Alice in wwwLand. Episode 1.0 - The Backstory
Once upon a time, there was a media director named Alice who had spent her 15-year career planning "offline" media, using 20th century communication vehicles like TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. The type of media that marketers had been using to reach their customers for dozens, if not hundreds of years. Before the rise and the fall and the rise again of the Internet. During this time she worked hard to learn the art and science of media and marketing. She worked hard to build upon her reputation and felt that a key to success was based on developing strong relationships with associates and clients on Madison Avenue.
One day she received a call from a friend who informed her that a fast-growing interactive-based new media company wanted her to consider joining them. The position was to establish a new division that she would run, as part of a larger plan to build the best new media communications business ever created on the planet.
This was something Alice had never considered. Intrigued, she did her homework, met with this new company's CEO, Susan Montgomery-Wrestler. After taking some precautions and consideration Alice decided to accept the offer.
Everyone she knew was very excited for her. The team she had cultivated over the years expressed great interest in her move and informed her they would love to follow her. They too had done their homework and knew that the new-age media firm she was joining, Far Ranging Solutions, or "FARS" for short, was white hot and about to go public. The stock options being awarded to the "best of breed" group they were cobbling together stood to make a fortune once the IPO was announced.
Though besides the financial up-side, Alice was joining FARS with an equally breath-taking new-age title, "Chief Mentality Officer", created by Sue-Mo (her nickname from birth) based on the dictionary word definition of "mentality", "a habitual or characteristic mental attitude [mind-set] that determines how a person will interpret and respond to situations." Like watching TV for instance.
Sue-Mo informed Alice she was expecting great things from her. At the dawn of a new century and a new way of people connecting, one of Sue-Mo's primary goals for Alice was to help transform the understanding of media as it was understood currently on Madison Avenue; and then within contemporary culture at large. Needless to say, Alice was thrilled, both on a financial and career level.
This is her story.
Alice was only at FARS 28 days when Susan Montgomery-Wrestler called her into her office. She then informed Alice that - the plans and promises she had made Alice to lure her away from her previous company - were being scrapped. Born into an upper-crust New Orleans-based southern family, Sue-Mo Wrestler (nick-name from childhood) told Alice that instead, Alice would be given a brand new task, to lead the integration of FARS's just-announced acquisition of an equally hot new-age creative shop, with an equally creative name, "People-Understanding-Real-Evolution" or "P.U.R.E." for short.
Upon the hearing of this news, Alice's initial reaction could easily be described by the expression "deer caught in the headlights." She felt dazed and confused. A PURE-FARS combinations was something she couldn't fathom. Being there not even a month, this was the last thing in the world she was expecting to hear. As she stood in front of Sue-Mo's desk, she stared up at the Picasso above Sue-Mo and felt as twisted as the new-age portrait of a female. It felt like millions of thoughts began rushing into her brain...PURE-FARS, PURE-FARS, PURE-FARS,... She tried to let it sink in. Her first reaction was to scream. She was angry at Sue-Mo but equally mad at herself. Why didn't she this coming?
Working hard to control her breathing, in order to not hyper-ventilate, she thought about the fact that lickety-split, Sue-Mo's news of a new role for her - to manage the integration of both companies in order to help establish positive relations between FARS and PURE - was like, where did this come from?
Sue-Mo then made a case that this was needed so that they would coordinate effectively since the company was taking a much more aggressive position in the marketplace. Sue-Mo expected Alice to adapt. Sue-Mo was running fast herself, trying to deal with the break-neck speed. Negotiations between both companies had been drawn out and particularly arduous, so Sue-Mo was very emphatic that Alice's new responsibilities were even more vital to the success of what was already, the largest web-development company in the world than as CMO.
Alice couldn't shake thought that she had been brought in with great fanfare. Sue-Mo had told Alice that she was "the sixth most important position" in the global organization. Combining technology with media had to date never been well accomplished as of 1999. Sue-Mo had re-assured Alice that she had been hand-picked by her and that her decision had been based on Sue-Mo's estimation that Alice was the kind of person who could rise even higher to the occasion, based on Alice's ability to network. Alice was told that now, more than ever before (all 28 days worth) her importance within the organization was in fact, "critical" to FARS's and PURE's success. Sue-Mo said Alice should not think only of herself but of the new-age media industry.
Sue-Mo apologized for the fact that all of Alice's expectations, plans and promises would now be null and void. Alice felt like she was going to vomit. She had just recruited several friends, senior-level media talent, all of whom had given notice, resigning from their well-established positions at different companies to join Alice at FARS; based on her assurances coming from Sue-Mo herself that Alice and new team would be given carte blanch; the opportunity to build a media department from scratch. It was uncomfortable to Alice when she thought that these promises were scrapped so quickly vs. 6 weeks earlier. Alice had worked hard her entire career to keep her word; to do whatever it took to deliver on the promise. Now, her world was spinning. She had no idea to fix this new abyss.
To soften the blow, Sue-Mo informed Alice that she would instruct the CFO to award Alice and her new incoming team significantly more FARS stock than was originally promised, as a way to make up for the change in plans.
Known for her outstanding new business acumen, Sue-Mo made a convincing case that Alice's new job would be even more fun than Alice's original responsibilities. Yet, Alice also knew that events had occurred so quickly that she wasn't sure if Sue-Mo's new promises were real, or whether she herself simply wanted to believe them.
The fact was, Sue-Mo was putting more on the table. Alice couldn't ignore the fact that additional stock would definitely offset the sting to her friends, about to join her. The upcoming FARS IPO had a large buzz on Silicon Alley and in VC land. Inside FARS, people were already setting up family trust funds and looking at new summer homes in the Hamptons, as the anticipated value of the company in October, 1999 was literally, sky-high.
Alice still felt let down inside. Her throat and stomach were dry, tied in knots, first, from dealing with a strong sense of betrayal. Second, everything that Alice had been planning for the last 2 months upon resigning from her "old" company would be null and void. Third, that she would now have to call...no, meet with her friends that their lives were also about to change.
She was torn. She kept telling herself that Sue-Mo's offer to compensate her and her team seemed a somewhat reasonable compensation for the abrupt change in plans. After all, this was the "wild west net." Alice left her own job in traditional media to capitalize on the lucrative stock options being awarded 25 year olds, who at such a young age, were already set for life. With 20 years in the traditional media business, Alice had not been as fortunate. She had worked her way up the corporate ladder the hard way, earning one's trust day by day with her supervisors and clients, which were the top brands in the business. Alice had to be ready for anything with new media, even a shoot-out at OK corral.
Then it occurred to her like a bolt of lightening running through her veins that she needed to stop focusing on the shock of her new situation. She needed to begin re-focusing on something else. Who were these PURE guys and how would they feel about Alice being assigned to coordinate their coming aboard? Alice would soon find out.
To be continued...
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