the ER Analogy
When I arrived at Korn/Ferry, it wasn't just the dot-com bust that had hurt its business.
In 1999 the company had done an IPO.
It went public at $14 and shot up to $43,so alot of people were suddenly rich,including partners at the firm.
Everyone was buying a vacation home.
But it was mostly paper wealth,and it quickly evaporated.
The company had used the IPO money to devilop a dot-com strategy,but thestrategy hadn't worked.Korn/Ferry had burned through its excess capital.
The company was losing tens of millions of dollars a year,and it had very little cash on hand.
When I joined,the stock as down to about $6.50 a share.
The psyche of the organization had really been hurt-the place felt emotionally drained.