One Tough Assignment

Breen's new team also wrestled with the notion of changing the company's name to distance it even more from the bad old days. A fresh start might help -- particularly since any marketing campaigns would have to compete with news coverage of former Tyco officers on trial. While acknowledging that the news was embarrassing to Tyco's employees, Breen was convinced that it would eventually subside. "You can't hide from a problem," he says. "We wanted to prove that we can be a model of a company that works its way out of a crisis."

Since Breen arrived in July of 2002, he's reduced Tyco's debt from $26 billion to about $14 billion. In June, Moody's restored the company's debt to investment grade. Paying a dividend to shareholders, or doing acquisitions with cash, isn't inconceivable anymore. Breen has pulled Tyco back from the brink. At the rate he's going, the name Tyco might well stand for something good again.