John Graham attended the University of Missouri’s journalism school on a track scholarship. Today at age 62, the chairman and CEO of Fleishman-Hillard is still running - racing to outpace competitors by growing Fleishman into an international PR powerhouse.
John Graham attended the University of Missouri’s journalism school
on a track scholarship. Today at age 62, the chairman and CEO of
Fleishman-Hillard is still running - racing to outpace competitors by
growing Fleishman into an international PR powerhouse.
But don’t imagine Graham as the lonely long-distance runner. He’s a team
builder, a player-coach who counsels employees and still actively works
to garner new business.
Back in the 1980s, he staked out operating principals for Fleishman that
put people first. It might sound like management rhetoric, but when
Graham speaks about valuing his employees, he really means it - as those
who have worked both for and against him will testify.
Graham says his growth plans for Fleishman are driven by one simple goal
- to attract more good people to the company. Business objectives such
as increased revenues and profits will flow naturally from that
achievement, he contends.
And at Fleishman, the formula is working. The company will realize 23%
organic growth this year and 16% overall growth, to roughly dollars 200
million in PR income, when acquisitions are added in. Graham’s goal for
2000 is dollars 265 million, which will mean more buys, and he’s already
talking about dollars 400 million in 2003.
Getting that large that fast could strain any company, let alone one
that tries as hard as Fleishman to put people first. But Graham thinks
he can grow and still maintain the Fleishman culture he’s worked so hard
to create.
To accomplish that, he routinely travels 200,000 miles or more a year,
visiting the company’s 40 offices to talk with staffers. He spends
weekends answering employee e-mails and still personally interviews
around 150 people a year.
’The winners in the acquisition business are going to be the ones who
really take care of and focus on their people,’ he says. ’I want people
to be proud of this company. If management is doing its job, people
should feel proud to work there. I honestly believe that and I practice
that.’
Even Fleishman staffers in Beijing have heard the corporate mantra and
understand it. It’s good that they do, because Graham has been on an
acquisition tear of late. In April, he bought Watt, Roop & Co. and in
October CPR Worldwide in London. Other acquisitions have included
Dallas-based Meltzer & Martin and tech specialists Upstart
Communications.
Scott Clark, CEO of CPR, says several firms courted him, but he decided
to sell to Fleishman because Graham took the time to learn about CPR and
to share ideas about its future with Clark. ’He wants to understand your
business, not just from a superficial level,’ Clark says. ’He has the
ability to have people follow him.’
Bob McEwen, GM of Fleishman’s Chicago office, is another believer in
Graham, as he left his old job as head of Shandwick’s Detroit office to
come to Fleishman. ’He’s the kind of guy I always admired from afar,’
McEwen says. ’He commands such respect and loyalty that you don’t want
to let the guy down.’
Even competitors sing his praises. Says John La Sage, chairman of
Burson-Marsteller’s central region: ’People who work there like to work
there, and it all starts from the top. John embodies all the good
qualities you would want in a PR person.’
Graham credits Bob Hillard with instilling the basic tenets that have
helped him attract people and business to the firm. During Graham’s
first day with Fleishman in 1966, Hillard told him ’if you’re going to
be a consultant, you need to listen.’ Graham, then an amateur poet, had
been writing greeting cards for Hallmark in Kansas City. But after two
years there, he mulled a career change, wrestling between advertising
and PR.
He decided PR had a bigger future and so moved to St. Louis to do PR for
the YMCA. Hillard offered him a job in 1965, but Graham felt obligated
to complete a program he was working on for the Y. Hillard went after
him a year later and Graham came on board. At the time, Fleishman had
only eight employees.
In only eight years Graham had become CEO, but agency billings were
still less than dollars 1 million in 1974. By the early ’80s, Fleishman
needed to make a major decision. Clients such as locally based
Anheuser-Busch and Emerson Electric were growing nationally and
internationally and major PR firms like Hill & Knowlton were trying to
woo them away from tiny Fleishman.
Some say Graham was a visionary, realizing that Fleishman had to go
international to survive. But a competitor in St. Louis says client
demand, rather than Graham’s own vision, was the impetus to expand.
Graham says there is an element of truth in both theories.
Whatever the reason, there’s no doubting his commitment - Graham and his
CFO even mortgaged their homes to support the expansion. And there were
growing pains. In 1980 Fleishman opened a New York City office, but it
ran in the red for four straight years before things picked up. The firm
next opened its doors in LA and then Washington, DC. ’We were rolling
the dice that we’d take our Midwest way of doing business and make it a
national business,’ he recalls. The gamble paid off as clients and
potential clients started approaching Fleishman about larger and larger
programs.
Graham today still spends about 40% of his time meeting with clients and
potential clients, a practice he says he enjoys and one that keeps him
in touch with the business. Says competitor Rich Jernstedt, CEO of
Golin/Harris International: ’He is famous for being someone who rolls up
his sleeves and works.’
Graham says he has no plans for retirement; rather, he’s hungry for more
acquisitions, with parent Omnicom bankrolling the buys. He now also
heads Communications Consulting Worldwide, an umbrella for Omnicom’s PR
holdings.
Graham is still running the race, one to instill Fleishman’s culture in
a growing family as it strives to become the largest agency in the
country. Growing internationally will mean spreading his culture to
countries that are strangers to the Midwest ethos Graham knows so well,
but he doesn’t think that will be a problem. ’Respect for the individual
translates anywhere,’ he says. ’This culture is going to be here a long
time after I’m gone. It’s inherent in our professional souls.’
John D. Graham - Chairman, CEO Fleishman-Hillard
1966: Joins Fleishman-Hillard after doing PR for the St. Louis YMCA
1970: Named director and senior partner
1974: Becomes president and CEO
1988: Elected chairman
1997: Sells firm to Omnicom.
