Monster.com blimp visits Maynard. From the collection of the Maynard Historical Society. Click on photos to enlarge |
Third in a multi-part series AT THE MILL.
Back in the spring of 2014, Monster.com, at one time a famous technology disruptor in the jobs search industry, moved away from Maynard, giving up on its lease of 300,000 square feet at the mill and moving 625 jobs to a smaller space in Weston. Monster had arrived for the birth of Clock Tower Place in 1998. Its growth, shrinkage and finally, abandonment contributed mightily to the arc of Clock Tower, which came to an inglorious end a year later. For such a large company, Monster was a lightly visible presence in town, sponsoring blood drives and an annual road race to benefit the Boys and Girls Club. At its peak a thousand employees showed up every day, but the company did not work as hard as it might have to be an actively participating citizen.
Back in the spring of 2014, Monster.com, at one time a famous technology disruptor in the jobs search industry, moved away from Maynard, giving up on its lease of 300,000 square feet at the mill and moving 625 jobs to a smaller space in Weston. Monster had arrived for the birth of Clock Tower Place in 1998. Its growth, shrinkage and finally, abandonment contributed mightily to the arc of Clock Tower, which came to an inglorious end a year later. For such a large company, Monster was a lightly visible presence in town, sponsoring blood drives and an annual road race to benefit the Boys and Girls Club. At its peak a thousand employees showed up every day, but the company did not work as hard as it might have to be an actively participating citizen.
Monster.com hot air balloon |
For Monster, the arc of the company's presence in Maynard roughly
paralleled the company's course from a technology innovator to a technology
can-it-catch-up-again. When men stand on a corner near a Home Depot, and other
men drive up in pick-up trucks looking for day labor, that's a job exchange.
Ditto a bulletin board covered with business cards next to the door of a diner.
Put the jobs offered on paper and disseminate copies, and it's a newspaper's
jobs section. Now suppose the match-ups are computerized. Potential employers
post and search. Potential employees search and post. Inclusion and exclusion
criteria filter the searches. Voila, Monster!
Initially, Monster owned the niche. It was the first public
job search on the Internet, first public resume database in the world, and the
first to have job search and job alerts. The company went public, i.e., sold
shares on a stock exchange, in December 1996. Valuation peaked in 2000 at $8.5
billion.
Much was written about Monster’s decline. What went wrong?
From Woody Allen, in the movie Annie Hall:
"A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly
move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead
shark." Monster was a dead shark. It was too late to social media, to
apps, to niches, to better search engines. These days, CareerBuilder. Indeed,
Glassdoor and LinkedIn dominate the generalist jobs market, while DICE, TheLadders,
USAJobs and LookSharp service niches. In 2016, what remained of Monster was
purchased for only $426 million. The company continues to downsize. This fall the
monster itself was re-imaged as large, purple and hairy, with glowing eyes, but
it is in no way clear that this will reverse the trend.
Much like Monster, most of the companies in the mill, and
for that matter, the owners and operators of Mill and Main, are near-invisible to
the inhabitants of the town. One exception is Battle Road Brew House, which has
involved itself in Octoberfest, the veterans-support pub crawl and a 5K road
race. The other tenants, the ones whose employees step out for meals and
shopping in Maynard’s stores, are the economic engine helping this town
prosper. Can they do more than just shop? Yes!
Monster's monster has more than a passing resemblance to Gossamer, from the Bugs Bunny years. |
Corporate volunteer programs are a means of committing to a
cause or a community. Especially in a small town, a company can become a
useful, visible presence that improves quality of life. And, as these days,
more people are looking to live near where they work, contributing to the
community benefits the company, as a vibrant community makes it easier to
recruit and keep employees. Research clearly shows that a well-organized
company volunteer program lowers employee turnover, more than paying for any
outlay the company makes.
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