Casey's law

by Albert V. Casey

Murphy's Law tells us that if something can go wrong, it will. Nonsense! says Al Casey, who maintains: If things can go right, they should. But you've got to make them go right, he adds, by hard work, focusing on key problems, and believing in the people around you. One of the most successful - and original - American businessmen of our time, Al Casey is a no-nonsense turnaround specialist who loves nothing more than the big challenges, whether in the private or the public sector. As president of the Times Mirror Corporation, he was instrumental in taking that West Coast company, whose main "product" was the Los Angeles Times, and turning it into a multifaceted media giant, with interests in magazines, newspapers, book publishing, forest products, radio, and television. As chairman of American Airlines for eleven years, he took that ailing giant - heavily in debt and losing money when he became CEO early in 1974 - and made it into the highly profitable, preeminent company it still is t