Chapter 47: Boca Raton, Part II

January 4, 1997, Boca Raton, Florida

“I think I’d like to start with a bit of a history lesson,” I said. “Most of you were around at the beginning, or close to it, or you’ve spent enough time with me to know our origins and what it is I’m trying to preserve. Fundamentally, NIKA has a «kami», a spirit or soul, without which she’d be just another company.”

“She?” Charlie asked.

“That was EXACTLY how I responded when he told me that in Colorado Springs last month!” Barbara declared.

“And when we discussed it, it was perhaps the first time I’d ever used a gendered pronoun for NIKA, but in the end, as I said to Barbara, Y chromosomes are a bit of a rarity at NIKA, doubly so since the girls all have two X’s and we guys have an X to go with the Y. And NIKA herself is a rarity, in that most tech firms, especially in Silicon Valley, are like fraternity houses. We’ve never been like that, and I have no intention of ever letting that happen.

“But it’s more than that; NIKA’s «kami» is truly female, in that she is nurturing and caring, and looks after everyone who works there. We all share in her success. I’ve done my best to keep things like that ever since the five of us - Dave, Julia, Cindi, Elyse, and I - started NIKA in what is now my study at the house. Penny joined us then, part-time, and soon after we hired Mario to help do Novell support.”

“Ancient history,” Mario said, shaking his head.

“True,” I replied. “We landed a couple of very big contracts - Waukesha County and Purina Mills. We hired a few people who are no longer at NIKA, then Charlie and Debbie. Zeke followed not long after, as did Tasha, Barbara and Terry. In the process we moved to the attic room at my house, then to rented space at the union hall where Kimmy joined us. Julia was running things then, and Dave and I both spent a lot of time coding.

“Eventually, Julia had enough of the ‘big chair’ and I stepped in to run things. I tried to do it part-time at first, but that didn’t work very well, and eventually I stopped doing much programming at all, except for tinkering with side projects. Eventually, we outgrew the union space, despite sending Mario to Pittsburgh and Barbara to Los Angeles. We moved to our first building on Hyde Park Avenue, and we continued to be successful and moved to our current space.

“Through that all, I did my best to know everyone at NIKA and treat them like family. With all the new offices, and the new staff, that became more and more difficult, until I had what could be called a crisis of faith - faith in my ability to keep NIKA’s soul, her «kami» intact. Eventually, I reached out for help, and spoke to someone who had been where we are - on the cusp of explosive growth. The problem is that NIKA is going to change. It already has to some degree - I actually lost my mind one day and hired a lawyer!”

Everyone laughed and Deborah shook her head, but winked to acknowledge she didn’t mind me teasing her.

“Not only that,” I continued, “but I hired an actual adult to monitor the playpen!”

More laughter, and this time it was Bob nodding in acknowledgment.

“All of that was necessary, because the only other alternative would be to divest. We did that once, a long time ago, but honestly, there isn’t anything we could divest at this point. And even if we did, then we’d lose the very spirit of NIKA in the process. And I can’t abide that. Nor can I abide losing NIKA’s spirit to growth. I’ve got my job cut out for me.

“You are all aware that, in just a few days short of a year, my sister, Stephanie, is going to come on board as CEO. I’ll retain the title ‘President’, but I won’t have any operational responsibilities. I am, finally, going to be a programmer again. But I’ll have another role, and that’s ensuring that no matter what else changes, NIKA will not lose her «kami».

“I’m going to need help doing this, and while Mario, Barbara, and Zeke will take operational direction from Stephanie, each of them will also be responsible to me for preserving NIKA’s «kami», her culture. We are a family, not a team, and I don’t intend to let the family break up. Like all families, some members will leave and go their own way, but they’ll always be part of the family.

