For A.W. ("Tom") Clausen, 63, it was a tough homecoming last week. The man who reigned as president of BankAmerica from 1970 until his retirement in 1981 was back, this time as chairman, in his old offices on the 40th floor of the company's San Francisco headquarters building. There he was confronted by an unfamiliar and sobering array of corporate and financial problems. Clausen, however, did not seem unduly worried. Said he: "We are going in the right direction. I'm here to accelerate the pace."
The pace of change at BankAmerica (current assets: $117 billion) had already picked up quite a...