Fri, Sep 14, 2001 page19

• Business Focus: Corporate US goes back to work

  The tentacles of carnage from Tuesday's assault have extended into the business world, starting with disruption to transportation schedules, and the cancellation of various conferences

  • By Claudia H. Deutsch / NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Across corporate America on Wednesday, senior managers and executives grappled with trying to restore at least a semblance of business as usual -- even as though they knew that, emotionally at least, it was anything but.

  Executives, many of them stranded in cities hundreds of miles from their usual bases, set up command posts in hotels and in offices borrowed from clients and customers, as they simultaneously tried to run their companies and figure out how to get home.

  

  On the day after hijackers commandeered commercial jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, senior managers and executives grappled with trying to restore at least a semblance of business as usual. FedEx, which is based in Memphis, Tennessee, said many of its deliveries could be two days late because its fleet of 660 aircraft is grounded by a nationwide ban on air travel.

  PHOTO: NY TIMES

  In one case of dislocation, executives of Bowne, a Wall Street financial printer, who were holding their annual sales management meeting in Phoenix on Tuesday, remained there, working from hotel rooms by phone, e-mail and the corporate Web site. For those intent on returning to New York, Bowne chartered a bus. The rest hope to book commercial airline flights when that becomes possible.

  "Our expectation is that senior management will be back by Friday," said Robert J. Baker, president of Bowne of New York, speaking by phone from Phoenix. The company's offices in lower Manhattan were not damaged on Tuesday, but are in the part of the city generally closed to all but emergency workers.

  Operations hampered

  Most companies operating outside of lower Manhattan, whether elsewhere in New York City, or around the country, were open on Wednesday, although many made clear to employees that they could stay home if they needed to. Even for businesses that were open, standard operations were often hampered by disruptions in various parts of the transportation system.

  All three of the Detroit automakers closed all their factories on Tuesday. General Motors and Ford had difficulties reopening a few of them because of interruptions of parts deliveries. The GM truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario, could not go back to operating until Wednesday afternoon because of parts shortages. Two Ford plants remained closed: one that makes Lincolns and Thunderbirds in the Detroit suburb of Wixom, and another that makes Winstar minivans in Oakville, Ontario.

  Federal Express said many deliveries for now could be at least two days late, with its fleet of 660 aircraft in North America out of action.

  "We are achieving our goal of keeping the freight moving, though it's not as rapid as if our air operations were intact," said Jeff Bunn, a FedEx spokesman, adding that the company was expanding its trucking operations. FedEx said the company could not make deliveries outside the US yet, and that it had suspended its money-back guarantee on same-day service.

  United Parcel Service said that most of its delivery operations were continuing on schedule, because more than 10 million of its packages each day are sent by ground, compared with about two million by air. But, UPS was only making about 25 percent of its deliveries in Manhattan on Wednesday, mostly to residences, and had suspended pickups there.

  "Where it would make sense, such as any shipment destined for delivery within a four-hour drive, we could try to make a delivery by truck," said Bob Godlewski, a spokesman for UPS in its Atlanta headquarters. "But a Manhattan-to-LA next-day air shipment is probably sitting in Manhattan right now."

  Truck and rail traffic fared better, with deliveries slow but generally made. The CSX Corp, the big railroad based in Richmond, Virginia, said that 57 of its 1,600 freight trains were halted on Tuesday, but that normal operations resumed on Wednesday morning. Congestion is "quickly working its way out," said Kathy Burns, a spokeswoman for CSX.

  Still, delays abounded. Roger Dick, a spokesman for the Yellow Corp, a large trucking company based in Overland Park, Kansas, said that border crossings to and from both Canada and Mexico -- principally in Laredo, Texas, and Niagara Falls -- have been slowed by rigorous inspections by customs officials.

  `Heightened' alert

  Many energy companies, particularly those with electrical grids, nuclear plants or pipelines, remained on what the industry called a heightened state of alert, even though they had reopened their offices on Wednesday.

  Northrop Grumman and other defense contractors in Southern California, where three of the hijacked planes were initially destined, reopened their operations in California and elsewhere -- although they stepped up screening of vendors, delivery trucks and visitors to their facilities.

  The Walt Disney Co, which kept its retail stores closed in New York and Washington, reopened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Disney World in Orlando, Florida, which had been closed Tuesday. "Security will be more visible," said John Dreyer, a Disney spokesman.

  The Intel Corp, the world's largest computer chip maker, said it was intensifying security measures in offices around the world. At its Santa Clara, California, headquarters, Intel required people to show proof that they work at the company before they could enter the parking lot Wednesday.

  Robert Manetta, an Intel spokesman, said the ban on commercial flights had disrupted Intel's production and shipping schedules because the company often made computer chips in one factory and packaged them in another. Manetta said it was too early to say whether the shipping delays would affect the company's financial forecast or its efforts to increase production of its latest chip, the Pentium 4 microprocessor.

  Various trade shows and conventions, some of which had been scheduled years in advance, were canceled, including the PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association meeting that had been scheduled to begin Wednesday in New York, and the the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The National Hardwood Lumber Association's meeting in New Orleans, also canceled, had been expected to draw more than 1,200 people to New Orleans this week. "This is the first time in our 103 years we've had to cancel a convention," said David Pritchard, a spokesman for the lumber association, which is based in Memphis.

  Other industry meetings were severely curtailed. Networld & Interop, a technology show in Atlanta that usually attracts up to 60,000 attendees, scrambled to fill in for keynote speakers and instructors who were unable to fly in Tuesday and Wednesday. Some companies maintained their exhibits, but some large booths had few or no attendants.

  Of more lasting impact will the emotional and psychological toll for companies around the country still trying determine the status and whereabouts of executives and employees -- and especially, for companies that had already confirmed bad news.

  Employees killed

  Akamai Technologies, an Internet technology company based in Boston, said that its chief technology officer, Daniel Lewin, 31, was aboard the American Airlines plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. Killed on the same flight was Phil Rosenzweig, 47, a director in the Burlington, Massachusetts, software operations of Sun Microsystems. But Sun Microsystems, which is based in Silicon Valley, said it had determined that its 340 employees who worked in the Trade Center were safe. Cisco Systems, the network equipment giant based in San Jose, California, said that at least one of its employees, Suzanne Kalley, a marketing employee, was killed on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

  Oracle, a big Silicon Valley software company, said that one of its employees had been killed on one of the hijacked planes, but declined to give details. Oracle also said six of its employees who were working as consultants for clients in the Trade Center had still not been accounted for.

  Despite its worries, the company is trying to continue its normal business routines, said Mark Jarvis, Oracle's chief marketing officer. The company, for example, intends to report its financial results, as scheduled, today. "We focus on keeping our company running," Jarvis said. "Some of our biggest customers are the CIA, the FBI and various emergency services."

  In various industries, and throughout the country, corporate chiefs continued sending a steady stream of internal memos, reassuring employees that security precautions were in place and saying whatever they could about the status of employees or their families who may have been traveling or had been at or near the sites of the attacks in New York and Washington.

  Thermo Electron Corp, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, had an on office on the 85th floor of Tower 1 at the World Trade Center. Three employees, who were in the office when the plane hit the 88th floor, were able to get out safely via the stairs.

  Richard F. Syron, the company's chief, was traveling on the West Coast, and no one was sure on Wednesday when he would make it home. But he sent an e-mail memo to all employees to assure them that the New York contingent was safe, that the company's travel agents are still checking to see whether any of its employees were ticketed on any of the affected flights.

  "So far," said Caroline Grossman, Thermo Electron spokeswoman, "we're very hopeful."
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