2024年3月12日发(作者：)

leading from the top 商务英语阅读理解

leading from the top.

When David Hayden realised his company was heading

for trouble, he took drastic measures to get it back on track

David Hayden founded his company, Critical Path, an

email provider, in 1997 to take advantage of the boom in

email traffic. Critical Path became a public company two years

later, and Hayden took the opportunity to step down from his

executive position in order to work on personal projects. At

the same time, he agreed to stay with the company as

Chairman, but the business was put in the hands of new

managers by its investors. With sector-leading products and

an expanding market, the company seemed to be on the up

and up. However, by early 2001, it was in trouble. Shares that

had been worth $26 in 1999, when they were first sold, were

down to a mere 24 cents.

Called in by a panicking board, Hayden found himself

back in charge as Executive Chairman, trying desperately to

rescue what he could. The 1,100 staff had lost confidence in

the company and did not know what was going to happen to

them. And, as Hayden discovered, the management team was

incompetent. Those guys didn't understand the product or the

sector,' says Hayden. The heads of department didn't

communicate and they didn't lead.' But what was worse,

Critical Path had lost the goodwill of its investors.

Hayden knew that bringing the figures under control

would be a vital step in the company's turnaround. 'You've got

to sort out the finances. For me, that meant getting back the

goodwill of the investors. That was tough, after what had

happened. But although they were angry with the company,

they didn't have bad feelings about me. I told them that I

knew I could get the company on its feet again.' He was

authorised to make whatever changes were required, and his

first act was to find people within the company he could trust

and put them in charge.

The next thing Hayden had to tackle was morale.

'Everyone left the office at five on the dot - they couldn't get

away quickly enough. To get the buzz back and win the staff

over, I had to prove my own commitment and put in the extra

hours with them.' In return, it was assumed that nobody would

ask for overtime pay until the company was on its feet again.

Contrary to normal practice, Hayden was reluctant to lay

people off, and apart from not replacing people as they