“Eshkeri: Coronation” by Ilan Eshkeri, London Metropolitan Orchestra, and Andy Brown from the movie “Stardust”🎵
We are all a catalog of our decisions. Some will only ever remember us for the ones we made today while a few people who matter in your life will remember you for the decisions you made over time. And more importantly, the wisest of all will remember the decisions that were made about you without you in the room.
This is a fictional story written in the same vein as “Engineering Has All the Power.”
3 Men & A Deal
Abraham was considered one of the most respectable Presidents of Games in the industry. He had done everything – made 20 AAA games. Sold 10 companies. Licensed his IPs to a few film studios to make movies off the games. Asked himself to be listed as a film producer on that last one. He still had a few things he wanted to do on his bucket list before he retired.
Big ideas.
Abraham’s directs were hungry for it. A lot of them had similar ideas. Wanted to “shake things up.” Weren’t scared of a re-org or two. Or five.
Abraham was surrounded by yes men and he knew it. He kept saying he thought he should surround himself with more critical people, but it wasn’t urgent. Occasionally he worried if he was getting the right information. But it didn’t matter to him too much. He knew he only wanted to do a few things before he left. It was time.
He just had a few key decisions to make.
Abraham took two of his direct reports out for drinks one later work night at a bar close to their office.
Mark, Abe’s SVP of Engineering, ordered an obscure craft beer which the bar was able to give to him immediately with a glass. John, the SVP of Production, asked if there was a Pappy on the top shelf – it looked like it. One not in his collection. The Bartender went to pull it down.
Abe considered their choices given the news he had yet to give, concerned briefly from their beverage decisions that perhaps they had yet to acquire enough experience to truly know quality and rather only heard about quality from someone else.
“It’s too bad Kathryn couldn’t make it.” Kathryn had to make dinner for her kids that night. She cared a lot about being there for them and thought this was just another night.
Kathryn was the SVP of Licensing.
“Yeah real shame.” Abe said. They waited for a table to clear around a corner in the back. This table was one only leaders at the company really knew about. The bar always tried to keep it clear for them. Made good money and there was enough being spent on the regular to do so. “You want to start with your regular, Abe?” Abe nodded. Abe’s regular was water dressed up as cocktail. So would be his 2nd. And his third. He always tipped more than enough when the bill came to keep his charade. And it was always the same.
“Keeping this open right, Abe?” the bartender said. Abe nodded. They’d be there a while.
While waiting for their drinks, the waiter poured water in glasses on their table and left a glass vase for them. The wood was sticky, old, with a multitude of rings in its canvas. A pattern of deep conversation and time.
John leaned back against the booth wall. Its aqua diamond imprints wrapped the three in soundproofing. The room outside that wall was crowded enough to mask out anything important. A hint of jazz in the corner occasionally made it over the velvet but only when the trumpet came in.
Abraham looked briefly over his shoulder then leaned back in his chair. “Thanks for coming out, guys. I have some news to tell you.”
“Oh man – it’s time isn’t it.” Mark said. Abe nodded. “If I had known this was going to be what we were doing, I would have asked for something else to drink, Abe. This shit’s completely inappropriate.”
“Nah. It suites you. You both know I’ve been wanting to retire for 5 years. In 3 months I’m going to finally do it. I need your help otherwise I’ll be stuck here forever.”
“Anything you need.” John said with a genuine smile. They had worked together for 15 years after all. Company to company. Maybe it wasn’t right for Kathryn to be there this time. Just old friends. She had only been there two years.
“First – I need to know what you need from me. I have full support of Will before I’m out.” Abe said. This was good to hear as Will was CEO of the company.
“Wait – can’t you at least let us know what you plan on doing first? Why rush the good stuff?” John asked.
Abe laughed. “Spend more money than I want to on the people I love. I don’t know half of them as well as I would like and I like less than half of them as well as they deserve, but I’ll enjoy ever minute of it.”
“Do you want some napkins?” The waiter interrupted their talk. Drinks had arrived.
“Yeah, yeah. Sure. Sure.” Engrossed in their conversation, the group barely noticed an obscene stack of napkins has been brought to the table.
Far more than they would ever need.
Mark sighed. “Well, we always talked about buying HavenGuard–“
“With you out that becomes much harder. None of us can dial them up and get it done.” John twisted his drink.
“That would be a good feather in our cap wouldn’t it?” Mark said.
Abe smiled.
HavenGuard Film Studios* was a production company focused primarily on producing fantasy feature-length films. Abraham had always wanted one – he and Will felt like they could never expand to produce films, only games. They would always be stuck in licensing deals and partnerships where they got the short end of the stick.
Abe looked up and nodded at the bartender, “Can I get a pen?” The bartender carried one over. “Thanks.” Abe grabbed a napkin and wrote down HavenGuard. “It’s done. What else?” Grabbed another napkin.
“Wait.”
“Just like that?”
