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Dear Friend:
Our previous newsletters focused primarily on our work. This edition, however, takes a different path and talks about our people.
The last few weeks here have been met with people opportunities - our five interns returned to their college campuses, we've been recruiting for a couple openings...and quite frankly, it's a topic we think about all the time.
When we recruit, we screen on technical skills of course, but our final decision is usually based on four personality traits:
Owners
We like people who take a vested interest in their assignments - people who go beyond solving by rote; people who don't lateral responsibility to the client or suppliers; people who will do almost anything to get the mission accomplished. They spend money like it's their own.
Curiosity
The most creative people are curious about everything and generate ideas through unique combinations of familiar elements. We like people who read a lot and like to travel the road off the beaten path.
Positive
We hire people with a can-do attitude. They can imagine possibilities. They are active in their community and feel confident about their ability to solve problems. This attitude will trump aptitude every time.
Influence
If our employees, even in the most junior people, can ethically influence peers, subordinates, superiors, and clients, they likely can impact consumer behavior. And that is what we do for a living.
Why is this personnel information relevant to a marketing newsletter? Because even the best marketing can be undermined by the wrong people choices. And, the kind of people we select is the primary reason people choose to invest their marketing resources through our company.
Regards,
Rex Smith
Kris Bauer:
StyleThread
By day, Kris Bauer works with the Detroit Medical Center, Children's Hospital, and Beach's other clients - improving their presence on the web. By night however, Kris is a fashionista with a twenty-first century twist. Kris' love of fashion and marketing led to the creation of www.stylethread.com.
Stylethread.com presents fashion-related content. The site's coupon database adds value to the visitor's experience and was featured in PC Magazine. The 500,000+ monthly impressions challenge Kris to develop new ways to build relationships with an on-line audience. And that experience, also benefits Beach's clients.
People:
Zhong Li, Jinjun Huang, Rock Zhang
Business at Beach Communications' sister-company Web Elite is booming - developing applications and interactive content for a variety of Fortune 500 companies. To learn more about WebElite, click here.
Important components of that success are three gentlemen with a shared story. Zhong Li, JinJun Huang, and Zhenjiang Zhang are application developers who live in Windsor, Ontario, and migrated to North America from China.
WebElite General Manager Tim Mullahy comments "These guys are dedicated to doing a great job. They are intelligent developers with a wide ranging knowledge and a work ethic second to none."
Zhong Li serves as a computer architect and started his computer career 14 years ago when he received his BA and MA at Jinling University. Zhong and his wife Xiaoling have two children Samuel 6 and Brynn 3.
Jinjun Huang's role as a senior developer requires him to work with Java design and development, most web-based applications, and J2EE or Java II Enterprise Edition. Jinjun and his wife Daisy have two children Eva 13 and Elisa 5. Jinjun received a BA and MA from the China Science and Technology University in the city of Hefei in the Anhui Province.
Zhenjiang (Rock) Zhang attended Tsinghua University of Beijing and earned a BA in Chemical Engineering and worked for 3M-China as a technical engineer. Upon his arrival to North America, Rock enrolled in the computer science program at the University of Windsor where he earned his BA. Rock later earned his computer science MA at Wayne State University. Rock and his wife Maggie have two children Sarah 11 and Ruthie 7 months.
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Beachism # 6:
Take care of the people taking care of your customers.
It is almost cliché to watch companies invest millions in communications only for the selling process to be undermined in the last eighteen inches, by the people taking care of your customers.
We wrote this Beachism with that scenario in mind. Its origins are rooted in our work to change the behavior of de-motivated sales consultants, uninformed call centers reps and poorly trained service personnel. We resolved to take care of the people before it becomes a problem.
The axiom also relates to our own business and our own employees.
So how do we take care of our employees? First, by choosing the right kind of people. Then, we
encourage a balance in family/work life, we provide opportunities for advancement, and the freedom to pursue their life's ambitions. We do it through management by walking around and providing feedback daily.
We encourage you to take care of the people taking care of your customers.
To view more Beachisms, click here
Do Something:
Intern Immersions
This past summer Beach retained five interns - three from Michigan State University, one from Oakland University, and one from the College for Creative Studies.
We engage these interns, in appropriate doses, on client business. They provide an extra set of hands and were expected to bring youthful exuberance and fresh ideas.
And we took care of this next generation of professionals through a series of Intern Immersions. They experienced a variety of marketing-related immersions including trips to GQ Magazine, AOL, WDIV, WJR, the Detroit Media Partnership and Consumer Insights Research. They learned about production at Dark Spark Studios, Ron Rose Productions, and ThinkArbor Press, and the creative process from our friend and creative director Dan Busto.
Intern Immersions are one way we take care of the people who will be taking care of our clients in the future.
Candidates for our 2008 intern program may submit a letter of interest by clicking here.
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