Tunnel vision.

Four years ago, as president of Laura Ashley's North American operations, Donna Moore faced the unhappy task of closing a warehouse and moving the company's New Jersey headquarters to Boston. "This was the most difficult day of my career," Moore reflected about the snowy morning on which she had to inform the staff. "Having always been in growth environments, I dreaded what I had to do." Such frank recollections might be expected in Moore's personal papers, but this "diary" was published in the 900,000-circulation Working Woman magazine. "I wrote that article because I hoped to let young women who are on the way up know that you don't get hard and stop caring about people just because your title gets larger," Moore says. "As long as you treat people fairly and honestly, they understand some of the necessities of business."

Since July 1995, Moore, 56, has brought that same soft spot with the even larger title of president and CEO to Ft. Lauderdale, FL-based Discovery Zone, the once high-flying indoor playground chain that plunged into Chapter 11 last March. As recently as 1994, DZ, whose majority shareholder is entertainment giant Viacom, was on Fortune's list of the 100 fastest-growing firms in the U.S. But overzealous expansion--183 new locations in one year, including the repurchased Blockbuster franchise stores and the acquisition of McDonald's Leaps & Bounds--coupled with lax controls led to a $66.6 million operating loss on revenues of $259 million in 1995. Assets at the time totaled $164 million, with liabilities at $366 million. In recent months, some of that bank debt has been purchased by New York-based Balfour Investors.

"Analysis by our staff and Coopers & Lybrand LLP revealed that a significant number of stores were underperforming," Moore says. "Rapid expansion led to facilities in poor locations, rents above market rate, and stores literally around the corner from each other." Though she again dreaded the business necessity, Moore has closed 60 company stores and plans to shutter 10 more under the more favorable terms allowed in a bankruptcy.

Just over a year ago, however, helping to lead another troubled company out of the complex maze of financial woes wasn't part of Donna Moore's plans. At Laura Ashley, she restructured the North American division and expanded the product line to "help the flowered dress grow up," though she admits some of the financial difficulties still remain. After leaving Laura Ashley in 1 993, Moore joined Motherhood Maternity Shops, leading it through an acquisition by competitor MothersWork.

Once that acquisition was complete, Moore was looking forward to taking long horseback rides with her husband, Bill, at their 200-acre Montana ranch and exploring some entrepreneurial possibilities. But then came a phone call from Viacom. Initially, Viacom wanted her to oversee its new entertainment shops, since Moore had expanded the Disney Stores from two to 150 during her five years as Disney's senior VP of stores and previously had headed Marriott's hotel/resort shops. However, the company soon realized her financial and turnaround experience at both Laura Ashley and Motherhood Maternity Shops made her more suited to the DZ post.

"She has a great background for the job because she understands that turnarounds are a combination of marketing skills and financial issues, and she can do both," says Katie Guinee, senior analyst at Moody's Investors Service. "Of course, it will be a big challenge to package that strategic vision and sell it to existing creditors."

Despite the financial troubles, Moore leaped at the DZ job because she believes the company is bound by a terrific business concept--although she admits she had to ask her grandchildren "what a Discovery Zone was." She says she also saw an opportunity to build good teams of people. "In business, the thing that never leaves you is the great people you help develop. Those people grow and go on, and you can always say, I had a part in making them what they are."

Others say that of Moore. When Marriott Chief Executive Bill Marriott Jr. noticed Moore's appointment at DZ, he dashed off a sweet "congratulations to `our Donna'" letter--even though she hadn't worked there for a decade.

Moore has been polishing her people skills since the age of 13, when she took her first job for 70 cents an hour at Rocky's Variety Store in Blue Island, IL. At her next job, in Betty Herman's dress shop, nearby, she learned "a lot about how to treat people," as well as the mantra she still lives by: "There should not be anything you can't get your hands around and do"--a message reinforced, she says, when she beat breast cancer at age 37. After graduating from high school, she just kept working. "I call myself an albino panda, a rare breed," she says, "because I moved up at a time when the only doors being opened in the upper ranks to women were to those with MBAs--and I never even went to college."

But while she never took Business 101, Moore knows that success begins with the basics. "Essentially, this is a 300-plus-unit start-up, except we have none of the advantages of time that you usually get to put everything in place," she says. She's begun by setting financial goals, something the company didn't seem to do much of before--and a task made complex by the existence of the bankruptcy credit committee--and developing a mission statement. "We see ourselves in the future as a paid-for community center," Moore explains.

For example, the company is exploring holding music, dance, and computer classes at the centers; hosting parties for Christmas, Halloween, and other holidays; and even sponsoring parenting groups. Tests are under way to use DZ centers on weekend evenings for older children: These "NightZones" feature fog machines in the plastic tunnels, a dance floor, and games with prizes. And this summer, all centers were equipped with "DZ Games"--screaming contests, human bowling pin matches, and "brain toss" (where kids pitch neon-colored, foam "brains").

"The press keeps wanting to write about how we can make Discovery Zone so much better for parents, but parents aren't what we're about," Moore says. "Parents come because they know their kids will have fun there."

Having fun is clearly important to Moore herself. Stan Gerasimczyk, DZ's current vice president of stores, who worked with Moore at both Disney and Williams-Sonoma, recalls that at Disney, Moore once happily dressed up as the Seven Dwarfs' Doc, "and she certainly put on her share of Mickey Mouse ears." On Moore's desk sits a photo of her with teenage granddaughter Summer, both sporting a shock of red clown hair--a lesson in the importance of lightening up. Her Land Rover sports so many rally lights she can't fit the car into her garage.

But Moore is serious about her mission at Discovery Zone, and about how she expects the story to end. By autumn's end, she hopes to have an exit strategy from bankruptcy. Within a few years, she believes, DZ will again claim its rightful place as the sultan of soft play, a concept the company invented before copycat competitors jumped in. "We didn't create the problem, but we can solve it," Moore says. "I constantly tell my team that one day, our successful turnaround tale will land us on the cover of a major business magazine."

DONNA MOORE President and Chief Executive DISCOVERY ZONE

Born: Harvey, IL. Education: High school. Age: 56. Family: Husband, Bill (of 38 years); daughter; four grandchildren--a.k.a. "Discovery Zone testers"--and another on the way. Boards: National Retail Federation. Industry affiliations: "I never had time for all this, I don't know how other people do it." Leisure activities: Reading several books a week, sailing, horseback riding, antique collecting. Current reading list: "Lighten Up: Survival Skills for People Under Pressure," "In the Eye of the Storm: Re-engineering Corporate Culture," a biography of Katharine Hepburn. Cars: 1987 Mercedes convertible 560SL; 1994 Land Rover Defender 90 with rally lights. Getaway: 4,000-square-foot house on 200 acres in Montana: "A place where status is determined by how many calves you have, not whether you're a CEO." Pet peeves: People who say something isn't possible. Plans after retirement: Attend college, ride horses in Montana, sail extensively.