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HBR CASE STUDY
How should Gerald
Smarten balance the needs of Kaspa and the community?
The CEO Can’t Afford to Panic by Eric J. McNulty
•
Reprint R1003X
Purchased by robert duboff (robert.duboff@hawkpartners.com) on January 12, 2012
In an unthinkable crisis, a bank’s chief executive has to make a fast decision. HBR CASE STUDY
The CEO Can’t Afford to Panic
COPYRIGHT © 2010 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
by Eric J. McNulty
Gerald Smarten, CEO of Kaspa Financial Services, was presiding over the regular Tuesday morning executive committee meeting in the glass-walled conference room that looked east over Massachusetts Bay. The management team was wrestling with the complexities of acquiring Huadong, a Shanghai-based investment firm. He glanced at his watch: 8:10 already, and they still had three more agenda items to work through.
“I just don’t trust their valuation of all of their assets,” said Sarah Hicks, Kaspa’s CFO.
“The securities are straightforward, but—” She stopped mid-sentence as the building shook and a low rumble rose up from below. She and her colleagues looked at one another and then, almost as one, rushed to the window. Smoke was billowing out of the subway entrance across from Boston’s historic South Station.
Traffic had stopped, and people were pouring into the street.
“Oh my God!” exclaimed Ben Lee, the firm’s general counsel. “There’s a fire.”
“Or worse,” Smarten said quietly. Just a month earlier he had attended a citywide meeting convened by the mayor to discuss emergency response plans. It had seemed so abstract then: Experts had talked about everything from hurricanes to pandemic flu to, yes, a subway bombing. No one seemed to really believe that Boston was a major terrorist target—snow emergency routes and swine flu containment tactics had been the order of the day—although the mayor had expressed concern about a strike at the liquid
HBR CASE STUDY
How should Gerald
Smarten balance the needs of Kaspa and the community?
The CEO Can’t Afford to Panic by Eric J. McNulty
•
Reprint R1003X
Purchased by robert duboff (robert.duboff@hawkpartners.com) on January 12, 2012
In an unthinkable crisis, a bank’s chief executive has to make a fast decision. HBR CASE STUDY
The CEO Can’t Afford to Panic
COPYRIGHT © 2010 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
by Eric J. McNulty
Gerald Smarten, CEO of Kaspa Financial Services, was presiding over the regular Tuesday morning executive committee meeting in the glass-walled conference room that looked east over Massachusetts Bay. The management team was wrestling with the complexities of acquiring Huadong, a Shanghai-based investment firm. He glanced at his watch: 8:10 already, and they still had three more agenda items to work through.
“I just don’t trust their valuation of all of their assets,” said Sarah Hicks, Kaspa’s CFO.
“The securities are straightforward, but—” She stopped mid-sentence as the building shook and a low rumble rose up from below. She and her colleagues looked at one another and then, almost as one, rushed to the window. Smoke was billowing out of the subway entrance across from Boston’s historic South Station.
Traffic had stopped, and people were pouring into the street.
“Oh my God!” exclaimed Ben Lee, the firm’s general counsel. “There’s a fire.”
“Or worse,” Smarten said quietly. Just a month earlier he had attended a citywide meeting convened by the mayor to discuss emergency response plans. It had seemed so abstract then: Experts had talked about everything from hurricanes to pandemic flu to, yes, a subway bombing. No one seemed to really believe that Boston was a major terrorist target—snow emergency routes and swine flu containment tactics had been the order of the day—although the mayor had expressed concern about a strike at the liquid