She took the week. She spent it doing what she always did when she needed to think clearly—she worked. She went through every piece of financial analysis she could find on technology investment as a sector, read four years’ worth of Reed Financial’s public reports, drew her own organizational map of what a functional technology division would need, and built three different models for how it might perform under different market conditions. She slept well. She cooked her own meals. She went for long walks in the neighborhood and looked at the buildings and thought about the relationship between a structure and its foundation, which was a thing she had been thinking about a great deal lately.
On the seventh day, she called her father.
“Yes,” she said.
“I’m glad.”
“I want six months to build the structure before we talk about portfolio targets. I need to hire right. The people matter more than the first deals.”
“Agreed.”
“And I want it to be genuinely separate in terms of decision-making authority. I report to you at the board level, but the division’s strategic direction is mine.”
“That was always the intent.”
“I know. I wanted to say it out loud anyway.”