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HBR C A S E S T U D Y A N D C O M M E N T A R Y

Should Liana go

back to Orchis?

The experts respond.

The Flight of the

Boomerang Employee

by Sarah Green

•

Reprint R1004M



When is it a good idea to return to your old company?

HBR C A S E S T U D Y

The Flight of the

Boomerang Employee

by Sarah Green

COPYRIGHT ©

2010 HARVARD

BUSINESSSCHOOL

PUBLISHINGCORPORATION.

ALL RIGHTSRESERVED.

Liana uploaded the pictures from her recent trip

to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show: Asolar-powered car. A 3-D television. An e-reader.

Another e-reader. Another e-reader. As she

clicked through them, she felt bittersweet vindi-

cation. She had predicted the zeitgeist. Her product should have been on display.

Five years before, when she’d worked at Or-

chis, she’d put in 80 hours a week leading the

consumer tech company’s e-reader develop-ment team. But the result of all that work—the

Vanda—hadn’t made it into stores. After seeing

the xrst prototype, management had short-sightedly 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 mis- judged 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 dif-

ferently, Liana thought.

Since then, her life had changed—a lot. Sheand 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 itwasn’t all that proxtable yet, it was very popular.

With the dust settling around her, Liana

had become restless. Musiophile was essen-tially 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.

HBR’s cases, which are xctional, present common managerial dilemmas

and offer concrete solutions from experts.

harvard business review • april 2010 page 1



The Flight of the Boomerang Employee •• •HBR C ASE S TUDY

The Chance to Go Back

“Liana? This is Tom Anthony. It’s been a long

time.”

This was weird. She’d been thinking aboutOrchis, 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 direc-

tor of product development. Can we xy 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 xrst. I

take it Gary left?”

“Gary is pursuing other opportunities,” Tomreplied. “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 Musio-

phile,” Tom added, “I think you’d be great. Andwe have a new chief marketing ofxcer who

could make a real difference in how we bring

these things to market.”

“Tom, it’s very xattering 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 Or-

chis. 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 headaround this,” Suz said. “I can work anywhere—

hospitals never have enough nurses—but

we’ve built a whole life here. I know you lovedthat 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, wrig-gling in the bathtub. “At Musiophile, at least

you have the xexibility to work from home

when I’m on a shift. But that’s because you

make the rules. What if Orchis expects you togive 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 xve 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 expe-

rience make her an effective director of productdevelopment at an established company?

Sizing Up the Deal

“Well, Chelsea and Peter are both still on theteam,” 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 rea-

son why the new product or feature would fail.Peter was never satisxed with the amount of

research the group had done. They’d gotten

along great with Gary, who’d called them hisdevil’s advocates. But Liana had thought of

them as his nattering nabobs.

“I don’t know how I’ll get buy-in on any-thing with them in the group,” she muttered,

“but I suppose I’ll xnd a way.”

“So you really want this?” asked Suz. “You

dexnitely want to make this happen?”“They’ll pay relocation costs and put us up

until we xnd a place. I asked about xextime,

and they didn’t even blink.”

“That may be true now,” started Suz. “Butwhen a project’s on the line—”

“I know.” Liana paused, picking at the card- board 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 prob-

lems to solve. With the resources to solve

them. Plus, I met the new CMO, and she’s re-

ally 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. “Liana. Long time.”Sarah Green is an assistant editor atHarvard Business Review Group.




The Flight of the Boomerang Employee •• •HBR C ASE S TUDY

“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 cir-

cumstances—”“I was encouraged to retire early,” Gary in-

terjected. “Very early. But, truth be told, I was

ready to leave. It had been a long time since

Orchis had launched anything truly disrup-tive, and Tom pinned it on me.” At Liana’s care-

fully 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 com-mittee 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 xrst prototype.

Everyone hates the xrst prototype. That’s why

it’s called a prototype! But there’s a reason Or-chis 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 timegetting 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 withGary. Even the CMO, who’d worked with him

only briexy, 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 dowonder if new DNA in the management ranks

would shake things up.”

Gary snorted. “OK, let me give you an exam-

ple. Our most recent project—now dead in thewater, naturally—was a solar-powered cell

phone. You’d never have to charge it. Great,

right? But everything we tried was prohibi-

tively expensive. That should be a solvable problem for product dev. Plenty of new tech-

nologies cost a ton when they come out. But

ex-comm said it wasn’t feasible, we’d spentenough 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 shecould 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 abouta situation he simply hadn’t had the creativity

or initiative to change. Her gut instinct said,

“Go, prove yourself.” But what if all she man-aged to prove was that she’d made a terrible

miscalculation and uprooted her family in the

process?

Should Liana go back to Orchis? • Theexperts respond.

See Case Commentary

What Would You Do?Some advice from our readers:

One of the biggest warning signs for me is how

much blame Tom was willing to heap on Gary

in his very xrst conversation with Liana. Does

she really want to work for a CEO who simply blames subordinates for failure and doesn’t

lead or nurture or coach them to success?

Andrew S. Baker, former vice president, IT

Operations, ARGI

She is in a position to negotiate for the

funding and backing she needs to run the de-

partment in the ideal manner. The CEO has al-ready demonstrated that he is willing to hand

her exactly what she needs.

