WCBS-AM Radio
August 13, 2002"News Afternoon Drive Time"
August 14, 2002
05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
New York City
PAT FARNACK, co-anchor: As I was about to say here, small biz with Joe Connolly.
JOE CONNOLLY reporting: A couple of dot-com celebrities who were featured in themovie, "Startup.com," are back, back together too, after they went bankrupt and one friend fired the other as they went from 200 employees down to none in Govworks, their initial business.
Now, Kaleil Tuzman and Thomas Herman are partners again in Recognition Group, which consults other distressed companies. They know a lot about that.
Tuzman says when he meets clients he tells them, 'I've lost a lot of money for some people, but I'm as hungry as anybody out there now because I'm trying to restore my reputation.'
They've advised about two dozen businesses and have already bought stakes in two of them and sold them for a profit.
Tuzman says in The Wall Street Journal that the lessons he learned are that business owners must listen to dissenting voices, must not try to grow so fast that they lose focus and must address problems fast and not deny that the problems exist.
I'm Joe Connolly for The Wall Street Journal on WCBS Newsradio 880.