[00-4-06] Avram Miller, Activist Strategist
FORTUNE
Thursday, April 6, 2000
By Melanie Warner
When people ask Avram Miller what he's up to now that he's left Intel, he tells them that he's an "activist strategist." People don't always know what the hell he's talking about, but amazingly, nobody laughs or rolls their eyes, thinking: "Oh right, an activist strategist, now I've heard it all." Instead, they all want to know more. What exactly is an activist strategist? How can I become one or get one on my board?
This is the beauty of the business culture of the Internet today. You can leave your job at some big tech company, set up shop doing whatever it is you feel like doing and think you do best, and people will actually take you seriously.
Miller made up the title activist strategist because he liked the way it sounded. Miller's always been interested in thinking about strategy. In his 15 years at Intel, he created and ran the chip company's venture-investing arm so he was always involved in looking at new markets and thinking about the company's long-term goals and identity. But when the 55-year-old left Intel last fall, he didn't simply want to be a consultant. Nor did he want to retire. He wanted to sit and ponder big thoughts, but he also wanted to implement them--without, of course, having to actually assume a grueling full-time role like being a CEO or vp of this or that. That's where the activist part came in.
"There's a big opportunity for people to define themselves outside the corporate structure. You can form your own networks and figure out ways to connect people and business," says Miller, whose company is simply called .
Miller, whose long, wavy salt-and-pepper locks fail to give the impression of a man who's spent the past 15 years working for a big company, thinks he couldn't have become an activist strategist 10 years ago. There wasn't the easy acceptance of self-styled careers, or the opportunities that have now opened because companies of all sizes are trying to grow and adapt to the shifting tides of doing business in the Internet economy.
It's not just Miller who's making up late-career titles for himself. Randy Komisar, a former Apple executive, among other things, alternately calls himself a "virtual CEO" and a "mentor capitalist." One can imagine him departing his house in Woodside every morning, assessing his mood and thinking, "Virtual CEO or mentor capitalist?" Heidi Roizen, before she became a proper venture capitalist at Softbank Partners, also called herself a mentor capitalist. That's also what Bill Campbell, the guy who used to be Intuit's CEO, is calling himself.
So what's Miller doing exactly? Like an angel investor, he's investing in startups and taking an active role in helping them grow. At the moment he's sunk money into 16 companies--Kibu, Pets.com, Homewarehouse, and Weave Innovations, to name a few. But unlike angel investors, Miller is also working with big companies, which he says he actually prefers. Miller's on the boards of CMGI and Pacific Century CyberWorks (a highflying Hong Kong company), among others.
Last fall, Miller decided that Richard Li, the 33-year-old CEO of PCCW, whom he's known for eight years, and CMGI's Dave Wetherall should meet. First Li flew to Boston to visit with Wetherall, and then Wetherall and Miller journeyed to Hong Kong to spend some time with Lee, part of which included hanging out on Lee's boat off the coast of Phuket. Out of that came a deal to create a joint-venture holding company to launch Internet companies in Asia, which is being called CMGI Asia. Miller, who was involved in helping put the deal together, calls it "one of my major accomplishments last year."
So Miller has the best of both worlds. He stays in the game and gets to feel like he's having an impact. Yet he doesn't have to show up in his office in downtown San Francisco if he doesn't feel like it. He can also devote time to several nonprofit causes that he's passionate about. And if a year from now, the whole activist strategist thing isn't working out or needs to be redefined, he can sit down and come up with a new name.
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