“REFLECTIONS:” Looking Back on Four Decades in Business in the Rear-View Mirror of Experience – Decade Three
overview
Intro 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 read the previous posts, you can do so here:
Decade Three [2002-2011]
This third decade in RIVA’s history blew in on the smoke from the downed twin towers in NYC on 9/11/2001. Projects ground to a halt with “no-fly” policies for staff across corporate America and that included attendance at focus group facilities and enrollments in face-to-face classes at RIVA.
In November of 2021, Naomi chose to enter the NYC Marathon as a walker to raise money for friends enduring chemo treatments for varied cancers. She wanted do so something active rather than sitting home in worry that she could keep a company alive until America reset.
The marathon became a grueling journey on arthritic knees and, at mile 21, two pulled thigh muscles. The race started after sunrise at 7:30 am on Staten Island and Naomi walked through all five boroughs until she reached the finish line in Manhattan’s Central Park long after sundown, 9 hours and 9 minutes later.
At the time, she felt this effort defined one of the most difficult things she had ever done. Little did she know, this decade would test her in ways she could not imagine, and more than once, completing that marathon became the lodestar she used to traverse many difficult paths in this third decade of RIVA’s history.
As 2003 and 2004 rolled forward, RIVA slowly rebuilt relationships with research clients and with the staff kept in place, thanks to Luc’s strategic planning, RIVA pulled back from the brink of losing the business and returned to former levels as a company thriving on the platforms of integrity and service.
In August of 2004, Luc and Naomi hosted a party funded by client Remy Martin, to celebrate their 40th Wedding Anniversary. Remy Martin underwrote the entire cost of the event in exchange for a 30-minute presentation, mid-way, to demonstrate how their product truly earned the title: “Best Cognac in the World.” This marketing effort emerged because strict government regulations kept advertising for “spirits” off TV. Liquor firms used the funding of parties to promote taste tests and gift giving to keep a brand name “top-of-mind” when buying spirits. Having provided research services testing bottle labels and new products like Remy Red, RIVA’s owner made a strategic candidate for a promotional event.
Guests received a gift of a small bottle of vintage cognac and a pair of sipping glasses. Many new consumers emerged that evening! Later that year, Naomi and Luc went to St. Tropez in the South of France, walking along the beaches, collecting 40 white stones to represent each year of their wedded life and toasted each other, with Remy of course, after dinners al fresco.
2005 opened with an increase in projects and new clients, arriving at RIVA from the word-of-mouth goddess and RIVA’s future look bright. The sun dimmed on March 31 when Luc received a diagnosis of stage three pancreatic cancer with a six-week window to live. He didn’t make that timeline, passing away in his sleep just 33 days later. Time barely allowed for coming to grips with his illness before planning his memorial service.
Naomi doesn’t remember much about that Spring and Summer of 2005, just putting one foot ahead of the other, while meeting client requests and honoring teaching assignments. Using the completion of the marathon the previous year, she just kept “walking” through her grief. When she had any doubts, about a decision related to RIVA, she listened to the voice that said: “What would Luc advise me to do?”
With the support of family and friends, she eventually found the footing to bring herself back to the energy levels needed to carry RIVA though this decade that brought about these advances:
- Created the first Master Moderator Certificate ProgramTM that allowed a candidate to take a written test, complete a practicum, and stand before a panel of industry experts to demonstrate mastery in moderating. Now the market research industry had a “body of knowledge” on which certification standards could be created.
- Revamped current course offerings to keep up with industry changes and new technology.
- Promoted Amber Tedesco to Director of Training and Research in addition to her duties as COO.
Just when it seemed like RIVA could emerge from the trough of grief in Luc’s passing and move forward on the platform of his financial strategies, RIVA got slammed again with one of the worst recessions in recent history in 2008, throwing RIVA back into “survival mode.” Here is an internet excerpt on that recession as a context for its impact on RIVA:
“The Great Recession, a period of marked general decline (recession) observed in national economies globally, occurred between 2007 and 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country.
At the time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded that it could be described as the most severe economic and financial meltdown since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
The Great Recession include a combination of vulnerabilities that developed in the financial system, along with a series of triggering events that began with the bursting of the United States housing bubble in 2005–2006. When housing prices fell and homeowners began to abandon their mortgages, the value of mortgage-backed securities held by investment banks declined in 2007–2008, causing several to collapse or be bailed out in September 2008.
This 2007–2008 phase received the title: subprime mortgage crisis. The combination of banks unable to provide funds to businesses, and homeowners paying down debt rather than borrowing and spending, resulted in the Great Recession that began in the U.S. officially in December 2007 and lasted until June 2009, thus extending over 19 months. As with most other recessions, it appears that no known formal theoretical or empirical model accurately predicted the advance of this recession, except for minor signals in the sudden rise of forecast probabilities, which were still well under 50%. The recession fell unequally around the world; whereas most of the world’s developed economies, particularly in North America, South America and Europe, fell into a severe, sustained recession, many more recently developed economies suffered far less impact, particularly China, India and Indonesia, whose economies grew substantially during this period.“
Some key words from the above excerpt:
- Severe, sustained recession
- Banks unable to provide funds to businesses
For a small business, like RIVA, the time of the recession stretched from late 2007 and into late 2009, with corporate clients holding off on launching new products and advertising – the key source of revenue for companies like RIVA that provide market research services. Coupled with this setback included layoffs in corporate America in the two departments that send students for qualitative research training: marketing and analytics. This ‘double whammy’ loss of revenue nearly brought RIVA to its knees. Once again, a national crisis, often compared to the Great Depression of the 1930’s, swept small businesses out to sea in a leaky boat with one oar.
Naomi remembers saying; “I’ve reinvented RIVA so many times I should probably apply for a patent.” This time, the reinvention meant not only did RIVA bail water out of the leaky boat but had to return to land using only one oar… while bailing. The phrase most often used when something had to be bought, repaired, or replaced at RIVA became: “There’s no money for that – find a creative solution.”
An Executive Committee emerged in this decade and it consisted of the CEO, the COO, and the bookkeeper, and RIVA watched every dollar in and out of the door, and lived the mantra: “Lean and Mean.” Unpaid bills ran out to 90 days before payment; and the Executive members rotated who got paid each payroll while the others did a “skip.” Cutting the RIVA team to “essential staff” meant laying off nearly 60% with advice to apply for unemployment insurance as they sought new jobs because no promise could be made to rehire anyone. Vacations got suspended while creative ways to generate revenue took center stage.
As RIVA’s third decade drew to a close in 2011, contracts resumed, students enrolled, and new courses emerged from student requests and industry demands. No one prayed more fervently than the Executive Committee that our worst days resided in RIVA’s rear-view mirror.
Written by: Naomi Henderson, RIVA CEO and Co-Founder