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1、 AND COMMENTARYwww.hbr.orgHBR CASE STUDYThe Flight of the Boomerang Employeeby Sarah GreenShould Liana go back to Orchis?The experts respond.Reprint R1004MHBR CASE STUDYThe Flight of the Boomerang Employeeby Sarah Greenharvard business review april 2010page 1HBR s cases, which are fictional, present
2、 common managerial dilemmas and offer concrete solutions from experts. COPYRIGHT 2010 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.When is it a good idea to return to your old company?Liana uploaded the pictures from her recent trip to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show:
3、A solar-powered car. A 3-D television. An e-reader. Another e-reader. Another e-reader. As she clicked through them, she felt bittersweet vindi- cation. She had predicted the zeitgeist. Her product should have been on display. Five years before, when she d worked at Or- chis, she d put in 80 hours a
4、 week leading the consumer tech company s e-reader develop- ment team. But the result of all that workthe Vandahadn t made it into stores. After seeingthe first prototype, management had short- sightedly pulled the plug. Soon afterward, Liana had left the companybut now she was nostalgic for the wor
5、k she d done there. She thought back to her reasons for quitting. The problem wasn t just that senior managers had lost faith in the product; they had mis- judged the customer, as well. Assuming that no one wanted to read Proustor P.D. James, forthat matteron something that looked like an Etch A Ske
6、tch, they d given the project just enough money to fail. With a different director of product development, or with a little more time and money, things could have gone so dif- ferently, Liana thought. Since then, her life had changeda lot. She and Suz had gotten married on Martha s Vineyard, moved t
7、o California, and adopted twins. And Liana had cofounded Musiophile, an internet-streaming radio station. Though itwasn t all that profitable yet, it was very popular. With the dust settling around her, Liana had become restless. Musiophile was essen- tially waiting to be bought, and any dreams of i
8、ndependent wealth had long ago faded (she was the founding creative director, not a partner). She was ready to get to work on some of her new ideas. But the thought of launching another start-up, at this point in her life, daunted her. The Flight of the Boomerang EmployeeHBR CASESTUDYharvard busines
9、s review april 2010page 2The Chance to Go Back“Liana? This is Tom Anthony. It s been a long time.” This was weird. She d been thinking about Orchis, and now the CEO was calling? “Hi, Tom,” she said, trying to sound pleasant rather than confused. “How are things?” “I ll come right to the point,” he s
10、aid. “I ve been following Musiophile, and I think we made a mistake letting you leave. I d like you to consider coming back to Orchis as our direc-tor of product development. Can we fly you back east for a meeting?” “Uh, that s quite generous, but I ve got two commitments,” she said, thinking of the
11、 twins, Ethan and Colin, “and I can t drop them. Whydon t you tell me more about the job first. I take it Gary left?” “Gary is pursuing other opportunities,” Tom replied. “All the e-reader exposure at CES this year made us realize that we were premature in killing the Vanda. Though that ship has sai
12、led, we d like you to come back and help us launch the next wave of devices. Garywell, his strength was in coming up with ideas. He wasn t very effective at executing or at pitching to the executive committee.” That s putting it mildly, Liana thought. “Given the smarts you ve shown at Musio- phile,”
13、 Tom added, “I think you d be great. Andwe have a new chief marketing officer who could make a real difference in how we bring these things to market.” “Tom, it s very flattering that you thought of me after all this time,” Liana replied, hoping she sounded sincere. She and Tom hadn t worked togethe
14、r much when she was at Or- chis. She meant to beg off but surprised herself and said, “Sure, I ll come out so we can talk it over.” Suz, when Liana told her about the call, was skeptical. “I m just trying to get my head around this,” Suz said. “I can work anywhere hospitals never have enough nursesb
15、ut we ve built a whole life here. I know you loved that Vanda project, but do you really think you want to go back to Orchis? You were working crazy hours before. Things are different now.” She looked pointedly at Ethan and Colin, wrig- gling in the bathtub. “At Musiophile, at leastyou have the flex
16、ibility to work from home when I m on a shift. But that s because you make the rules. What if Orchis expects you to give 200% again?”Liana had been running through these same what-ifs all afternoon, plus a few more. She d be leading Gary s team, made up of her formerpeers and people hired in the past five years, those who knew her only by reputationas the woman who d failed and then quit. Would they give her a chance? And would her start-
