jaw that's been wired shut, "I'll probably go back."

For six weeks after the shooting, Momentum Securities kept its doors closed to the public. To a day trader, that's an eternity. So a few of its customer took their business to other firms around town until Momentum reopened. All-Tech, on the other hand, did not waste a second getting its office up and running after the tragedy. Over the weekend-the shooting was on a Thursday-the Montvale, N.J.-based firm hired workers to pull up the bloodstained carpet, replaced the bullet-torn furniture and caulk the holes in the walls. By the time it reopened Monday, the office looked nearly the same as before the shooting, except for a slightly darker carpet and a few more motivational posters on the wall, the kind with images of footprints on the moon and messages like Courage and Opportunity. We wanted the traders to come back in and feel comfortable," says branch co-owner Scott Manspeaker, who was hit in the stomach and forearm with .45 shells and spent 12 days in the hospital. "We wanted to help them in their healing process."

That help came from above-two floors above. Crisis Management International, a consulting firm that assists companies and employees in coping with workplace violence, happened to be based two floors up in the Atlanta building that houses All-Tech's offices.

The Monday morning after the shooting, just as the stock market was opening, Crisis Management President and CEO, Bruce Blythe had the traders gather their chairs in a circle near the office's entrance, the same glass doors Barton had used, and asked them to recount the terrifying ordeal. And the stories came, tales of narrow escapes and discovered bodies. The survivors reconstructed the scenario piece by piece: who ran behind which desk, which victim fell first, what Barton said before the shooting began. (His famous line, "Hope this don't mess up y'all's trading day," was trader Steve Swoboda's contribution.)

Then something surprising happened. One of the traders spun in his chair, flipped on his computer and started watching the market. Then checking his stock charts. Then trading. Slowly, a few others joined in, most just monitoring the market. Or closing out a position left open from the day of the shooting. By the end of Tuesday, about a third were back in their stations, watching their stocks. "It was beautiful," says Blythe.

Blythe saw it as the start of the slow process of getting back to normal. "There's a balance of working and giving yourself some time off," Blythe says. "I recommended that people don't bury themselves in work. But on the other hand, don't avoid it." On this point, the traders needed a little prompting from Blythe. "If you can't handle your emotions, you can't handle trading," explains All-Tech CEO Harvey Houtkin.