Back to Volume 14
	Unlocking Talent By Rachel E. Spielman

At a dinner party the other night, the head of a large advertising agency told me proudly that his company has one of the highest rates of staff turnover in the industry. I was truly perplexed by his glee, but he insisted that people become complacent when they stay too long in the same place.

How could I explain to a man like this that in the nine years I've been at Ruder Finn, I have worked with a growing team of people who have not only remained together, but have done so within the same culture our group has had since its inception? This means that although we have stayed with the same company, we never feel we "stay too long in the same place." Every day Ruder Finn presents new opportunities and challenges that we face with relish. This is reflected in the energy of our people and the successfulperformance of our group.

Time and again we read about the great companies to work for -- in Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek and elsewhere. A common thread in these companies is culture -- a culture that gives employees opportunities to be entrepreneurial, to try new things, to constantly share ideas and collaborate, to work as peers without hierarchies and be glad to take on extra responsibilities.

One characteristic of our team's culture that I am most proud of is that we don't thinkabout punching a clock or working in a hierarchical or bureaucratic manner. In the Corporate Communications group, we look at every person on the team as an individual and a peer, regardless of his or her title. It may seem obvious, but this is one critical key to the great results we produce for our clients. Each team member -- from the most junior to the most senior-- is empowered to speak up, to challenge traditional thinking, to suggest new ideas, to interact directly with clients, and to work on all aspects of campaigns. Roles are defined by people, not by whether someone is an account executive or a vice president. We also have a very interactive culture, using our team members as focus groups at times, and regularly sending around helpful new media links and thoughts on current events. This has exposed staff members to a robust range of professional experiences, and their drive has led to equally strong successes for Ruder Finn.

Looking at our impressive 60-year history, and thinking about my experiences in the firm, I believe that great people make great business, great people drive great performance, and great culture attracts great people.

A recent article about Pixar describes one secret about the company's success and what sets it apart -- its "peer culture." This enables people at all levels to support one another. Everyone is equally committed to achieving great results. I was amazed to read about it because it describes what I have found so successful about our culture at Ruder Finn. Pixar harnesses this spirit with a daily review process, and in business it's important to have such processes and networks -- both formal and informal. A recent article published in The McKinsey Quarterly entitled "Harnessing the power of Informal Employee Networks" emphasized how informal networks within companies lead people to share ideas, collaborate, stimulate one another, and give management control over networking across an organization.

Southwest Airlines is another company that prides itself on creating leaders through every level of its organization. It attributes much of its success to its culture, which it feels directly helps drive profi ts. At Southwest, fi nding and hiring the right people is mission critical, and only about 2,000 to 3,000 out of 100,000 applicants each year are hired. Hiring people who want to achieve something they can be proud of is all-important. And supporting all levels of staff across the organization with training -- from top management to frontline leaders -- also drives results. Touching all employees means touching customers and helping meet customer needs.

Many great managers attribute success to their company's culture. As Chief Executive Officer of General Electric, Jack Welch established a culture that was characterized by regular and forthright dialogue -- a culture that was focused on honest communication among employees.

Building a great culture doesn't have to mean spending buckets of money and offering manicures and yoga in the workplace. But it does mean thoughtfully recognizing staff members, giving them roles in the organization where they can contribute, nurturing dialogue and a dynamic exchange of ideas. In the Corporate Communications group, for instance, we have a task force of young professionals who organize our regular staff meetings, bring in guest speakers, and prepare training modules of particular interest to the team. And we have a periodic team lunch during which everyone is encouraged to sit together to talk about projects, ideas, current events, and anything else relevant that is on their minds. We also have quarterly peer meetings, to gather staff at similar levels to talk about their work, challenges they face, ideas for the group, and opportunities they'd like to pursue.

Our people exemplify how we achieve success.

Take the case of a young, new executive trainee, thoughtful about current events and the world around him, who quickly became a "number two" on projects for new business and for special project clients. He was interested in new media and came up with an idea for one of our clients to host a blogger summit. He helped execute this successfully and personally achieved some key wins, including convincing a New York Times Earth blogger to "attend."

Take the case of a self-motivated former account supervisor who bravely travels the world. She first immersed herself in an assignment in Hong Kong for two months working with a marquee tech client, and immediately stepped into a client-facing role on another continent. She then went on to an assignment in Switzerland, where she has been working with some of the most senior executives at one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies on a major internal culture change project, shoulder-to-shoulder with McKinsey consultants.

Take the case of a fearless vice president dedicated to projects in developing countries who has been traveling to the far reaches of Mozambique, Tanzania, Singapore, Russia, Senegal, and Switzerland, bringing media from key global markets to visit doctors and patients in neglected hospitals, arranging scientific symposiums, and helping launch nonprofi t institutes from Makassar, Indonesia, to Tuscany, Italy!

Take a group senior vice president who charted new territory for Ruder Finn in media relations after seven years at The Wall Street Journal, and then worked at nonprofi ts to fulfi ll a longtime dream and be close to home for her young children. Four years later she returned to Ruder Finn to work with such clients as the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, BP Alternative Energy, and Gerber.

Anniversaries are a good time to take stock. Ruder Finn turned 60 last year, and our Corporate Communications group is nearly a decade old. We've seen good and bad, but mostly good. The core of our business, and what makes us great, is our culture. Our people are full of energy and passion and are made stronger by the trust and loyalty we feel for each other. This pushes us every day to do more and better. I'm constantly impressed by so many of my peers who contribute in so many diverse ways to stimulate our work, who take a fresh look at what we call public relations and corporate communications, who don't think in traditional ways, and who reinforce this start-up way of thinking to our new people and throughout our group.