A's official history says that it was founded by Wang and "three associates"
in April of 1976. Being unwilling to give up any part of their salaries, Russ
Artzt and the other two associates remained employees while Wang took
50% of the shares.
"We started with nothing," Wang says. "We lived hand to mouth." But he
never regretted the decision to start CA. "Things were very tough. There
were times you say, 'My god, it's so tough and we really gotta watch
ourselves.' You go through all of those things, but never did I say, 'Boy, I
wish I had never started this thing,' because that was my choice. That was
what I've always wanted to do."
He was spared much of the anguish that usually torments first-time
entrepreneurs because CA didn't suffer the prolonged cashflow shortage
that plagues most startups. Being essentially an existing business operated
by the same people, CA was breaking even from day one. In the early days
a few late-paying clients could be a source of anxiety, but CA was on a
comfortable footing within two years.
Leaving all the product development to Artzt and another programmer
named Bill Habermass, Wang took charge of marketing and documentation.
A big part of his time was spent selling on the phone. he became the
salesman, Wang insists, not because of any superior people skills but simply
because Artzt was the better programmer. "Russ is the genius," says Wang
of the man he calls his best friend. Today Artzt is CA's Executive Vice
President in charge of R&D. Wang consistently plays down the practical
importance of titles. "We never have such distinctions. We still work
together all the time. We play ball all the time. Okay? He's over at my
house having dinner all the time. He's like my brother."
Wang also claims that Artzt has no resentment or regret over having
foregone an ownership interest in the company. "He's a multi-millionaire,"
says Wang impatiently. "He owns a couple of homes. He's in great shape.
What difference does it make?"
"Yes, you want a certain comfort level and security level," says Wang when
asked whether his money means little to him. "The rest doesn't really
matter, you know."
During the first couple of years Tony Wang, who was an associate at the
established New York firm of Burke & Burke, served as CA's outside counsel.
Gradually he came to handle many of the administrative tasks that Wang
found burdensome. "He was already working with me very closely on all
the legal work and the things I'm not good at, probably more in the
administration or those areas more so than in technology or sales and
marketing." In 1979 Wang asked Tony to join the company full time.
"When it comes to working with family," says Wang, "it either works out
beautifully or not at all. There's no in between." Because he was leery
about the downside potential, they spent a good deal of time laying out the
ground rules. "I made it clear that he's not working with me, he's working
for me. We discussed it all. We felt it was a potential problem and took a
chance."
Maybe because of such precautions, the anticipated problems never
materialized. "We don't agree all the time," says Wang dismissively, "but we
think of it as good healthy constructive criticism of each other. And it isn't
just my brother, it's all the other people too. All my executives are very
outspoken and certainly I don't want them to agree with me. If they
always agree with me, I always tell them that one of us is redundant and it
ain't me, so you figure out who it is."
Asked if he sometimes pulls rank on his brother, Wang fires back, "Yeah,
sure! Why not?" On the other hand, tony doesn't pull family rank because
they are only a year and a half apart. "We grew up together, played ball
together. The three of us are very close." They remain close, at least in
physical terms. Only a conference room separates Tony's office from
Wang's surprisingly modest 15x15 office.
Maybe because of such precautions, the anticipated problems never
materialized. "We don't agree all the time," says Wang dismissively, "but we
think of it as good healthy constructive criticism of each other. And it isn't
just my brother, it's all the other people too. All my executives are very
outspoken and certainly I don't want them to agree with me. If they
always agree with me, I always tell them that one of us is redundant and it
ain't me, so you figure out who it is."
[CONTINUED BELOW]
Asked if he sometimes pulls rank on his brother, Wang fires back, "Yeah,
sure! Why not?" On the other hand, tony doesn't pull family rank because
they are only a year and a half apart. "We grew up together, played ball
together. The three of us are very close." They remain close, at least in
physical terms. Only a conference room separates Tony's office from
Wang's surprisingly modest 15x15 office.
After Tony joined CA as an administrative vice-president, he continued
farming out the more onerous legal chores to Burke & Burke. By the fall of
1980 Tony was comfortable enough with CA's operations to take over more
of Wang's duties as chief operating officer, thereby freeing him to pursue
the strategic goals that began coming into focus.
By 1980, four years after
starting, CA's annual revenues had swelled to $13 million. It was doing
well enough that Wang bought out the Swiss company's half interest. He
then gave a sizeable percentage of the shares to Tony, Russ Artzt and a few
others.
In September the brothers received a visit from Arnie Mazur, the Burke &
Burke partner who was doing the outside legal work for the company. As
young associates at the firm, Mazur and Tony had shared an office and
become close friends. "I happened to be on vacation and came out to see
the new offices, visit Charles and Tony and say hell," Mazur recalls. "As
outside counsel I had actually negotiated the lease for the new offices that
CA had."
"Tony said he's backed up, he's got all sorts of different things to do. How
about leaving the law firm and coming in to help? I asked him, 'What's
there for me to do?' 'I don't know, but we'll find something.' I said, 'Okay,
let's go.'" The career move didn't immediately result in a jump in income.
"It's got nothing to do with money."
"It really doesn't," cuts in Wang. "I tell people, 'If you just look to work for
money, what's the difference between you and a whore?' I mean really,
you gotta enjoy what you're doing. You gotta look at the challenges. Yes,
you gottqa get paid and you should be paid very well if you're successful at
it, but still you can't just look at money."
He started as VP of Administration but Mazur's actual duties fit into no
such neat label. "My job was to do whatever needed to be done that I was
capable of doing," recalls Mazur. Today, as Executive Vice President of the
North Amerian Group, Mazur is the fourth key member of CA's
management team. His reponsbilities have shifted gradually away from
administration toward managing a sales force of 1500.
"Because they have more fun doing it and I get somebody better," says
Wang when asked why he chose to turn a lawyer into a sales
manager. In hiring Wang expresses a clear bias for character over
education. "Education's facts," he says flatly. "What's in the heart, I can't
change. I can put more information in the head. I can change a lot of
things, but I never can change how one cares about something. There's
caring in the company," he continues. "That's what we keep striving for.
That's our biggest challenge."
Soon after Mazur came aboard Wang promoted Tony to President and Chief
Operating Officer and took his current title of Chairman and CEO. With three
trusted lieutenants in place, and enjoying strong revenue growth, he
decided to take CA public as a first step of his strategy of rapid expansion
through acquisition. The move was motivated as much by the simple desire
to ensure CA's survival as by mere ambition.
PAGE 8
A's official history says that it was founded by Wang and "three associates"
in April of 1976. Being unwilling to give up any part of their salaries, Russ
Artzt and the other two associates remained employees while Wang took
50% of the shares.
