Moving so quickly and making major reductions caught the culture a bit by surprise. To ease the transition, Williams enlisted the aid of a few human resources specialists and an internal communicator (who is discussed in Step 4) to help people understand what was happening and why.

2. Soon after he arrived, Williams put in place global crisis management processes and personnel as part of his effort to re-engineer enterprise security. These processes were to be overseen by the newly minted regional security directors.

Todd Wagner was working in computer forensics for Caterpillar when he was recruited to crisis management. "We didn't have a formal group at that time," he says. "We now handle any crises that may impact Caterpillar--everything from natural disasters to terrorism to major disruptions in our supply chains." Wagner brought experience as a shift commander for the FBI's Terrorism Command Center to his new role as crisis coordinator for Caterpillar.

The crisis management team had to mobilize to support local staff in Japan during the March earthquake and tsunami. Caterpillar immediately dispatched a crisis manager to the area. "Our first priority was to make sure our people are safe," says Wagner. Caterpillar has 5,000-odd employees at three Japanese facilities, the closest of which is a little over 100 miles from the site of the disaster, outside the evacuation zone.

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