标签: government

A blow of serious proportions hits you when you least expect it. You can't escape. It's you and only you. The collective experience of your lifetime searches for the approach within you. Sure, it was easy to give advice to others when they faced difficulty. It seemed so clear and straightforward. But that was then, and now this is you. There is no place to turn. Sure, there are others with advice, but there is no downside for others. They are simply free to go on without any retribution. It's not the same. You are all alone.   That was then, and now this is you.   This is responsibility. This is using all you have within you -- all you have been trained and taught. But inside, you know that you are alone, searching for the right path and using everything that has only been tested briefly before but now is under full assault.   Leadership knows this setting, but not well. It seldom occurs. Sure, numerous decisions flow in any enterprise. These are usually "rubber stamped" outcomes that have been vetted up the chain. No, this is a major blow -- a vital flare-up that won't go away and potentially threatens you and everything. It can't be modeled. It can only be addressed with your judgment and yours alone.     There is no place to turn -- only to turn within oneself. Each of us has the capability, but do we have the judgment? We are all filled with answers, some learned, some emotional, and some political. This is much different. This is your personal test. This will define you.   As the president of a company for 40 years, I have faced just such a tumultuous time twice. No, it wasn't products, people, or anything tangible. But it meant the pure existence of my enterprise.   In 1992 (OK, it was 22 years ago, but still highly relevant), we were informed by the GSA, the government agency that buys items from hammers to electronics, that it was going to sue Data Translation. The charge was that we had offered a product for sale to a government agency at a higher price than what was offered to our best customer, which bought in very high volumes.   Now, the lab that bought the product purchased just one unit through the GSA. Our best customer bought units in hundreds, and these units were specially manufactured and tested under another part number. Even so, the GSA insisted that it should get the very low price of a volume user.   We were confounded, and we tried to explain differences to the government's attorney. This was all to no avail. The only avenue the US attorney gave was for Data Translation to settle, admit guilt, and pay the treble damages of $15 million. The problem was that we were innocent, and we didn't have $15 million.   Larger companies faced similar suits from the government over GSA pricing. These firms quickly settled with the government and wrote it off. We couldn't do that. It would have killed us as a company.       So we did what we had to do. We fought in court. It was an all-or-nothing decision. Luckily, the jury unanimously found in our favor. We were cleared of any wrongdoing. Whew.   But those are the times when you summon all you have and make a big decision. There is no one else responsible but you. As Rudyard Kipling said in the poem, " If- ," known to many youngsters for more than 100 years:   If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'   Fred Molinari President CEO Data Translation