“Yeah for real – what about all the proposals. Kathryn’s been pushing for us not to do this for years.”
“She’s not here. I want to get things done. What else?” Mark and John order another round of drinks. Abe got more water dressed up as something from the cocktail list. They talk about HavenGuard Studios for a bit.
“It’s going to cost like $5 billion, Abe.”
“I know. Will’s been running over the math for months. He really wants a film production studio. And like I said, ‘Spend money on the people I love.’ That can start today.” Mark and John didn’t want to ask for anything else knowing the gravity of the decision, never believing it would be a reality but always hoping it would be. They knew that in some of the reports and due diligence, auditors had stated concerns that HavenGuard may be hard to work with, even if having been bought, but they really wanted to be known as the people that bought it.
“What else.” Abe wasn’t planning on stopping. Mark and John listed a few more crazy ideas. “Michael’s team needs like 130 headcount for 6 greenlit games. Could really use it to ramp up their development timelines.”
“Andrew’s been wanting to pitch to expand the AI devision. He’s got some really cool ideas.”
“I trust you, John. What does Andrew need?” John begins to share the needs of one of his directs. The napkins grow. 2 more rounds. 3. 4.
Things start to go off the rails. Instead of ideas about what to buy, or fund, or divest, they begin to talk about what they want to shut down and people that slow them down.
“God, I hate that. I hate how whenever we need to get a deal signed we always have to get her sign off. It sucks so much.”
“Yeah Abe. You’re making it so easy. If Kathryn could just be more like you, then it wouldn’t be so hard to get things done.” Mark and John didn’t really stop talking about their colleagues – who they liked. Who they didn’t. “And all she ever does is talk about DEI. I mean don’t get me wrong, I want to support women. But you know there just aren’t that many of them in engineering. It isn’t worth trying to recruit them. Such a time sink.”
“Well if you could change that, what would you change?” Abe asked.
“Honestly? Make her report to Jo—” Mark said.
“Have her report to me. I’ll take care of it. Look, if you buy HavenGuard, you may eventually not even have a need for that department. We’ll have to sort through the baggage of duplicate responsibilities anyway.”
Abe had a lot to think about. He collected his napkins and shoved them in his pocket and nodded at the bartender to close. This one…he didn’t put on the corporate card. Not this time. Abe ordered Ubers for Mark and John who were too inebriated to drive even though it was only 8 PM.
The next day, Abe cancelled his call he had scheduled with Will, the CEO, and texted him a message. “Hey, Will. We’ve got just a few more things to sort.”
He called Kathryn.
“What do you think about buying HavenGuard?”
“You know I’ve always thought it was a bad idea, Abe. I wouldn’t even license IP to that house. I’m not confident they can execute at the quality we need.”
“What kind of quality?”
“The kind that when you read the word fantasy doesn’t make you think of Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I know you and Will want to buy someone – and I know we will find the right partner, but just because they are for sale-“
“What would you do with $5 billion dollars?”
“Come again?”
“What would you do with $5 billion dollars.”
“I’d build a production company and then I’d retire.”
Abe laughed. He knew what she meant by build. He had, after all, built and sold 10 companies. That it wouldn’t be instant. That it would require thought beyond the napkins. More than the proposals done to date. More commitment and trust than his directs had for each other. Diversified investments. Diversified people. Diversified perspectives.
More patience. That it may be perceived as the harder path – one that he didn’t really want to take.
But he also knew, that sometimes, the harder path, the one that would out live him, where voices who were not always in the room, were not always well represented, were the ones that may make it so the company outlived them all. He knew he had asked too little of her. He appreciated her honesty and her approach at life. He felt she modeled the right things. He knew she got things done and that when given opportunity and clarity, shielded from those would would seek to supplant her, she presented well.
“Thanks, Kathryn.”
“You bet.”
Abe texted Will only one word. “Kathryn.”
Will took care of the rest. A few weeks later he sent the following message to his leadership team, his directs, and their directs.
Subject: Goodbye to Old Friends & Seizing the Moment
Team,
It is with joy and sadness that we share Abraham Gold* has chosen to retire in December after his long tenure in games. He has been with us through the launch of many titles and will be sorely missed. Please do take the next three months to share time with him and gain any wisdom he is willing to impart from his journey.Abraham – we are so incredibly thankful to have had you enrich our products, our customers, and most importantly, our team while here.
In his place, Kathryn Bridgewater will be stepping in to fill enormous shoes as President of Games. We look forward to supporting her vision for our great company. Both Kathryn and Abraham will be working with each of you to ensure this transition is as smooth and supportive as possible.
We plan to host an exceptional party for Abraham closer to the end of the year.”
Will
Abraham replied to only Will.
I’ll be sure to drink lots of water.
–
Header Image by Lanju Fotografie from Unsplash.
* Abraham Gold, Kathryn Bridgewater, Mark, and John are all not real people. HavenGuard Film Studios is not a real company and there is no intent to be similar to any persons or studios known today.
