Two Years Out Of Corporate America And Still Going

Sorry about the infrequent posts this week.  My kids like everyone else's are off from school and are staying up late which cuts into my blogging time.  In fact, both are up right now as I write this watching Spongebob Squarepants.  SIGH.

Anyway, I like revisiting some of my older posts especially ones on managing your career.  I get nostalgic especially when I had lunch with some of my Harrisdirect co-workers, Jackie, Megan, and Maggie.  It was fun to catch up on old times and it reminded me that I've come a long way from that person that left/laid off from E*Trade at the end of December 2005. Now before I reprint my last post while being an HD employee, here are a couple of things that stand out for me in the past 2 years...

Eric's Top 10 Quick Hits from the Past 2 Years

1. When you work from home or stay local, you don't need as much cash as you needed before.
2. There are more people than you realize that actually work out of the home office especially with broadband being everywhere; it isn't anything to be ashamed of and if you actually have your own office and get dressed everyday you are just as professional as the schmucks in the suits.
3. You actually won't miss out on watching your kids grow up
4. Most of what you do in Corporate America is completely a waste - from presentations to arbitrary start and end dates to kissing up to the new boss because you are afraid of your job.
5. That's not to say I won't ever go back.  What I do miss is camaraderie, perceived security, and actually being involved in running a business.  One of my favorite things to do at both HD and AT&T is look at the monthly financials to see what I could do to help.  I also enjoyed working with other groups to see how marketing could help them.
6. Speaking of dates, YOU HAVE NEVER DEALT WITH A DEADLINE UNLESS YOU'VE WORKED IN POLITICS.  Seriously, you don't know what it means to make a date.  For example, the Iowa Caucus is 1/3.  With McCain's surge in the polls we made some changes to the advertising campaign.  I had to do it today because it can't wait until tomorrow.  1/8 of the remaining campaign would have been gone.  And when the caucus is over, there is nothing more you can do; the vote is forever and being off by a little costs you a lot.
7. In politics there is no such thing as 9-5.  Sure some days are lighter than others but when a lot of the business world is on vacation and you have to make changes you do.  And you expect your vendors to answer your emails (hat tip to the Google Political team especially Rena, Ben, and Virginia).  You work late because you have to and when the campaign manager asks for volunteers to go to a state, you go.  You don't submit vouchers or call your assistant to book your trip.  You pay for it and book it yourself.  Finally, you move your family vacation because it is too close to Super Tuesday.
8. I never get tired of working with new clients.  I've had my share over the years and wish I had more.  When you no longer work with one, especially when it has nothing to do with your support, you feel sad because you wish there was more you could have done.
9. You always need new clients coming in the door; a lack of a funnel means you should start looking for a new job.
10. When you are disconnected from Corporate America you realize how important friends and family are.  And, how important you really were to your former Corp America friends.

Anyway, that's my top 10 quick hits from the past two years.  I hope you enjoyed them. Hint the continue reading link to see the reprint of the post.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Exit Stage Right

                                                        

“Eric, join us in the conference room with the other directors please”, asked my CMO at the now defunct company Impower out of Princeton NJ. This meeting was how the company was having cash flow issues and the CEO wanted all of the directors to take a 20% across the board pay-cut.

Well, my mom didn’t raise a complete fool and I neglected to volunteer for the pay cut, but the company was in such dire straits that they cut my salary anyway. “Of course it was by accident”, the CFO explained to me as he reversed the problem.

“Enough is enough and my time with this .com is over”, as I confessed to one of my employees Angela E. So, like any good job hunter with no severance and a need to move fast, I went to

Monster.com and submitted my resume on a job. It was a lark, but the job description went like this:

VP Online Advertising
DLJdirect
Weehawken, NJ
Pay: Big salary+bonus
(you didn’t think I’d actually reveal my comp, did you?)

You know what, I got the job after our HR director Lauren T. pulled my resume out of the scrap heap and walked it into the then current CMO,

Debra Isenberg

Debra picked up the phone and asked me “What the hell are you doing at Impower?” and my answer was trying to get out.

Well, a few interviews later I landed a job with CSFBdirect, which was rebranded from DLJdirect the day I walked in the door. I couldn’t tell the difference between a money market and a mutual fund, but I knew how the Internet works and I sure as hell could bring in online sales. Unfortunately, the first major problem went like this:

About two weeks into the new job, I was wandering the halls in Jersey City trying to find the men’s room, when Debra stops me and says “Meeting in my office in 5 minutes. There is something wrong with the AOL Personal Finance Deal and you need to fix it!”

DLJdirect signed the AOL deal with the assumption that AOL would bring in accounts just liked it did earlier when the company basically was built on AOL and Prodigy. Well, I couldn’t turn the numbers around because we were up against three other brokers, but I did increase the sales by bending up the conversion into sales from clicks. In the end, we renegotiated the deal and extracted some value from the contract before it was ultimately cancelled over a lunch meeting at a lovely Greek restaurant in lower Manhattan.

In January 2002, having survived a few rounds of layoffs, the

Bank of Montreal

acquires CSFBdirect and begins the rebranding process to Harrisdirect. I am happy to report at this time, that I do now know the difference between a money market and a mutual fund because I passed my Series 7. We launched an ad campaign in May 2002 around the glorious Elsie Lee online ads (that’s a blog for another day).

Growth was moving along, but by fall 2004 we had an executive management change and over the years lost valuable ground in the share grab game. What was once the leader/inventor of online brokerage was now far behind others. Finally, when it looked like the business finally changed for the better, Harrisdirect was acquired by another online brokerage firm.

What went wrong you ask? I guess as an online advertising person you would say, “sure it was a lack of spending in advertising to generate the accounts”, but that’s not the correct read on the situation.

Nothing went wrong at all.

First, the product that was built was best in class. Even at the end we won #

1 Discount Brokerage Firm from SmartMoney in August 2005

You know what else was built, a great customer service team that not only spanned the actual client services team, but also permeated through marketing, product, trading, compliance, legal, and operations. Finally, it had an unbelievably great team of people, people that I will truly miss who really tried to make a difference.

In the end, why do you go to work each day for a corporation? Is it to change the world for the better? How about, promote a product you are very proud of? How about just something simple as, I need to do something and I may as well get paid.

You see, 15 years in the corporate world taught me a few things. One of them is, you need to get high enough up the food chain to protect yourself and really make a difference. Even a Managing Director at Harrisdirect wasn’t high enough (not bad for a 10 year veteran of the telecom world huh?) because you can be let go in the end.

So, you know what you are left with if you can’t get high enough in the corporate world? Friends, family, memories, hopefully some cash, and integrity. Nothing wrong with that.

Nothing went wrong at all. In the end, consolidation will continue just like it has in the telecom world where SBC can swallow up my former company AT&T.

As you might have guess by now, today was my last day at Harrisdirect after 5 years of

hoofing it into Jersey City NJ

The one thing I won’t miss is that awful commute. You know it is not so weird, not being employed by corporate America. In fact, it is a relief.

Thanks for the memories everyone. Thanks to Scott A, Lauren T, John C, Charlotte F and the rest of the crew that spent this afternoon drinking with me in Baja.

If you want to find me, you should know by now where I’ll be. I’ll be right where I’ve always belonged; here on the Internet.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric