Ignite Culture

Despite a late-night business meeting the evening before, Donna was already waiting for her Uber curbside by 7:00 a.m. She might not have had a great night’s sleep due to the three-hour time difference, but she’d still made it to her 5:00 a.m. workout at the hotel gym. The protein power bar in her bag and large cup of black coffee would give her the immediate boost of clarity and energy she needed. There was still much to do before the 8:00 a.m. with her management team. She was no stranger to this juggling act, so she knew she’d be fine. She hopped in the Uber, nodded at the driver with a short, warm smile, then got down to work. Coffee in left hand, tablet on her lap, and cell phone in her right hand, she plowed through emails, personal and professional texts, the morning’s headlines on CNN, and a couple of LinkedIn posts and then responded to a number of important Slack messages. A few minutes before pulling into the conference center, she took her final sip of coffee, quickly reviewed the meeting agenda, and made a couple of final notes. As the CEO of a thriving ecommerce company, she knew she was at her best when multitasking on tight deadlines. Adrenaline was her best friend.

“Good morning, everyone.” She smiled as she strode confidently into the room at 7:59. “How’s everyone enjoying winter in Chicago?” There was a vaguely positive murmur from the group. “I agree. Brrrr! But the tradeshow is going quite well. Strong sales. Just give me a moment to wrap up these last few messages and I’ll be right with you.” Donna sat at the head of the conference table and pulled out her laptop as she read something on her phone. The rest of the team worked quietly. The room was filled with busy, productive professionals typing or reading on cell phones, tablets, and laptops.

“Thanks for your patience, everyone. Shall we begin? John, you’re up first.” A few people looked up, but most kept working. John spoke for a few minutes uninterrupted, except for two questions from Donna, who asked them while looking at her computer.

“Thanks, John. Anyone have any final questions?” Donna saw a few heads shake as she scanned the room. “Great. Janice, you’re up next. Business development update, right?”

“Actually, I transitioned over to marketing a few weeks ago, Donna, so I’ll be talking about our latest influencer campaign.”

“That’s right. Of course. We’re all looking forward to your report, Janice.” All eyes downward, the room full of heads bobbed in agreement amid a quiet hum of activity. Smart and skilled, Janice presented an impeccable PowerPoint packed with insights and relevant graphics. No one was making eye contact with her, so she hoped someone was noticing her hard work.

“We do have an issue, Donna,” Janice said. “One of our top brand ambassadors has moved over to Brandnext. I reached out to her yesterday, and she told me that Brandnext’s new features fit her needs better, and they are paying influencers way more than we are.”

“Brandnext?” Donna looked up, confused. “That little startup out of Atlanta?”

“Yes,” Janice replied. “They secured a $60-million-round a few months ago, and they’re growing rapidly.”

Everyone looked up at once, but no one said a word.

“How come I didn’t know anything about this?” Donna snapped. She scanned the room as heads quickly tipped back downward toward device screens. “Janice?”

“I believe Brandon brought this up in our last meeting, Donna, but something came up, and you had to leave. He’s been trying to get on your calendar ever since.”

“Brandon.” Donna was standing now. “Let’s get that meeting scheduled today, okay?”

“Absolutely!” Brandon snapped to attention.

“Okay, people, we’ve got work to do.” Now irritated and stressed, Donna was already packing up her laptop to head out to the tradeshow floor. “We’ll reconvene tomorrow to finish the rest of the reports. We’ve got a fire to put out.”

Within the next year, Donna’s company would lose 10 percent market share and struggle to innovate on their once-bestselling product.