What Really Counts

The New York skyline will never be the same to me.

Last week's terrorist attacks were likened variously to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I remember neither. I just know the recent tragic events were much too close for comfort, and they were a devastating reminder that there's much more to this world we share than the high-tech industry.

'The business world too often is described in terms of bottom-line numbers and products. . . It's people who make our companies work.'

Last Tuesday morning, I made many phone calls, trying to regain composure by going about business as usual. This strategy worked until I telephoned one solution provider in Fishkill, N.Y., looking for an interview for an article I've been researching for the past three weeks. He dismissed me in anger, reminding me that a national tragedy had occurred. He was unable to account for several employees. That's when I knew it was time to hang up the phone and think and cry.

What I didn't tell him was that shortly before 10 a.m. that day, I was stopped in my car outside the Lincoln Tunnel after the Port Authority closed all access to the city, staring across the Hudson River at the unbelievable scene unfolding in lower Manhattan. I worried about several editors I was supposed to meet for a reader visit and editorial cabinet lunch. Many of you watched in horror as the Twin Towers collapsed around that time on live television. I had the dubious privilege of watching them fall live.

How ironic that just two weeks ago, a handful of CRN's editorial managers put their heads together to discuss a disaster recovery plan for our operation. We struggled with whom to designate as critical personnel, fumbled through setting up an emergency-alert phone chain and schemed about how to reserve the most space possible for our staff,in the unlikely event of a catastrophe. I have to admit, some of us had a hard time taking the exercise seriously. What could happen, we joked? None of us are laughing now.

New York authorities may choose to rebuild the World Trade Center, but they'll never be able to bring back the lives destroyed on that spot. The business world too often is described in terms of bottom-line numbers and products. It's time to remember that it's people who make our companies work.

Share your anger. HEATHER CLANCY, Editor/Strategy at CRN, welcomes comments at hclancy@cmp.com.