Brian Bartsch, desktop application devel-

oper, Orion Advisor Services

Liana clearly has abilities that they could

use, and that she could enjoy providing as a

consultant, but to accept this job would be al-lowing (unfounded) hopes to overrule reality.

David Schoxeld, lecturer in management,

Charles Darwin University

HBR’s case studies appear at hbr.org prior to

publication here.




The Flight of the Boomerang Employee • HBR C ASE S TUDY

Case Commentary

by Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

Should Liana go back to Orchis?

Liana should not take this job. Aside from the

question of work/life balance, the opportunity

is full of red xags, and her chances of successare slim.For starters, it’s not clear at all that Liana

has the level of competence required to be a

successful director of product development at

Orchis. Her track record at the company—ata lower level, leading just one project—cer-

tainly shows her ability to identify market po-

tential. However, even with the support of

her organization (which she didn’t manage toget for the Vanda), would she have been able

to navigate challenges such as reaching agree-

ments with publishers and launching the xnal product?

Her success at Musiophile conxrms her cre-

ative skills, but in a completely different envi-

ronment. In the proposed role at Orchis, her own creativity would be less important than

leading her team. And her leadership experi-

ence seems to be minimal. Her ability to inxu-

ence a skeptical audience is limited at best.That’s been the case, at least, with the Orchis

crowd.

Additionally, money and a big title—not to

mention vindication—are poor reasons for tak-ing any position. A job should have the right

content so that the work itself becomes the

main motivator. Liana thinks that she would

be dealing with a constant stream of new prob-lems to solve. But in reality, most of her work

would entail managing up, something neither

she nor Gary has been able to do well, let

alone enjoy.

A job should also involve the right people.At Orchis, Liana would be leading a question-able team and working for a boss who himself

has not shown great managerial skills. Tom

kept the ineffective director, Gary, in his job

too long and then bad-mouthed him toLiana—two xawed judgment calls.

Finally, a job should open up valuable op-

portunities to acquire new credentials and

skills. That’s not likely to happen for Liana atOrchis, a company that has systematically

failed in its attempts to launch game-changing

products.Liana needs to stop being reactive and in-

stead become the project manager of her own

job-change process. She should begin by clari-

fying her own values and priorities—regarding both work content and work/life choices—

while getting a better sense of her strengths.

Next, she should generate more alternatives

rather than deciding between her current, nolonger motivating, position and Tom’s pro-

posal. Decades of research show that the best

jobs (in terms of satisfaction, success, stability,

and income) are the result of conducting pro-active, thoughtful searches—not jumping at

whatever lands in one’s lap.

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz is a senior adviser at the

global executive search firm Egon Zehnder Internation-

al and the author of Great People Decisions (Wiley, 200

Liana should conduct a

proactive job search— not jump at whatever

lands in her lap.




The Flight of the Boomerang Employee • HBR C ASE S TUDY

Case Commentary

by Rosario Vaina

Should Liana go back to Orchis?

I left consulting to pursue an MFA in xlm, in-

tending never to return. But life took a few

twists and turns, and I was lured back into theconsulting world by an opportunity at my oldxrm. As someone rejoining a former em-

ployer, I brought certain assets to the situa-

tion. Those same assets—an established net-

work, insider knowledge, and a fresh perspective—position Liana well for a success-

ful second round with Orchis.

Networks take time to build, and Liana al-

ready has hers in place. This is a great advan-tage. She should be ready to use her old con-

tacts to gather information, promote her

agenda, and make new connections. She isconcerned that her reputation could work

against her, but the truth is that the CEO called

her in because of her reputation—as someone

who championed an idea that in hindsight is being recognized as a great one. And new allies

(such as the chief marketing ofxcer) may come

easier with a strong reputation preceding her.

Liana also has the inside scoop going in.Though plenty has changed at Orchis since she

left, she understands the culture and the poli-

tics. She has experienced the pitfalls xrsthand,

and she needs to think strategically about howto avoid them. For instance, since she already

knows that Chelsea and Peter like to air con-

cerns about new products in front of the execu-

tive committee, she might think of ways to getthem on board before the presentations take

place. A new person coming in would have to

learn this the hard way.

Finally, Liana comes with a fresh point of

view, having spent valuable time on the out-side. Her second life at Orchis should not beabout hanging out with old pals and sticking to

stale habits. She is being hired as a change

agent—to get the conservative xrm to launch

cutting-edge products. Her start-up experiencegives her tools she can apply in an environ-

ment she understands. She should be bringing

in new ideas and new ways of doing things—

tempering all this with an understanding of what will xy and what won’t, what will be easy

to introduce and what will be difxcult. For ex-

ample, she knows that the company focuses onnumbers, but numbers do not always tell the

whole story. As she pushes toward a more en-

trepreneurial and risk-taking strategy, she

should be sure to start with the basics every-one is comfortable with and be as rigorous

with nonxnancial arguments as she would be

with numbers.

Rosario Vaina ([email protected]) is a vice pres

ident in the financial services practice at AlixPartners in New York.

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Her start-up experience

gives her tools she canapply in an environment

she understands.


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