On Monday morning, 5th of April 1971, Simon arrived in his black sedan in front of the Atari HQ. Dennis slowly opened the car door for him and together with his bodyguard team they made their way towards the conference room.
The headquarters looked completely different compared to only one year ago.
The parking lot was already almost full before eight o'clock in the morning. Delivery trucks continuously entered and left the industrial complex, transporting finished arcade machines to every corner of the United States. Employees wearing Atari uniforms hurried between the office building and the production hall while engineers carried stacks of blueprints under their arms.
The company had grown far beyond the expectations of everybody involved.
Only a year earlier there had been less than ten people gathered around a single conference table discussing an idea that most people considered impossible. Today Atari employed more than four hundred people across engineering, production, logistics, finance and sales.
Simon couldn't help but smile. Dennis noticed his expression.
"Good mood today, Boss?"
Simon chuckled.
"I've been waiting for this meeting for a long time."
Dennis raised an eyebrow.
"The new secretary office?"
"Exactly."
The larger Atari became, the more impossible it would be for him to personally supervise every department. He needed people capable of coordinating projects across multiple divisions and acting as the communication bridge between management, engineers and outside partners.
And that wasn't even considering future ventures like Lamborghini or the planned Starbucks expansion, which was supposed to become Alexander Smith's own project. Even Simon knew that, no matter how much knowledge he possessed from his previous life, he couldn't personally lead every company to success.
Great companies weren't built by one genius.
They were built by teams of exceptional people.
That was precisely why Simon had personally searched for three young talents. They had accomplished very little so far, but he knew they would one day become some of the finest business leaders in the world.
When Simon entered the conference room, Dennis Watson, Tanja Crawford, Gunpei Yokoi and Steve Wozniak were already waiting.
Woz looked considerably more energetic than usual.
His technical department had expanded to nearly thirty engineers during the previous months. Although the workload had increased dramatically, he finally had enough capable people to delegate many routine tasks.
Gunpei Yokoi, on the other hand, looked noticeably more exhausted.
Ever since Simon had handed him the preliminary hardware specifications for NBA Jam, he had realized the enormous challenge awaiting the hardware division. Compared to the other departments, his team would shoulder the heaviest burden over the next several years.
Simon noticed the dark circles under Gunpei's eyes and silently reaffirmed his recent decision to shift Atari's development strategy.
Simon sat down at the head of the table.
"Is everyone here?"
Dennis nodded.
"The three people you asked us to invite have already arrived. They're waiting outside."
"Perfect. Please ask them to come in."
A moment later, the conference room door opened.
Three young men entered together.
The first walked with measured confidence. Although clearly aware that everyone in the room outranked him, he maintained a straight posture and met everyone's eyes. Years of leading student organizations had already given John Chambers a maturity rarely seen in someone his age. While still inexperienced, he carried himself with the quiet confidence of someone convinced that he belonged wherever opportunity presented itself.
The second hesitated for only a split second before stepping inside. His gaze instinctively dropped to the notebook clutched tightly against his chest, as if it offered a sense of security. Howard Schultz had spent weeks researching Atari and everyone sitting in this room. A month ago, the thought of attending such a meeting would have terrified him. But wearing his first tailored suit, along with the Cartier watch he received during the first meeting with Simon Smith, gave him just enough confidence to keep walking. When he noticed Simon's encouraging smile, the tension in his shoulders eased. Taking a quiet breath, he followed behind John Chambers.
The last young man entered with an awkward smile. Sergio Marchionne wasn't afraid of difficult situations. Moving from Italy to Canada at a young age had forced him to mature quickly and adapt to an unfamiliar society. Nevertheless, he was still only eighteen years old, with little practical experience and no impressive résumé. As he glanced around the conference room, he instinctively compared himself to John, who appeared confident and composed, and Howard, who looked determined to prove he deserved his place.
Simon rose from his chair.
His gaze swept across the three young men before stopping on the management team.
"I'll introduce our new colleagues in a moment. However, before we discuss the future, there's something I need to address."
Dennis and Tanja immediately became serious. They were desperate to know the need for this emergency meeting.
"I owe everyone here an apology."
Steve, Tanja and Gunpei exchanged puzzled looks.
Simon continued calmly.
"The NBA Jam project."
The moment those words left his mouth, Gunpei instinctively lowered his head.
"I made a mistake."
Everyone listened attentively. This seemed like the first time in a year Simon admitted to a mistake in front of the management team.
"When I first conceived the project, I focused entirely on the opportunity it represented. I wanted to connect our NBA plans with gaming immediately."
He paused for a moment.
"I failed to consider what it would demand from our hardware division."
Simon's eyes met Gunpei's.
"I've asked your department to solve problems that simply shouldn't exist in 1971. At least not commercially. Maybe in some labratories as prototypes."
Gunpei opened his mouth, intending to object.
"Mr. Smith, I—"
Simon raised a hand with a smile.
"If our brightest engineers spend the next several years chasing a single impossible project, every other department will be forced to wait."
He looked towards Steve.
"The software team can make remarkable progress."
Then towards Dennis and Tanja.
"Sales and production can continue expanding."
Finally, his gaze returned to Gunpei.
"But the hardware department would become the bottleneck for the entire company."
"I won't allow that."
Gunpei's shoulders visibly relaxed.
"Therefore, the NBA Jam project is officially suspended."
Nobody looked disappointed.
If anything, the atmosphere became noticeably lighter.
"Instead..."
Simon reached into his briefcase and placed another design document onto the conference table.
"We'll return to our original Christmas release."
Dennis looked at the title.
"Space Invaders?"
Simon nodded.
"It has a far more realistic hardware requirement while still being innovative enough to dominate the arcade market. Instead of chasing some futuristic ideas of mine let's focus on creating Space Invaders as perfect as possible with ideal and economic hardware conditions."
Everybody from the management team was really happy with this change of strategy. But shortly afterwards they were on edge again, because Simon changed the topic towards a completely new project.