Appearing on the My Mom’s Basement podcast, NWA president Billy Corgan talked about how the NWA became a company in which talents can get a fair opportunity.
Corgan described what led to the success of Powerrr: “I think it is in the general neighborhood of what I started out to do. But I’ve had to adjust. One thing, of course, was the success of Powerrr, a lot of people didn’t think Powerrr would work, it did work, and it continues to work. The whole idea with Powerrr was to be a little bit more 21st century, of the moment, social media and have surprises and kind of — fun isn’t the right word, but have a little bit of a wink to it, not be overly serious. But because of the way things have lined up, Powerrr has had to be our flagship program, as opposed to a sort of a standard, traditional program that you would see from everybody else. So it’s had to stress test what would power represents. So power is kind of an amalgam of what I would want it to be, versus what it needs to be.”
He then explained why the NWA is a promotion of opportunity: “As far as the rest of the product, I think we’re finally now, in this kind of fifth-year pivoting towards what I want the NWA to be in the 21st century. It’s a lot easier to talk about than accomplish, because first of all, you have to build a culture. So when you have a Harry Smith, who I do go back, like I said, 10 years with, I still have to be able to point to and say, ‘Look, this is what the NWA represents, do you fit into this or don’t you?’ That oftentimes is a bigger selling point than ‘how much and how long.’ It’s become more about the passion and why people do what they do in the business. A lot of people that we work with really feel that the business hasn’t given them the fairest opportunity. So part of what we need to do is create an environment that says, Look, you will have an opportunity to rise to the top, in NWA, nothing will stop you. I think if you look at the diversity of our roster, the different backgrounds that people come from on every level, including internationally, I think you see that it really is a company of opportunity.”
