The company CFO, or Director of Aggressive Accounting, was just one of those guys. He and I used to come in at around the same time. I would salute him with your standard “good morning” gesture. He would answer by walking right past me. After a few attempts I had finally deducted it wasn’t a hearing problem. Otherwise, he was a golden office fixture, whose image would end up permanently sealed in the annals of silly company photographs. In this particular gem of a picture, he proudly wears a T-shirt with the phrase “Weaver Sucks”.
The supposed promise of the web first came to us in the way of a grand company meeting, where we were informed we had landed a client that would soon make Tennessee look like a forgotten Florida county: Colorado. To boot, it was for the web. Not only would this groundbreaking announcement spark great excitement, but would be the proverbial tip of the iceberg regarding expansion into huge west coast accounts. Colorado was a whale of an account, a progressive and high profile state, which was going to be a flagship feather in the company hat. It was simply arresting.
The news did come with an interesting twist: we were told we would share the responsibility with a Colorado-based publisher named Weaver. From the very start, Weaver would only be alluded to as our partner. In fact, they passed around a curious bit of paperwork with both company names on it, almost as offering proof.
This partnership began to surface signs that pointed to something more of a slightly dysfunctional relationship. More and more company Weaver-themed meetings were conducted in order to give us important updates. At some of the latter meetings, it was floated that this was a touchy, precarious and frail partnership; Media Group had upset Weaver a couple of times and had to perform damage control. Claude and a few others often had to pack up and fly over there. We were warned not to go directly to Colorado, but first run things by Weaver. What kind of partnership was this?
For months, the determined web department hammered away at the Colorado site. As the deadline approached, Claude made sure for some of us to sit through a few all-nighters and push the deadline further; until finally he had no choice but to hand over a half finished site with a considerable list of things left to do.
Not long after, in the very final Weaver-based company meeting (thank goodness), we were horrified to learn that our allies in Weaver had stolen all our secrets, sabotaged the launch and stole our prized client, Colorado.
They also stole the company’s business model, and conspired to raise prices of the bags of chips in the vending machine. Overall, company employees were frazzled to hear such a thing, and as a whole, felt violated and angry. Some felt that perhaps a drive-by shooting was in order.
This goes to show how many of us, not only in the company, but in modern society in general, are sadly plugged into a Matrix-like world, having more to do with how they elect to perceive reality than how things really are.
Colorado wasn’t the client — Weaver — Weaver, was the damn client. Weaver was the client.
Weaver was a partner no more than DHL was. Skewing things into such a warped perspective, I can safely say my own business partners are Mastercard, Time-Warner, Target and Starbucks.
After Weaver fired Media Group, those in upper management had suddenly flipped a switch: Weaver wasn’t ever a partner — you didn’t know that? They were a diabolical group of vindictive monsters who fired us and stole the idea of hiring an in-house web department. C’mon, you didn’t know that?
On the other side of the Mississippi, I would have to say besides the obvious, Weaver’s only other big mistake was to allow Media Group way too much access to Colorado in the first place. The company was simply subcontracted to do the web development, nothing more. There should have been no direct contact allowed with the folks at Colorado (or those at PRACO) — it just added to the massive lie that Colorado was the client in the first place.
Media Group’s mistake was to turn out a most mediocre and miserable performance: instead of hitting it out out the park, they absolutely fumbled the project, as if Weaver was dealing with a garage full of high school programmers. David B and Claude are the real villains here. Despite whatever effort, of lack thereof was applied, they reached a point where they finally just sat back and watched the whole thing go up in smoke.
It was shame; having the Colorado site in the company’s resume would have proved beneficial and helped with expansion into other nearby states. Oh, what about Wyoming you say? I’ll tell you about Wyoming: I would advise them to take them off their portfolio page, unless they somehow want to write that off as a partnership.
UPDATE: Miles Media and Weaver merge? Goodness gracious, I’ve said it before, you can’t make this stuff up, it is simply beyond the most creative fiction writer’s imagination.
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