“One of the hardest things for me to do was give up my hiring veto, but I have to, because holding on to it perpetuates the myth in my mind that I can, and should, know every single person at NIKA. That’s barely possible now, and the guy I talked to in Ohio would say it’s not really possible, and that I’m just kidding myself. He has a point. I can’t be close to two hundred people. It just won’t work.

“Everyone in this room has a responsibility to ensure the culture stays on track. That means how we work together, how we play together, and how we treat each other. And that means each of you is responsible for ensuring the ‘fit’ of any new employee. We’ve seen what happens when someone isn’t on the same page as the rest of us. It wasn’t pretty, and that’s the kind of mistake we have to avoid.

“Bob and I talked about this, and we’ve had something of a meeting of the minds. It’s not perfect, but he does agree that it takes a certain kind of personality to be successful at NIKA. But it’s not a formula we can articulate, because I can’t think of ANY way to fit both Sam and Eve into the same mold!”

“Thank God!” Sam laughed. “Nothing personal, Eve!”

“Same here!” Eve agreed.

“And yet, the progressive Persian Jew from the near-North side and the conservative WASP from Naperville work together wonderfully. The same is true for the daughter of Russian émigrés and the transplanted Texan who happens to be a Penguins fan. Or the daughter of a Portuguese fisherman and the son of an American Navy chief. I think Bob would agree, he was wrong that my way of hiring engendered some sort of ‘only people like me’ ideal.”

“Surprisingly, it didn’t,” Bob responded. “Honestly, ‘fit’ is usually code for only hiring white males, or whatever, but in this case, it’s not. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is, but it appears that Steve, and the rest of you, like Justice Potter Stewart, know it when you see it.”

“That said,” I continued, “I conceded to Bob that there has to be SOME kind of articulable standard, or we could run afoul of the busybodies in Springfield and Washington who have nothing better to do than harass successful businesses for no legitimate constitutional reason.”

“Did anyone bring their copy of the ‘rant list’?” Terry smirked.

“I’ll remember that the next time we play poker,” I grinned. “In any event, Bob is working on a set of standard interview questions that will help determine ‘fit’, but also keep us on the side of the angels.”

“And of course, government is on the side of Satan,” Sam said, shaking her head.

“You said it, not me,” I grinned.

There was lots of laughter, including from Sam.

“Anyway,” I continued, “what Bob and I agreed on is you don’t have to stick to the letter of the script, but to the spirit. Ultimately, the goal is finding the right people.”

“No more Maddies,” Charlie said.

“Succinctly, yes,” I replied. “But in that case, my final post mortem says we could have done better at teaching her the ‘NIKA way’, and to that end, we’re going to revise the employee handbook to include a fairly detailed prose description of what it means to be a member of the NIKA family. We’ll share that with prospective employees, and that will also help us identify people who might not fit.”

“Because they’ll self-select out?” Cèlia asked.

I nodded, “Yes. Some people aren’t going to like the ‘all-for-one, one-for-all’ ethic we have, which includes published, fixed salary schedules and near complete transparency on financials, both personal and corporate. Fundamentally, this isn’t a place to work if you want to be the superstar and lord it over everyone, implying you make a lot more money than they do. That said, we have a LOT of superstars, because, in the end, there are plenty of people who don’t believe that it’s a zero-sum game or that it has to be a dog-eat-dog world.”

“The most capitalist person I know is also the biggest socialist!” Sam said, shaking her head.

“The ONLY difference is who gets to decide. If I do, that’s perfectly moral. If the howling mob does, that’s immoral. But we’re getting off into one of my political rants.”

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. To mention a dirty word here, I once told Dante that it was in the best interest of the wealthy to share that wealth as widely as possible, because if they refused to do so, the mob would eventually take it from them. The thing is, MY system makes everyone rich, sharing the wealth. Everyone in this room can easily retire with over a million bucks in the combined 401K and ESOP. More, if you choose to allocate more yourself, which we encourage through our matching plan. One thing that always stuck in Dante’s craw was that every year since the founding of NIKA, Cindi has made more money than I have.”

