Jim Holbrook is CEO of EMAK Worldwide, a family of marketing agencies including Upshot, Equity Marketing, Logistix and Neighbor. He was formerly president of Zipatoni, an independent agency that was sold to IPG. Prior to Zipatoni, Jim served in management and marketing positions at Ralston Purina (now NestlePurina) and P&G. Jim graduated from Washington University and Vanderbilt University. More about Jim Holbrook.
Is decision-making as easy as developing a list of pro’s and con’s and then looking at the list and deciding? Ha! Elementary, you say. I was just reading a blurb by Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins (he’s also an author and Stanford professor), and this is exactly what he suggests. He says, “Tell me what [...]
Washington University’s Olin Business School has fired up The Institute for Innovation and Growth (to which I’m honored to be on the board), and their thinking is that innovation comes from three core areas:
1. innovation-based growth: clear growth strategies, new business models that support growth, internal processes that foster new ideas, and expertise in trend [...]
Check out new book by Leigh Branham and Mark Hirschfeld, “Re-Engage: How America’s Best Places To Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times” – – they looked at all the data from the Best places To Work companies and boiled down the learnings into six Universal Engagement Drivers:
1. caring, competent and engaging senior leaders
2. effective [...]
With a nod to Darren Stevens (Dick York), here’s what I believe about great agency account service leadership:
First, the account director must truly love marketing and promotions. He/she must be a student of our industry and should be considered an ‘expert’. The AD must demonstrate his/her passion for the business daily. Love of what we [...]
In business, we chase all kinds of things:
- a higher share price
- more profits
- the latest trend
- the newest technology
- the freshest management fad
- the budget
- new employees
- details… always chasing down the details, the loose ends, the missing facts
- competition
These are all worthy objects of our attention as managers. But, of course, they’re not [...]
I did a little project for my church recently. I think it’s applicable to business, as well.
The goal is to grow the parish (customers) by 10%, or about 40 families. So here’s my thinking:
- get awareness of 1000 families
- get ‘trial’ by 20% (200) over the course of the year
- get ‘conversion’ by 20% of [...]
