Reference no: EM133305247

Assignment: Using the tools you reviewed on how to develop a decision profile, respond to the HBR article, "The Flight of the Boomerang Employee", and outline the decision, based on the decision profile, you would make: should Liana go back to Orchis Company? When is it a good idea to return to your old company? Liana uploaded the pictures from her recent trip to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show: A solar-powered car. A 3-D television. An e-reader. Another e-reader. Another e-reader. As she clicked through them, she felt bittersweet vindication. She had predicted the zeitgeist. Her product should have been on display. Five years before, when she'd worked at Orchis, she'd put in 80 hours a week leading the consumer tech company's e-reader development team. But the result of all that work-the Vanda-hadn't made it into stores. After seeing the first prototype, management had shortsightedly pulled the plug. Soon afterward, Liana had left the company-but now she was nostalgic for the work she'd done there. She thought back to her reasons for quitting. The problem wasn't just that senior managers had lost faith in the product; they had misjudged the customer, as well. Assuming that no one wanted to read Proust-or P.D. James, for that matter-on something that looked like an Etch A Sketch, they'd given the project just enough money to fail. With a different director of product development, or with a little more time and money, things could have gone so differently, Liana thought. Since then, her life had changed-a lot. She and Suz had gotten married on Martha's Vineyard, moved to California, and adopted twins. And Liana had cofounded Musiophile, an internet-streaming radio station. Though it wasn't all that profitable yet, it was very popular. With the dust settling around her, Liana had become restless. Musiophile was essentially waiting to be bought, and any dreams of independent wealth had long ago faded (she was the founding creative director, not a partner). She was ready to get to work on some of her new ideas. But the thought of launching another start-up, at this point in her life, daunted her. The Chance to Go Back "Liana? This is Tom Anthony. It's been a long time." This was weird. She'd been thinking about Orchis, and now the CEO was calling? "Hi, Tom," she said, trying to sound pleasant rather than confused. "How are things?" "I'll come right to the point," he said. "I've been following Musiophile, and I think we made a mistake letting you leave. I'd like you to consider coming back to Orchis as our director of product development. Can we fly you back east for a meeting?" "Uh, that's quite generous, but I've got two commitments," she said, thinking of the twins, Ethan and Colin, "and I can't drop them. Why don't you tell me more about the job first. I take it Gary left?" "Gary is pursuing other opportunities," Tom replied. "All the e-reader exposure at CES this year made us realize that we were premature in killing the Vanda. Though that ship has sailed, we'd like you to come back and help us launch the next wave of devices. Gary-well, his strength was in coming up with ideas. He wasn't very effective at executing or at pitching to the executive committee." That's putting it mildly, Liana thought. "Given the smarts you've shown at Musiophile," Tom added, "I think you'd be great. And we have a new chief marketing officer who could make a real difference in how we bring these things to market." "Tom, it's very flattering that you thought of me after all this time," Liana replied, hoping she sounded sincere. She and Tom hadn't worked together much when she was at Orchis. She meant to beg off but surprised herself and said, "Sure, I'll come out so we can talk it over." Suz, when Liana told her about the call, was skeptical. "I'm just trying to get my head around this," Suz said. "I can work anywhere- hospitals never have enough nurses-but we've built a whole life here. I know you loved that Vanda project, but do you really think you want to go back to Orchis? You were working crazy hours before. Things are different now." She looked pointedly at Ethan and Colin, wriggling in the bathtub. "At Musiophile, at least you have the flexibility to work from home when I'm on a shift. But that's because you make the rules. What if Orchis expects you to give 200% again?" Liana had been running through these same what-ifs all afternoon, plus a few more. She'd be leading Gary's team, made up of her former peers and people hired in the past five years, those who knew her only by reputation-as the woman who'd failed and then quit. Would they give her a chance? And would her start-up experience make her an effective director of product development at an established company? Sizing Up the Deal "Well, Chelsea and Peter are both still on the team," Liana sighed into her cell phone from her seat at Starbucks. She'd caught a glimpse of her old coworkers, eternally attached at the hip, on her way to her third interview. "I suppose it was too much to hope that they'd have left, too." Chelsea and Peter were both smart, and so were their excuses. Chelsea always had a reason why the new product or feature would fail. Peter was never satisfied with the amount of research the group had done. They'd gotten along great with Gary, who'd called them his devil's advocates. But Liana had thought of them as his nattering nabobs. "I don't know how I'll get buy-in on anything with them in the group," she muttered, "but I suppose I'll find a way." "So you really want this?" asked Suz. "You definitely want to make this happen?" "They'll pay relocation costs and put us up until we find a place. I asked about flextime, and they didn't even blink." "That may be true now," started Suz. "But when a project's on the line-" "I know." Liana paused, picking at the cardboard sleeve on her latte. "You realize this isn't about the money, right? It's the challenge. We've basically solved all the fun problems at Musiophile. It's just not engaging anymore. Being the director of new products at Orchis- well, it would be a constant stream of fun problems to solve. With the resources to solve them. Plus, I met the new CMO, and she's really impressive-" "OK, babe. Let's talk about it when you get home." "OK," Liana agreed. "I have just one more person to meet with before I hit the airport." More to the Story? Gary pulled a chair over from a neighboring table. "Thanks for coming, Gary. I know we didn't really part on great terms. And that this might be awkward for you. Tom didn't tell me the circumstances-" "I was encouraged to retire early," Gary interjected. "Very early. But, truth be told, I was ready to leave. It had been a long time since Orchis had launched anything truly disruptive, and Tom pinned it on me." At Liana's carefully polite expression, he rolled his eyes. "I know you blamed me for killing Vanda," Gary continued, waving away Liana's murmured protest. "And you were right: We didn't give it enough time to succeed. Or enough money. I wanted to give it more, but the executive committee was divided on the merits. Even some members of our team were skeptical." Liana thought of Chelsea and Peter, and tried to keep her face neutral. "Still," Gary continued, "I thought right up until the end that we'd be able to keep going with it. I mean, it was only the first prototype. Everyone hates the first prototype. That's why it's called a prototype! But there's a reason Orchis is struggling to launch game changers, and having seen the sausage being made, I think it's a systemic problem. You'll have a hard time getting things done. They say they want to try new things, but I was never able to get them to put money behind anything 'unproven.'" But that doesn't mean I'd have the same problem, Liana mentally added. Her round of interviews had made it clear that Tom wasn't alone in his take on what had gone wrong with Gary. Even the CMO, who'd worked with him only briefly, had made a couple of unchecked comments about his naysaying and lack of gumption. Liana chose her next words carefully. "Gary, this is valuable information for me. But I do wonder if new DNA in the management ranks would shake things up." Gary snorted. "OK, let me give you an example. Our most recent project-now dead in the water, naturally-was a solar-powered cell phone. You'd never have to charge it. Great, right? But everything we tried was prohibitively expensive. That should be a solvable problem for product dev. Plenty of new technologies cost a ton when they come out. But ex-comm said it wasn't feasible, we'd spent enough time on it, and we should move on. My hands were tied." Later, at the airport, Liana's thoughts chased around in circles. She'd always believed she could do a better job than Gary, but maybe she just hadn't known the full picture. It was hard to tell whether Gary's complaints were grounded in incontrovertible fact or, as she couldn't help but suspect, defensiveness about a situation he simply hadn't had the creativity or initiative to change. Her gut instinct said, "Go, prove yourself." But what if all she managed to prove was that she'd made a terrible miscalculation and uprooted her family in the process? Should Liana go back to Orchis?