The English language has so many words. So many great words. So many powerful words. I believe the most important word to me and our company is an eight-letter word that starts with an "R". The word is "relevant".
With the economy being so challenging and lots of companies experiencing so many bad things, the companies that are the most relevant will have a strong 2009! And have the best chance to exceed their goals. As part of our core strategy we want and need to be relevant!
In recent company and Omnicom presentations, I stressed that there are four different groups with whom we need to be relevant:
- Clients
- Staff
- Industry
- Omnicom
Each of these groups are critical to our success.
With our clients we believe research is a critical component on the road to recovery. We need to be relevant with our clients and ensure our recommendations and insight are flawless.
We need to be relevant with our staff. We need to ensure that we give people the proper training, guidance and ability to do their job.
With the industry we really want to be relevant with articles, conference presentations and being part of committees to move the industry forward.
With Omnicom we want to be relevant and ensure that our company is integrated with the other 200 companies. In addition, we want to deliver insight and recommendations to our brother and sister agencies to put them in a position to be successful with their clients.
So for me, how relevant we are with those four groups will determine our success in 2009.
- What is your single, most important word for 2009?
- Have you communicated that word and strategy to the company?
I look forward to reading your comments.
A few weeks ago I was walking through LaGuardia Airport on my way to my gate when I stopped to get a shoeshine. I sat down and started to speak to this true New Yorker–he wore a Yankee hat, had a big accent and was very talkative (no disrespect to any New Yorkers reading this). 
Kids are the best. No I mean it. Yes, I realize that my kids will do things that I don’t appreciate like using a 
This contest is now closed. Click 
When I get to work in the morning I usually do the same things: I review my calendar to see what my day (or at least what I know about) has in store for me, I review our revenue and current pipeline and I go online. I will see if any of the Boston sports teams played and what the outcome was (most of the time a win!) Also I will visit a few websites–mostly research related. They include:
Unfortunately a day doesn’t go by where I don’t hear from a contact who is in transition. Because the company went through downsizing, rightsizing or whatever term we are using these days, they are out of a job. Yes those words are very painful to hear, very painful to accept and very scary, given where the economy is these days.
A few weeks ago I was in NY and since it was freezing and I am lazy, I was in a number of taxi cabs. As I have mentioned in previous blogs I try and notice everything no matter where I am or what I am doing. This trip was no different. Every time I was in a cab and we were almost at my destination the cabbie asked,
I try and read USA Today every day. Over the past few months as the economy has been bouncing around from good to bad to real bad I have noticed more and more companies taking out full page ads in USA Today and trying hard to get their messages across. Most of the ads are playing off the economy. Over the past few weeks I began to save these ads and I thought I would share the headlines of the ads with you.
So there I am flying back to Dallas after an MRA conference and board meeting, minding my own business when this nice lady next to me asks if it is ok if Bertha stays there. Since I was in a row with just the two of us I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. 
I still wasn’t sure what she was referring to, but this time she points and says, "Oh! I am sorry. My purse, Bertha." After I responded with a hesitated "sure Bertha can stay there", I was wondering if there was a brand of purse named Bertha or did she actually name her purse Bertha? That is exactly what she did: she named her purse Bertha, and the nice lady said Bertha (named after a friend of hers) has traveled all over the world with her.
Cars?
