Robert A. Reynolds Jr.* faced a number of challenges in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He had been president and CEO at Graybar Electric Co. Inc. for just more than a year and would soon add the title of chairman to his responsibilities.
Graybar certainly wasn’t the only business to be affected by Sept. 11 as the entire economy plummeted in its wake. But Reynolds had a number of other issues that were threatening the 6,900-employee company’s continued success.
“We spent a lot of money implementing a strategy that was not executed well,” Reynolds says. “We had systems that needed to be replaced. We had a souring economy made even worse by 9/11. The other thing we needed to look at as we went forward in the company was having the talent available, trained and ready to step in when needed.”
The most pressing concerns in the eyes of Reynolds were the large amount of debt Graybar had taken on and the aging systems that needed to be replaced.
“We needed to make a decision,” Reynolds says. “Do we go forward and put in a new system that we think would help us work on the balance sheet but, at the same time, would have an impact on the balance sheet because it was expensive?”
Reynolds wanted to work with his team to find a solution to the dilemma that was facing the electrical and communication products distributor. He wanted to develop a strategy that would upgrade the company’s operating systems without leaving the company in financial ruin.
“It was a little riskier,” Reynolds says. “But it was one we had to move forward on. We really didn’t have a choice.”
