When you come to a fork in the road, take it” – Yogi Berra

By Christina Crowley

Imagine yourself doing fine in your career, when you suddenly face a fork in the road – a path offering an unexpected business opportunity. Is choosing the right path as easy as Yogi Berra makes it sound?

I’ve faced three forks in the road during my 30 years in corporate communications and marketing. Each time, I had to deal with a choke point – could I handle my fear of failure if I followed an uncertain direction with unknown consequences? Each experience would require re-inventing myself. Here’s my story.

1. Fork in the Road – Freelancer or Corporate Manager

1986. I was a freelance film producer/director on educational films dealing with important issues like date rape, teenage suicide, domestic violence, and women’s health. The work was impactful, but the money was inconsistent. I was married with two young boys, and wanted more predictable freelance work. With the help of a good friend, I arranged to meet with the president of One Pass, a video postproduction facility that owned The Kenwood Group, a San Francisco corporate communications production company. Halfway through the interview, he asked if I would consider a full-time job managing Kenwood as an Executive Producer.

Choke Point: Producing videos for big corporations would not make the world a better place. How could I find the same passion for this job that I invested in my current work? I locked on one clear goal that I could be passionate about: to collaborate with an ensemble group of top creative talent producing the best, most innovative work in corporate communications.

I took the job. Two days later, a Fortune 500 company acquired Kenwood, One Pass, and several other media companies. If the Fortune 500 Company put short-term profits before long-term growth, I would quit and return to freelancing.

What I Learned:

Passionate commitment to a goal makes you strong

The fearless passion I brought to the job was contagious. Very talented and like-minded people were drawn to Kenwood to produce great work. Great work created happy clients and attracted new ones, which generated good profits and helped us build our brand. We expanded into live event production. We produced groundbreaking videos for Apple like “Knowledge Navigator”, a video foreshadowing many technology breakthroughs.

Stay open to new opportunities

Working for a Fortune 500 company provided me with an on-the-job MBA. With the help of patient mentors, I learned about everything from P&L statements and creating sales forecasts to managing staff and marketing. I became Kenwood’s president, and attended annual meetings as the only woman president among several internal media companies.

Work-Life balance

Work often did win out over life and family. A combination of au pairs and an involved father/husband at least helped smooth the rough spots.

2. Fork in the Road – Corporate Manager or Entrepreneur

1991. The CEO of the Fortune 500 Company asked me to a breakfast meeting. The company wanted to divest itself of all the media companies it had acquired. Would I be interested in buying The Kenwood Group? He thought I could make Kenwood more successful as an entrepreneurial agency, rather than as a division of a huge company.

Choke Points: Buying the company would be the biggest financial risk I’d ever taken. I would operate without the protection a big company’s safety net. I would need a loan, using our house as collateral. This was not just my decision to make; my husband had to agree. He supported me without hesitation, which made me feel even more responsible for making this business successful.

I took the leap, but still faced two more obstacles: writing a good business plan to secure the loan, and negotiating a price that I could afford. I had never seen a business plan, much less created one. I found a mentor, a terrific woman who had been the CFO for the group managing the media companies. She not only helped me create a solid plan, but she also helped me find a line of credit.

After initial negotiations stalled, something totally unexpected happened. A huge fire broke out one night on the wharf next to Kenwood and One Pass. The postproduction facility was destroyed. The fire came within a few feet of Kenwood’s doorway. With water damage from the sprinklers and glass shards in our lobby furniture, we needed to find a new office immediately to continue operating while I completed the sale.

In the midst of the fire’s chaotic aftermath, I was able to reach an acceptable purchase agreement with the Fortune 500 Company. Eight weeks later, I had started a new banking relationship, secured a loan, and signed a short-term lease in a new building.

The night before the deal became final, the magnitude of my new venture hit me. The next day, I initiated a ritual familiar to theater people before an opening performance – everyone in the company came together in a big circle, joined hands, and cheered for a great future together.

What I learned:

Commit to a goal

Although my original goal was personal, it became the company’s mission statement, guiding us through 2001’s dot-com implosion and the 2008 recession, and helping us find work in new industries like automotive and biotech.

Don’t forget to breathe

Make time to recharge yourself.

Find the right mentor

My entrepreneurial learning curve would have been steep without the help of that CFO.

Stay Flexible

A re-assessment in 2000 motivated me to bring in a business partner whose talents would compensate for areas where I needed help, someone who could take over the business eventually. I had worked for five years with a smart and talented film director who had become a creative director for us, bringing very innovative thinking to our media and events. I asked him to become my business partner and a minority shareholder.

3. Fork in the Road – Legacy Guardian or Disruption Facilitator

2013.  It was time to plan a transition to my business partner and key employees in a world that was very different from the one I faced in 1986. Mobile devices, social media, the cloud, and big data were transforming how people interact. Our services were becoming commodities and our revenues were shrinking. While I was looking for incremental changes with new creative talent, fundamental disruption found me.

We hired a new Executive Creative Director, and then at his urging, a Chief Strategy Officer from an advertising agency. They talked continually about the opportunity for marketing in this new digital world: the more people become addicted to their digital devices, the more they want a personal experience with a brand. We could create those customer-centric experiences to build brand loyalty.

We had to reinvent ourselves as a new kind of agency, combining the strategic thinking and creative flair of an advertising agency with our executional savvy as a production company. We would leverage many of our existing skills across multiple marketing channels to personalize a customer’s experience.

Choke Point: We would need to add new departments and hire more staff and fewer freelancers. We had to rebrand the company from top to bottom. I would need to invest myself 100% financially and emotionally in this venture, just as I was hoping to cut back.

If we did not change, the company I had worked so hard to build would atrophy. That fact hit me harder than concern for my financial security. Becoming an agency crafting ongoing conversations between brands and their customers would be exciting and would deliver measurable value. Our work would be innovative, attracting top talent and great clients. The company would be true to the goal I established in 1986.

What I Learned:

Prepare for Pitfalls

I was not prepared for the cultural and organizational fallout such a big change creates. With more processes in place to manage change, I could have helped minimize missteps in hiring, onboarding, and the integration of new departments.

Be Accountable

Taking responsibility for decisions, both good and bad, is important to role model.

Celebrate Success

Acknowledging achievement is crucial for people’s morale, especially in a transition.

Stepping back from management is hard

Fostering leadership takes trust, patience, and flexibility. But when you begin to see the team’s hard work pay off, it is immensely rewarding.

Check out our progress on www.kenwoodx.com.

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Advancing Women

Advancing Women