A New Year, A New Transition

“Pramana partner Larry Yu is leaving to join venture firm Accel as marketing partner.” There you have it. That’s your real news hook for this post.

I would then follow with a paragraph that acknowledges Larry’s tremendous contribution to establishing and growing Pramana, the results-driven approach he applied to our diverse group of clients, and his incomparable skills as a communications strategist. I would also console myself by reminding you that Larry has long been a dear friend and colleague to all of us and assure you that nothing about that will change. I’d add in some pertinent facts, like his last day being Jan. 16 and his passion for patterned socks. I’d then close with a shameless plug for our shared alma mater (GO BUFFS!), click “post” and then down a glass of wine.

We all know these moments suck so I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But please indulge me while I pontificate the deeper meaning — and opportunity — of this transition.

I use the word transition because it is just that. Larry is transitioning to a new team, but remains our ally and thereby extends the Google/Facebook/Twitter/Hulu/Skype/Pramana/Etc./Etc. alumni network and the opportunity within it to Accel and its portfolio of companies. Last June, our first EIR Mike Mayzel came to us from StumbleUpon with the intent of transitioning. After four months Mike joined our then client Pinterest, which now has a communications team made up of several former colleagues, clients and friends. Believe it or not, these are ideal outcomes for us at Pramana.

While I applaud those companies who retain happy, productive employees for 5, 10, 30 years, let’s face it, that’s hard to sustain if not unrealistic. And the new workforce looks different. Particularly in the tech industry, we celebrate those entrepreneurs who take risks, pivot quickly and challenge Goliath. Being part of the next world-changing company is often just a job interview away.

Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh explore a new approach to the employee-employer relationship in their book titled “The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age.” Their idea, first introduced in a Harvard Business Review article, argues that you can’t build an agile company with lifetime employment contracts. Rather they view employment as a two- to four-year term and an “alliance” that centers around three main principles:

Hire employees for defined “tours of duty”

Encourage, even subsidize, the building of employee networks outside the organization

Create active alumni networks that facilitate career-long relationships between employers and former employees

We subscribe to the Reid & Co. approach and call our alliance the Collective. And we designed the company as a place for people to come, stay a while, do great work, meet our network, laugh a little, drink a little and then go try something different — maybe at a client, maybe as a consultant, maybe at the next billion dollar company.

We’re a small team sitting at 25 Taylor St. in San Francisco. But the Collective also includes our current and former clients, consultant and agency partners, media, venture capitalists, colleagues and friends. Our hope is to continue to grow our alumni network in 2015 and beyond. So there’s plenty of Pramana Tours of Duty ready to fill.

We want the next Larry Yu. Is that YOU?

If so, ping me at brandee@pramanacollective.com.