“REFLECTIONS:” Looking Back on Four Decades in Business in the Rear-View Mirror of Experience – Decade Two
Overview
This is the second in a series of blog posts regarding the journey through the 40 decades that RIVA has been in business. If you’d like to check out the first post, you can do so here.
Decade Two: 1992-2001
Decade Two: 1992-2001
This decade started out with business as usual – writing proposals, securing research projects, enrolling students into existing and new RIVA courses. Moving away from the 2nd floor over a Chinese restaurant in Chevy Chase, MD, we reveled in new office space in Bethesda that included a CEO office patio balcony with a view toward the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and a site to view Fourth of July events.
Every staff member had a large office with a door and floor to ceiling windows. A beautiful and spacious conference room welcomed all for meetings and trainings and an elegant viewing room for clients and students finished that portion of the suite. Extra offices allowed rental for two women who ran a small advertising agency and both companies shared projects. The full-service kitchen, with table space for meals, served as a “hub” for informal meetings, shared recipes, and lots of laughter.
Staff who travelled for business, racked up thousands of miles and concomitant airline points and TSA and Homeland Security did not exist. Revenues grew at a steady pace and, as a company, we felt we had crossed the divide from “start-up” to “established” company in our second decade.
RIVA appeared in trade journals as a credible contributor to industry knowledge and national media like CBS news, PBS Health/Discovery, the Wall Street Journal, magazines like Demographics and local news stations conducted interviews with RIVA’s CEO about health, wellness, and what it takes to run a successful small business.
This decade presented RIVA with some unusual staff events, a few funny moments in client projects, and a tremendous growth spurt in revenues. An offer from Luc Henderson, to serve as CFO, left the CEO free to focus more on the duties that better matched her research and training skills. Distinct rules, jointly established and honored, ensured the marriage didn’t serve as a sacrifice on the altar of the business.
Corporate America hired RIVA to conduct studies that changed the face of products such as: the Centurion on the American Express card, removing the head scarf from Aunt Jemima, and being the midwife to the birth of gel toothpaste and Swiffer products.
RIVA research produced a respondent quotation that turned into an ad slogan for Kentucky Fried Chicken and ran for 19 years: “We do chicken right.” These studies along with our skills and expertise, brought us out of the shadows and into the spotlight, showcasing a company that kept high standards, served on a platter of impeccable integrity and quality research.
On the training side, RIVA hosted a minimum of two trainings a month, uplifting the standards of the qualitative research industry by teaching “best practices” to freelancers and those working inside companies and organizations.
During this decade two unusual events occurred in the life of the CEO. The first: a diagnosis of a brain tumor on the hearing nerve, benign in nature but life-threatening if not removed since it could impinge on the next nerve in the ganglia [the one controlling breathing]. The removal, after a 17-hour surgery, deemed a success with only the loss of total hearing in the left ear and some mild facial paralysis. Thank goodness moderating has a ground rule which states: “Speak loudly so all may hear,” and the hearing loss never interfered with an ability to conduct any one of the 19 qualitative research methods RIVA provided.
The second event: A one-year sabbatical in 1995 leaving Luc and sister, JoAnn, in charge. That year allowed sufficient time to be taken to reflect on achievements, conduct long-range strategy planning for the future, and enroll in courses that the busy life of a small business owner did not afford. Those courses rested on an intention to “try out” skills and crafts to see what might be done in an eventual “someday retirement.” What became crystal clear included what would not be done in any future: oil painting [smelly, messy], knitting [click-click sound held no appeal], restoring furniture [smelly, messy too]. What did emerge as skills to hone moving forward included writing essays, poetry, and non-fiction works along with gardening and a desire to walk the New York Marathon.
Looking back over the last 40 years, it seems this decade exemplified what could be called the “Halcyon Years” for RIVA. Merriam Webster defines “halcyon” as: characterized by happiness, great success, and prosperity: GOLDEN —often used to describe an idyllic time in the past that is remembered as better than today. In the rear-view mirror of hindsight, 1992-2001 fit the definition perfectly.
And then the bottom fell out – September 11, 2001, a plane hit the Twin Towers in New York City and the world shifted, requiring RIVA to shift as well. For many months after 9/11, clients did not book research projects that involved plane travel and students did not fly from the four corners of the world to take a RIVA course in-person.
Revenue dried to a trickle and a staff of 15 people dwindled to six with some on “temporary layoff” and others permanently released in the face of a national tragedy. The two tenants declared they could no longer pay rent since they lost clients as well, and we parted company with tears and a promise “to stay in touch.” More than two-thirds of the total office space lay fallow and dark echoing with the memories of better days.
Vowing “We’re not going out of business,” the CEO and CFO decided it would be prudent to take out a 2nd mortgage and loan RIVA $200,000 and put a “financial floor” under the company so that when America “reset,” RIVA would be there.
We expressed our concern about paying rent in the wake of 9/11, with the landlord of our building, who said, “Sure, you are welcome to break your lease and leave, but you’ll be personally responsible for paying the remaining 3 years left on the seven-year lease you jointly signed as guarantors.” Not wanting to declare bankruptcy [and the attendant vale of tears that would follow our names like a bad dream], we chose to continue to pay rent and find creative ways to stay in business.
Locating a bank to help us with the re-fi process, even with high interest rates, seemed a prudent tradeoff to ensure the business survived. Severe pay cuts for remaining staff allowed us to afford to pay rent and the expenses we had cut to the bone. The time between slim revenue income checks permitted us to spend it upgrading materials, throwing out old materials, streamlining procedures, and in short, getting RIVA to a “lean and mean” state.
RIVA did reset in the next decade 2002-2021, and the Golden Years faded into history and memory.
Written by: Naomi Henderson, RIVA CEO & Co Founder