Jamie's IPO Party

Jamie's company LinkedOut.com is going IPO on Friday. In the spirit of saving money and increasing

shareholder value, the company decided to have a potluck party with all employees bringing food in.

Many people brought bread in. Some brought in homemade bread. Some brought bread bought from

supermarkets, some from bakeries. The CEO brought something really special, the best chef in town

baked a special loaf of bread shaped to LinkedOut logo, it smelled wonderfully and is supposed to taste

like butter (without butter).

All loafs of bread are sitting together in a big table around the center of the room. The special bread is in

the middle of the table. People are gathering around the party place and chatting. One loaf of bread was

watching the people curiously. Then he said to his fellow loafs, “These people are all talking about the

stock prices and creating values. I wonder how we can create value.”

A loaf came from Costco jumped up: “I know, I know, I cost $10. Here it says on the sticker. So I have

created a value of $10”. Another loaf bragged: “I cost $50. I was made with much higher quality wheat! I

created more value”. One loaf with darker color, solid round shape said slowly, “I don’t think we should

value ourselves based on the sticker price people put on us. We should think about our values (what we

value, not how much we cost to people), our vision, what we want people feel about us and about the

world. I think we can create values in many different ways”. Another one followed, “I agree. People

need us to live. We are worth much more than $10 or $50. Livelihood is priceless.”

One homemade bread smiled while reflecting: “At our house, every time the Mom makes bread, the

house smells so good. The kids wake up, all excited, running to their mom, “Mommy, Mommy, I want

the bread, the sweet bread!”… It is such a wonderful picture. We help the mother show her love to her

children and her children’s love for their mother. We are integral part of family value. We help to create

family bond. We represent love. It is priceless.”

The center piece, beautifully decorated bread opened his mouth: “The CEO came to my maker, the chef.

He said that LinkedOut is going IPO and he is going to host a party that is going to be recorded and

shown on TV. He wants something special in the shape of the company that everyone is going to say

this is the best bread in the world because his company represents the highest quality products. The

chef put in so much time to carefully select the best quality ingredients. He experimented with small

pieces with different techniques and different mixture of ingredients. Every time when he gets

something right, he would jump up and down like a kid. He tried so hard to figure out how to make the

shape to the logo of the company. Finally when he succeeded, he stared me for a long long time, like a

proud father looking at a new born baby. I can definitely see that he has improved his skills so much in

this process; he is now at a different level of culinary art. I think his life will change after people see on

TV how they liked me. I kept wondering, did he create me or did I create him? Not only I created value

by “teaching” the chef to make better bread, now more people can enjoy the better bread. I can just

imagine people’s face when they eat me. It is priceless.”

Finally another loaf from a bakery chimed in: “I came from a bakery. The owner is a very kind man. He is

not rich himself, but always helps out the poor. Once a year, he would travel to Africa remote villages,

bring flour with him and bake bread for local people. Some of the places people don’t even have enough

to eat. When he comes, it is like a festival to the local people. His bread is the best food they ever

tasted. Honestly, I would rather be there than here… In there, we are ambassadors of human love; a loaf

of bread is truly priceless…”