“Cindi doesn’t own more than half the company!” Cindi herself replied.

“I suppose I could just sell my shares and walk away so I can have that money,” I replied casually.

A chorus of ‘no’s’ rang out.

“Thought so,” I grinned. “But guess what? I don’t care. NIKA rewards success, and everyone shares in that success. But going back to the main theme - all of you, but especially Mario, Zeke, and Barbara, have to help keep NIKA on track spiritually. Any questions?”

“What are we going to do about the ‘Lone Wolves’?” Mario asked.

“They’re always going to be the challenge,” I replied. “We can’t pull them off the job too often, but if we don’t, we’ll end up losing touch with them, and I think we’ll end up with lots of turnover, which is something we want to avoid, for their sake, for our sake, and for the customers’ sakes. I am open to ideas, so if you come up with anything, let’s talk about it.

“I do want to say one more thing, and that is that all this talk about NIKA depends on one very important group of people - our customers. They pay our salaries, they provide our benefits, and, in the end, they are our bosses. Everything I just said is about the customers, even though it was ostensibly about us. Anything else?”

“Can we have some time to think about this more?” Mario asked.

“Sure. We have tomorrow as well. We can switch to our succession planning discussion now, and return to this tomorrow.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Sam said. “You just really hit us with a heavy topic.”

I nodded, “Then let’s discuss succession planning today. I’m going to have Bob lead this session. Bob?”

We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing all facets of succession planning, and finished just before dinner time. As we had the night before, we had a nice dinner, and the people went off in small or large groups, while I took a dip in the pool and then drank bourbon. This time, though, only Deborah joined me.

“Pull up a chair,” I said when she came out onto the deck.

“That was an interesting conversation last night,” Deborah said after she sat down.

“You knew the gist, or are you referring to Eve’s revelation?”

“Everything, really. I guess I don’t understand why Kimmy would risk her marriage, especially given she has a kid. And Eve preferring married men. I guess I felt your staff had more integrity than that.”

“Counselor, in a civil case, where you know information which will help the other side, would you walk over and tell them? As a defense attorney, would you, without a warrant, turn over incriminating evidence against your client to the prosecution?”

“No, of course not! I’m ethically bound to protect my client’s interests and to be a zealous advocate for him or her. That said, I can’t suborn perjury or deceive the court. In other words, if I know my client’s lying, I can’t put him on the stand.”

“You can ALWAYS put the defendant on the stand,” I replied. “That much I know.”

“Sorry, I can’t elicit testimony I know to be false. I’d be able to put the client on the stand for narrative testimony. You know, ask ‘please tell us your version of the events’, but anything more than that, or using anything I knew to be false, would be an ethics violation and could get me suspended, or worse.”

“My point with asking that is, who does Eve have a responsibility to?”

“Herself, certainly, which is the answer you wanted. But doesn’t she also have some sort of obligation to respect the agreement between the man and his wife?”

“Remember, I agree with you on this, and I’m just arguing as the Devil’s Advocate, so to speak. Is Eve a party to that agreement? Is she in a position to judge what is, and what isn’t allowed?”

Deborah smiled, “I see where you’re going with this. You’ve made the point that you can know the agreement between you and your wives, and as such, you know what is, and what isn’t, kosher. The girls have to take your word for it. But you admitted an affair with a married woman.”

“I did, and she’s the exception that proves my rule. In that very specific instance, I had a clear understanding of the situation and the agreement between Elena and her husband. I did have to make a judgment about the truthfulness of the situation, but it was my opinion that I was actually speaking to her husband on the phone, not someone she put up to the task of deceiving me. If she was going that far, why bother telling me she was married?”

“You think like a lawyer.”

“Gee, thanks,” I deadpanned. “I love you, too.”

“I know you’re a dyed-in-the-wool, inveterate, unreformed skeptic, which is probably the best possible philosophy for any attorney. I think your experience with Dante’s attorneys alone has shown that.”

