Myths and Mortals

Chapter 9Decisions, DecisionsDecisiveness amidst ambiguity

Technology waits for no one, not even revered and legendary institutions.

In 1995, the iconic Crane & Co., manufacturer of fine stationery paper and US currency paper since 1879, faced looming obsolescence. Between 1950 and the 1980s, the company, led by the fifth generation of the Crane family, produced a range of highly successful products, including drafting paper, stock certificate paper, carbon paper, and business stationery. Then technology changed radically, and Crane & Co.'s business slowed almost to a standstill.

The copy machine and e-mail (now dated technology) rendered many of their products obsolete. In addition, competitors vied for their almost 100-year-old contract with the US government for whom they made currency paper.

Stymied, Crane & Co.'s summoned Lansing Crane, the great-great-great grandson of the company's founder, Zenas Crane. Lansing was in the full bloom of his career, practicing law and teaching courses in psychiatry and law at Yale. But the call came, and, as he says, “It was time for me to come home to the family business.”¹ The family business to which he returned is steeped in American history. In 1776, Stephen Crane had combined water, horsepower, and heat with worn-out cotton rags collected from local housewives to produce paper at Liberty Mill, just outside Boston. He sold his product to engraver Paul Revere, who printed on it the Colonies' first banknotes. Crane & Co. made cotton ...