BW Online | September 18, 2001 | America in Microcosm

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SEPTEMBER 18, 2001

MANAGEMENT

America in Microcosm
Software outfit Cognet is located far from the devastated WTC. But, like all of America, it has felt the impact, as CEO Dov Goldman explains

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For many companies and the people who work for them, there was no such thing as business as usual in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Owners of businesses of all sizes are trying to figure out how best to respond to the emotional impact and, at the same time, continue to serve clients who depend on them. In this edited interview, Dov J. Goldman, the founder and CEO of Cognet Corp., a 3-year-old software company in Valhalla, N.Y., discusses with BusinessWeek Online reporter Theresa Forsman the response to the attack at his company, which has operations in Israel and whose clients include tenants of the former World Trade Center.

Q: What did you do when the attack occurred?
A: When you're running a business in a situation like this, you have to pay attention to people. You have to pay attention to the fact that something horrible has happened, and you've got to run a business. You know, we're not GE -- we're 50 people, and we're a family. If you don't acknowledge people's needs, you risk hurting that family. We basically shut down [on Sept. 11], but people stayed here all day, sitting next to each other, watching the TV. We have a senior team member whose husband worked across the street from the towers. She had a trying experience while he was trapped down in the area. We were all in the boat together, comforting each other.

Q: Have you reopened?
A: The next day we reopened for business. We had a company lunch -- brought in a bunch of pizzas and all sat together. I said, "It's not a formal meeting. Let's talk about what you feel, what you think." So people exchanged views. On Thursday, we were supposed to have a company outing -- a softball game and picnic planned months ago. Some people thought we really should have the baseball game to celebrate being a family. But some people were uncomfortable. And finally, one of our Israeli employees said, "If even one person feels funny about having the game, we shouldn't do it."

Q: You bought an Israeli company more than a year ago.
A: There's a significant Israeli component to our business, and several Israelis here in our office. They are used to this. The sheer scale of what happened is incredible to them. At the same time, the emotional responses are very familiar to them. If you are in Israel and a bomb goes off, you either know someone who was there or know someone who knows someone. Their perspective is that you have to go on. Do you hand the perpetrators a victory and be too scared to carry on? [The terrorists] want to see the economic life of this country come to a halt because of their actions. But we have to go on. We have to do business. We need that as individuals, and we need it as a country. No one here thought we should pause for any length of time in our business.

Q: Isn't that easier said than done?
A: We are allowing for a period of mourning. We're not going to celebrate, but life doesn't stop.

Q: Are you able to do business? Are other companies interested in doing business?
A: We decided very early on to contact all our customers, just to make contact on a human level. Two businesses we have not heard back from are Cantor Fitzgerald [a bond-trading firm with more than 600 employees missing] and Sullivan & Cromwell [international law firm with offices on Broad Street, from which no employees are missing]. We had a relationship with people who were down there. We don't know what's going on. We're trying to get in touch with our customers, find out who was impacted, and offer our help -- I don't mean that in a commercial sense. Can we send some people down to help them rebuild? We feel the need as a group of people to help.

Q: Will your business survive?
A: We're going to make it. We have customers. We have investors who believe in this business and continue to support it. It's going to take extra effort now that this has happened. A lot of client companies are going to sit tight -- anything they don't have to do they are not going to do. It's going to take a while for things to become unstuck. Eventually, in some manner, we might be participating in rebuilding the technical infrastructure that was lost.

Q: Isn't it difficult to talk with someone about rebuilding at a time like this?
A: I think you're right. At the same time, people do want to go on -- they don't want to give up. They don't want to hand the terrorists a victory. It seems like the goal of these terrorists was to foster disunity. But the opposite has happened. A huge, impersonal community has shrunk, psychologically.

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