Mike

"Upon arriving, the lawyers’ office felt like a morgue. I met Nick, Mike, their key lieutenant Ted Gazulis, their lawyers, Hovey Kemp and Jim Piccone, and several other executives of the company. They were dejected, watching this deal they had worked so hard on wither on the vine. There was a lot of frustration that a terrific opportunity for the company and its financial partners would fall apart because of an eleventh-hour surprise from Goldman Sachs. I went on to offer my thought that HS was at a disadvantage by committing to a deal with Amoco before having all the money in hand. This allowed Goldman Sachs to push the company up against one deadline after another, resulting in a real negotiating handicap. Having talked with Richard and sensing that the likes of John Snyder wanted in, I felt this transaction had so much value that we couldn’t allow it to fall apart because of Goldman Sachs. I felt that our downside would be covered, so moving forward would be a judicious risk to take. I have to say, though, that Ted Gazulis remembers it differently. He recalled, “I saw black smoke coming out of your ears. You were hopping mad that Goldman was going to either steal or torpedo the deal!” Maybe his recollection has some merit to it. Anyway, I told the team that NGP was prepared to cover the purchase price of the deal and then work out a refinancing without the deadline time pressure on all of us. I put on my best face and said, “Instead of putting up $ 15 million, how about NGP speaks for the full $ 30 million, so we can close it, and then we can work out a refinancing plan without the deadline pressure?”"

"“Mike’s difficulty, gigantic, was that he simply didn’t have the patience to listen to another point of view,” this former executive continued. “He would assume he had conquered the problem and go forward. He was useless in a committee, in any situation that called for a group decision. He only cared about bringing the truth. If Mike hadn’t gone into the securities business, he could have led a religious revival movement.”"

"the accountability factor to his entrepreneurial system of compensation in corporate finance. “More than most other firms, we understand that we’re a middleman in the marketplace,” Joseph claimed. “We have clients on both sides. And because Mike is so powerful, we have really been serious about that ongoing responsibility to buyers. It is a long-term approach to your business, instead of just do the deal, get the fee and get out of there. “If you do a deal here that goes bad, we’re the only firm that keeps you accountable down the road. You’ve gotta fix it. If you don’t try to fix it, I’ll kill you. If you try to fix it and do fix it, you’ll almost recover the ding. If you try to fix it real hard and don’t, you’ll recover some.”"

"Milken kept his group cloistered. He demanded that his people shun publicity, as he did. He was convinced there was no upside—“ Mike would always say, ‘You can’t make a dime off publicity,’ ” Steve Wynn recalled—and there was considerable downside. If his people started seeing themselves in print, he once commented to this reporter, they would get their heads turned, they would think they were famous. “They won’t work as well. I want them there at four or four-thirty, ready to work, until eight o’clock at night. That’s what we do, that’s our responsibility. I don’t want them to think of what’s outside.”"

"the accountability factor to his entrepreneurial system of compensation in corporate finance. “More than most other firms, we understand that we’re a middleman in the marketplace,” Joseph claimed. “We have clients on both sides. And because Mike is so powerful, we have really been serious about that ongoing responsibility to buyers. It is a long-term approach to your business, instead of just do the deal, get the fee and get out of there. “If you do a deal here that goes bad, we’re the only firm that keeps you accountable down the road. You’ve gotta fix it. If you don’t try to fix it, I’ll kill you. If you try to fix it and do fix it, you’ll almost recover the ding. If you try to fix it real hard and don’t, you’ll recover some.”"

"“Mike’s difficulty, gigantic, was that he simply didn’t have the patience to listen to another point of view,” this former executive continued. “He would assume he had conquered the problem and go forward. He was useless in a committee, in any situation that called for a group decision. He only cared about bringing the truth. If Mike hadn’t gone into the securities business, he could have led a religious revival movement.”"

"Conlee’s responsibilities and title were split between handset chief Thorsten Heins and manufacturing head Jim Rowan, both of whom he had groomed, leaving Lazaridis with two chief operating officers; a third, Morrison, still reported to Balsillie. Lazaridis’s direct reports, including software head David Yach and chief information officer Robin Bienfait, met regularly with Morrison to ensure they were on the same page, “but nobody could stand up and say ‘Okay, all opinions heard, this is the decision’” as Conlee had done, says a former senior executive. “It slowed the company down. It was not that people didn’t perform in their roles; it was just purely the structure that was established did not lead to good, sound, and convergent decision making.” With Conlee gone, inertia and frustration set in at the senior levels. “There wasn’t the individual accountability that we needed,” says Morrison. “It was too splayed because it was across three different organizations. Now, all of a sudden, Mike is trying to manage something, but he doesn’t have the genetic code Larry has.”"

"When Balsillie raised quality issues in private with Lazaridis, “I don’t recall a heated conversation, but I do recall Mike saying, ‘This stuff is really, really hard,’” says Balsillie. “Mike refused to acknowledge that we had any material technical issues, to the point that he would miss meetings so that he didn’t hear the negative feedback and hoping that we would not discuss it in his absence. That was wishful thinking, and I personally didn’t think we had any way around it. If anything, everyone was counting on Mike to see the flaws first and fix them as soon as possible.”"

"‘It took Mike’s death and that moment on the plane for me to realise that the most valuable thing that each of us has is not money, is not cars, is not assets—it’s time. But none of us knows how much of it we have. None of us knows what will happen tomorrow and given the most valuable thing we have is time, then how we use it is important and, to me, the most important thing in my life is my family.’"