Making the Most of a Layoff

Stephen, the sixty-one-year-old president of a major manufacturing company, got the word that he either had to retire or lose his job. His company had been bought by a larger company, and the new owners wanted to put their own people in senior management positions. Stephen's staff was outraged. He had performed well in the job and everyone knew it. Stephen was tempted to just pick up and leave.

But Stephen was an invincible executive. He did not storm out. He did not head for Hawaii. Rather, he told the new owners that he wanted to retire from his company in sixty days. He used those sixty days to negotiate a new job with a very large competitor of the new owner. After forty-five days, he announced that he would retire as president of the old company, but that he would become a senior vice president of the larger competitor. The new owners of his old company—who had failed to get a "noncompete agreement" from Stephen or any of his top managers—were outraged, but there was nothing that they could do about the situation.

Less than two years later, Stephen's new company bought his old company. Stephen volunteered to assist in the integration of the two companies. Imagine the looks on the faces of the men who had fired him when Stephen chaired the first integration team meeting. Now Stephen held their fate in his hands.