Luke heard about the new high tech
company, “Peach”, that was starting up. He was among those invited to organizational
meetings and the business outlined there and the groundwork already laid was
exciting to him. The potential for great
success was evident and the market demand for the product, a new device with
huge potential in the education market was going to be amazing. Not only that, he knew the president of this
new start up. He was known for treating
his employees well, sponsoring their further education, allowing much room for
their creativity and offering excellent profit-sharing plans.
He was thrilled at the
prospect. He knew that he had found his
dream job: CEO of this new start up. He
loved organizing grand projects. He loved the feeling that comes from successfully effectuating an outstanding business
plan. He loved the feeling that comes
from being the mover and shaker, the MVP as it were, in a business. He let the president of Peach know that he
would be interested in having his resume added to the ones being considered for
the position of CEO.
Accordingly his resume was
considered and he went through the interview process. His application made it all the way to the
final group of candidates. But,
ultimately, he was not offered the job.
Luke was deeply disappointed but he
was undaunted. He still dreamed of being
the mover and shaker in this new business. He purchased stock in the new company and
began attending stockholders meetings. He
wrote to and canvassed the other stockholders, outlining concerns about the
business plan most recently outlined by the president of the company and urging
that they join him in voting in new members of the board of directors, men and
women who he knew would put pressure on the company to hire him on as CEO, or
at least, COO. He was intelligent and
persuasive. Peach was forced to mount a
major campaign to contradict the inaccurate information Luke disseminated. In spite of that, many stockholders responded positively to Luke’s efforts and at the next stockholders meeting wrote in the names of the people he proposed for the board during the voting. Unfortunately for Luke, however, they were
not a majority.
Luke’s application had been
rejected and his efforts to gain what he desired through persuasion and
campaign had failed. He was not
daunted. He decided to try embedding
himself and his influence in the company.
The company’s new product, the “Peach”,
was being released to selected markets. Luke headed to the company’s New Jersey
regional offices, a new market where the Peach had not yet been released but
where he knew it would be in great demand. That office was under the direction of two
young recent business school graduates who were setting up the office and awaiting
further instructions and training before directing the release of the Peach in the
New York/New Jersey market.
Luke presented himself at that
office as the son of the president of Peach and mentioned that he had attended
the same university as the two regional managers as an undergraduate himself
and that he actually remembered meeting them briefly at a Phi Kappa Phi banquet
there. Over the next few days, by spending
hours and hours in their offices making himself helpful and engaging and employing
his excellent skills at management and some very clever half-truths he was able
to persuade those two young regional managers that the Peach needed to be
released under his direction. Luke was placing
his money on the belief that an excellent execution of an important market
release would prove to the company how vital and important his skill set and
involvement would be to Peach.
The Peach was released in that
market with far reaching and ultimately profound and positive effect. However, to his great disappointment, the
president of Peach, rather than being impressed or pleased was the opposite. He arrived at the regional offices in person,
ordered Luke out of them and the two young regional managers were sent off to
be store managers in small towns in Nevada where they subsequently spent years
training endless numbers of young transient employees and updating their
knowledge at regional training seminars, being recognized and supported and eventually promoted as all good
employees at Peach are, grateful that they had not been fired. (Peach really is a good company to work for.)
Nursing his hurt pride and his
disappointment over his expulsion from the regional office, Luke took some
pride in the fact that he had, in his opinion, been the author of the release
of the Peach in that regional market and that its release had, indeed, drastically affected and improved education
and learning in that market. The Peach
quickly became an essential component of education that was in great demand and
rapidly became “the only game in town.”
Luke liked the idea that the highly
successful release he had masterminded had been his brain child and had
thoroughly cowed any competitors. That
sense of control and success was awesome.
He wanted to experience it again.
He flew to Nevada to see if he
could enlist the cooperation of the two young managers that he had worked with
in New Jersey, but, understandably, they didn’t trust him and refused.
He reviewed his options. He’d applied for a top position at Peach and
had not been hired. He’d tried political
maneuvering to get that position and had failed. And he’d tried moving in uninvited and, though
the success of those efforts had been thrilling they had been short-lived, and
he was pretty sure he had permanently alienated the president of the company. He’d been told in no uncertain terms that he
was to stay out of company affairs.
That, he decided, was the clue for
his next plan of action. If he wanted to
experience the heady aura of being the admired force behind a successful
venture, and he couldn’t do in Peach, he'd do it out of Peach. Even better, he’d do it against Peach. He’d launch a competitor.
His new company, “Walnut”, made a
huge splash when it launched its new device. Shinier and faster than the Peach, with louder
volume and more sparkles and a harder shell, it also was less expensive. The cost cutting done to reduce the price
resulted in the Walnut being less well made than the Peach; (the calculator app
on it often malfunctioned and the device had a tendency to explode after a few
years of use) but Luke’s degree in communication and his years of debate team
championship and his business degree and experience made his direction of the advertising
wildly successful. There have also been campaigns
that mail users coupons for prizes simply for logging certain numbers of
hours on the devices that have kept sales strong. Soon the Walnut was giving the Peach a run for
its money.
Luke still runs Walnut. And the Walnuts are still less expensive than the Peaches and sell well and they still, unfortunately, have that calculator
glitch and they still explode. But they
are, incontrovertibly, an exciting device to own and use.
Luke’s resentment about his
experience with Peach and the thrill he gets from running a successful company
that is totally under his control keep him energized and focused. Each time he recruits an employee away from
Peach his sense of victory is sky high. Each Walnut he sells is a personal dig at
Peach and a reason to celebrate. (One of
his favorite stories to tell is that of the teenage son of one of those two
Nevada store managers who used his birthday money to buy a Walnut.) His dream is control of the market, reducing
Peach’s market share to as close to zero as he can, showing Peach its mistake in not
hiring him, that he really is the best man to run a company.
Peach and Walnut are still both
powerhouses in the marketplace. Walnut’s
stock sells well these days. Fortunes
have been made with it.
Walnut’s employees give the company
mixed reviews. Luke throws fabulous
employee parties but his use of pyramid schemes in the company sales department
leaves some employees unhappy. The
health benefits and retirement plans offered are not great. And some complain that the organization is too
top-down and controlling. But the
parties are amazing, often including cruises, and are geared to fostering
company pride and camaraderie. And they
do that well. Luke knows they keep his
employees thinking twice before looking somewhere else for work. When one actually does so, his co-workers
generally think he’s foolish to leave.
So Luke lives on, working to live
his dream of being the essential, irreplaceable leader, the mover and shaker who totally dominates the market, whose product is in great demand, and who is
unquestionably the one who deserves and receives the credit for it. It’s heady stuff.
Would he go back to Peach if he was
offered the CEO position there now?
No, not likely. He feels like the track he’s on is more
likely to give him what he seeks than Peach would and he enjoys the management
style that he employs at Walnut, which he knows would be resisted strongly at
Peach.
And, of course, the longer you
compete against another company the less you wish to be employed by it. The blow to one’s pride would be nearly
unbearable.
Buy out Peach with a hostile
takeover? That would be awesome, thinks
Luke, but, unlike when he first started this journey, he’d never want to be
employed there.
Luke may not be completely
happy. The rejection at Peach still
sticks in his craw and he personally despises the president of Peach for that. But the thrill of the battle and the sense of
control and essentialness that he’s created for himself at Walnut are awesome. He intends to stay the course.