“So, back to the situation. Eve is consistent with her own principles, and is looking out for her own best interests. She and the guys are engaging in consensual sex, of which society in general does not approve. Whose problem is it, really?”

“YOU don’t approve!” Deborah protested.

“You’re right. So I don’t do it. It’s like abortion - I think it’s a terrible, terrible thing, so I don’t do it and won’t be party to one. But making THAT decision is not up to me, and I’m sure as hell not in a position to judge anyone else’s bodily autonomy!”

“So you’re OK with it?”

“What? Cheating? Abortion? No. But determining the answer to those questions for OTHER people is way above my pay grade. I think it violates my rules of doing as little harm as possible, but again, I don’t know the entire picture. In my mind, each person has to answer for themselves, and in Eve’s case, don’t you think it’s the guy who has the most culpability? He’s the one who’s actually breaking a vow he’s made.”

“Sure. He’s scum. No question. But she’s helping him be scum!”

“Is that her responsibility? Think of this example - if I give to a charity, am I responsible for what the recipients of my largess do with that charity? I can put it in concrete terms, too. Most of my giving goes to Doctors Without Borders. They treat anyone, no questions asked. That means, at some point, they probably treat people who later go on to commit war crimes or whatever. Am I responsible for that?”

“No, but you aren’t directly participating in those crimes.”

“But what crime is Eve committing? Forget Illinois’ stupid law, which only actually applies to someone like me who is ‘open and notorious’ about adultery or fornication.”

“Those laws haven’t been enforced since the 70s!”

“Listen to Miss Smarty Pants. Guess who was investigated for exactly those crimes, and threatened with arrest?”

“No way! When?”

“Only a few years ago. Margaret Lundgren, Jeri’s mom, used her contacts at DCFS to investigate our family situation to try to intimidate me. It didn’t work, but the State’s Attorney and CPD were investigating me for adultery and fornication.”

Deborah giggled, “I have to say it - it would never stand up in court!”

“Funny, Counselor, but I’ve never had THAT problem!”

Well, once, I thought, when I was seriously stressed, but that had passed quickly, and there was no point in bringing it, and all the drama around it, into this conversation.

“Sorry. Anyway, I see your point about you, and why you have your rule in place. I guess I don’t see how you can be so blasé about Eve.”

“Because I don’t get to define her morals or ethics, or her view of right and wrong. She gets off on sleeping with married guys. That’s her kink, if you will.”

“I’m going to regret asking this, but what’s yours?”

I chuckled, “I had a doctor tell me I had the weirdest kink ever - a kink for regular, gentle, missionary-position lovemaking!”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. I also have a ‘type’ which, if you were paying attention last night, you know you fit.”

“Breathing?”

“Ouch, Counselor! You wound me!”

“Too easy!” she grinned. “OK, I can see the thing with Eve, from a certain perspective. But Kimmy?”

“It’s a long, long story, and I wouldn’t do it precisely because it would wreck her marriage.”

“But why would SHE do it?”

“To use a cliché, it’s complicated. Kimmy came to us as a part-time receptionist and through a series of events, she basically grew close and became my right-hand person in many things. One day, when all hell had broken loose in my relationship with Jessica, not for the first or last time, Kimmy provided the love, attention, and comfort I needed.”

“What about Kara?”

“Kara was part of the trio, and that made it difficult for both her and for me. Kimmy was an outsider. Kara approved, by the way. In fact, she encouraged me to keep seeing Kimmy during the crisis because it helped.”

“I have to say, I do NOT understand your wives.”

“That too, is complicated. For Kara and me, it goes back to High School and how our relationship developed, and what she needed from me and I needed from her. She had her own major crisis, which we call our ‘Year in the Wilderness’ when we didn’t speak and she was getting counseling. And I’ve had more than my fair share of counseling in my life, too.