by Ken Mills, President, Mills James
Mills James has had a level of success in its 25 years of operation, but we're always interested in how we can do better.
Back in 2003, my friend Andy Streitfeld (AMS Pictures, Dallas) and I were bemoaning the fact that our primary industry group, the International Teleproduction Society (ITS), had closed its doors. We had lost a forum where we could get together with others in similar businesses to discuss the issues of the day, and we missed it, especially at a time when the industry seemed to be changing rapidly, and many companies were failing. In response, we decided to form our own group. We reached out to some of the people that we had known at ITS, as well as other kindred souls, and scheduled a casual "retreat weekend." Our first weekend was in Atlanta in October 2003.
It went well, and soon we decided to meet twice a year in the home city of one of our member companies. Now, when I say "member," I use the term very loosely. We've never been a large organization. The group has no logo, no bylaws, no Web site and no fees to join. It wasn't until our third meeting, which was held at Mills James in September 2004, that we even came up with a name for our group: eCAMP. (We liked the idea of saying that we were going to "camp.") It was one of our last orders of business, and the name felt right at the time. However, since we don't have any official letterhead, I can never remember what it stands for, which is Executives in Creative and Media Production.
Today, we have member companies in Columbus; Dallas; Washington, DC; Harrisburg, PA; Hampton and Richmond, VA; Atlanta; Kansas City; St. Louis; Salt Lake City; and Memphis. We used to have members in Sacramento, Minneapolis and Chicago, but they have since left the business. While we don't want the group to become too big, we're always looking for new blood, and we currently have interest from companies in Philadelphia, Boston and Miami. From the beginning, we decided we didn't want New York or Los Angeles companies. Nothing against those fine cities, but, for the most part, those markets approach the business quite differently.
In general, when we travel the country, we meet at the headquarters of one of our member companies. (The price is right for meeting space.) It's always interesting to see the physical space of other companies in the business. We meet for two days -- Friday and Saturday, starting around 8:30 each morning and continuing until about 5:30. After a short break, we then meet for dinner in a private room at a nice restaurant, where the conversations continue into the evening. These twice-a-year meetings have been some of the best learning experiences of my professional career.
Over the years, we've all become friends, and because we don't compete with each other, our meetings are frank and honest. BS is at a minimum. We share numbers on revenue and profit (or lack thereof), and we talk about best practices, human resources issues, new initiatives, industry trends and SALES -- always, always, we talk about SALES. It's all about what's working and what's not.
Our fall meeting was in Memphis. Among the highlights:
- We visited Federal Express to tour their television facilities. A member of the FedEx ad team talked to us about some of the company's social media initiatives, a subject about which he had great passion. He felt strongly that this would become an important part of the company's communication strategies.
- We shared recent creative work. There were some outstanding projects, and, of course, since we're business people, the budget was always a big topic.
- We talked about teaching employees new skills and cost-effective ways of doing so.
- In general, most of the companies, but not all, were feeling the effects of the recession. The revenue of most businesses was down 10-25%. However, some companies were having an "up" year.
- Many salaries at the companies had been frozen or cut. Pay raises this year were few and far between.
- The corporate meeting business had been hit the hardest by the recession.
- Several companies had either experienced layoffs or were about to. One of our companies had never experienced anything but growth since its inception. The owner of that company was truly in agony with the realization that he was going to have to go back and downsize the company. He worried about the impact on the culture of the company.
- One of our companies couldn't attend, because the business was in turmoil. Four key editors and a salesperson had left to form their own company. The owner had to fire another salesperson for inappropriate comments in the workplace.
- One company was excited because it was having great success with a young, fearless salesperson with a great work ethic, just out of college.
- Another company was going to build a new facility. The big question: What would you do differently if you were starting from scratch today?
- Most companies were experimenting with new things. One was venturing into the publishing business. Several companies were creating original television programming, and for many it was becoming an important part of their revenue. One business now produces $4 million in revenue annually with television series production. However, some of the series work is up for renewal, creating a level of uncertainty.
- By and large, all of our companies are basically professional services businesses, but some felt their future would be found in the creation of intellectual property that they created and owned.
- Everyone agreed that, with technology becoming more easily affordable and available, more than ever the business will be about people and their ideas.
- Everyone was cautiously optimistic that 2010 would be a better year.
I love the openness and honesty of meeting with this group. I also know that if we have a question or a problem, there are others we can turn to for help.
I don't know what business you're in. However, if you run a small- to medium-size business, I can highly recommend this approach. If you'd like to learn more, feel free to give me a call at 614.850.2132, or send me an email at kmills@mjp.com. I'll be happy to share more about my experiences at "camp."