Business as a Mission: Looking at the Role of Business After September 11, 2001 by Carol Kallendorf and K. Jack Speer As a business leader, what is your role in America in the midst of the present crisis we face? Your gut response to the present role of business may be, "Just to survive." That thought crossed our minds several times this year. Unfortunately, this thought of pure survival may have gotten us to the times we are living now. Business has unfortunately gone for short-haul values. Getting past the short-haul and on to value building is the most critical thing that any of us in business will do.

Carol Kallendorf Founder The Delta Associates

We in business need to understand the clear implications of President George W. Bush when he says that this will not be a short episode. It's amazing that people in a third-world country living in caves are calling a lot of the shots in our life. But we must remember that these people are educated and strategic. These people are unfortunately as able as many CEOs of large organizations here. CEOs spend their time each day building their companies. These terrorists spend their days analyzing how they can export destruction.

We must adapt to doing business and moving forward in an era of singular danger within our borders. The question now is not how we can survive September 11th. The question now is how will we respond to a series of attacks through years. The level of crisis represented by the present Anthrax attack cannot break our resolve. We cannot react out-of-proportion to these events, scary though they are.

And we must produce better products and services even as dangers increase. These have not been the best of times for our clients, big names in corporate America that everyone knows. We have a little company in Austin, Texas called The Delta Associates. Our clients recognize that what we do--creating value by leading employees and organizations to peak performance--is something they need in times like these. But we must continue to build a company that looks beyond making a buck.

In the pages of BizWatchOnline.com we have sounded this constant theme: You have to create a product or a service that someone will write a check for-something they can get excited about as true value. If you do, people will hock their shoes to buy what you have. They still will. This is the kind of value we must create now.

If business creates value for people, the dollars will follow and their company will be enduring. It is also our mission to create economic opportunity for the many rather than only to enrich the few. Don't get me wrong. I'm a great believer in creating shareholder value, especially for my little portfolio. But creating a job is a sacred thing, and that's what our nation needs in these challenging times. A year ago, many of us thought it was pretty irrelevant which party was in power or who was the president. Now government is back in the forefront and key to our survival. Only business, however, can create value and a growing economy. That's our role . . . our mission.