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If Mitchell Kertzman had just one piece of advice for budding high-tech entrepreneurs, it would be simple: "Don't panic."
Kertzman will need to follow his own advice as he attempts to improve the fortunes of Sybase Inc. Enlisted in July 1996 to launch a turnaround of the ailing Emeryville, Calif.-based software vendor, Kertzman already has spent countless hours architecting his master plan. Now all he has to do is execute.
Pulling Sybase out of its doldrums not only represents a once-in-a-lifetime career opportunity, but it is also the ultimate Rubik's Cube for a strategic thinker who can examine the situation from all angles and focus on the impact various adjustments can have on each other. Close friends say Kertzman is an intense, yet personable, visionary who can build consensus when needed, but is otherwise not shy about charting a course the way he sees fit. And, after much musing, Kertzman believes he has the people, the technology and the solution to fix Sybase's woes.
"There are things in any industry that seem like emergencies all the time," he says, "but the leader has to be calm and take things in stride. That's part of what you're paid for."
Clearly, Kertzman is not one to panic. Long before joining the large database developer, he had the inner strength and calm to build his own company-Powersoft Corp.-from the ground up before selling it to Sybase last year. And if he panicked back in the '60s when Boston police hauled him away for allegedly inciting a riot, he is not letting on.
Recruited straight out of college in 1968 to be a disk jockey at WBCN-Radio, Kertzman was out of work four months later after the manager "became convinced I was trying to destroy his radio station," he says.
"There...