CAA maintained a list of executives who supported them early on. If anyone on that list later fell on hard times, the agency made it their duty to find them a job, preserving their dignity and demonstrating extreme loyalty.
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In the long game of private equity, forgoing a short-term advantage when in a position of strength builds goodwill that will be reciprocated when you are in a weaker position. Exploiting power creates lasting mistrust that ultimately damages long-term success in a relationship-driven industry.
The trauma of being unable to find workers during the pandemic created a lasting strategic shift. One chef kept his entire kitchen team from before COVID, recognizing the immense cost and near impossibility of replacing their accumulated expertise in the current tight labor market.
The creation of talent agency CAA in 1975 by agents who defected from a larger firm mirrors the current AI landscape, where top researchers leave established labs like OpenAI to found competitors like Anthropic. This suggests that talent-driven industries consistently see cycles of unbundling led by key players.
Every A16Z employee must sign a culture document and attend a training session committing them to be 'dream builders.' This enforces a principle of supporting anyone pushing the world forward, regardless of investment status, preventing a culture of cynical criticism.
In an industry where everyone faked answers, talent agency CAA made it a rule to admit ignorance and promise to find the answer. This simple act of honesty built trust and became a competitive advantage.
Indra Nooyi built deep, personal loyalty by writing letters directly to the parents of her top 400 executives, thanking them for raising such exceptional individuals. This unconventional act of recognition acknowledged the employee as a whole person with a support system, forging a powerful, human bond that transcended the typical employer-employee relationship.
Despite running a 26,000-person company, Michael Bloomberg personally calls employees or their families after a major accident or death. This highly personal gesture reinforces that people are the company's most important asset, fostering deep loyalty and a caring culture.
Instead of the industry-standard "one client, one agent" model, CAA assigned multiple agents to every client. This ensured clients always had someone to talk to and prevented them from leaving if they tired of one person.
In the cutthroat world of distressed debt, having a reputation as a frequent and fair "repeat player" is a key asset. Other creditors are more likely to collaborate and less likely to act opportunistically if they know they will encounter your firm again, leading to better resolutions.
According to an ex-employee, Google had an unwritten policy to retain intelligent but underperforming staff. The rationale was that they might become productive again, but more importantly, it prevented competitors from acquiring top talent, effectively treating talent as a scarce resource to be stockpiled.
