Proud to Launch Rob Mclean Communications Consulting (RMCC)

This is an exciting blog entry for me as I'm announcing that I'm going in to the consulting business with the launch of Rob Mclean Communications Consulting (RMCC).

My consulting services will be centered around three core areas - growing brand equity, managing your brand and living your brand. I'll be offering a suite of PR and AR services, as well as supplemental communications, messaging and positioning services. You can read more about my offering on my Web site.

So why consulting?


To be sure, a full time, in-house position has its benefits.

• Colleagues to interact with on a daily basis
• Benefits
• Never having to worry about your next job 
• A steady reliable paycheque
• Not having to concern yourself with anything outside your core duties (the CEO and management can worry about operations and the big stuff).

But at the same time, an in-house position lacks many things that consulting offers, including:

• The excitement of running and growing your own business
• The ability to build your business based on the principles you believe in  
• The opportunity to work with multiple clients and to impact a variety of businesses at the same time
• 100 per cent focus on PR (and we all know, in-house means at least 50 per cent of your time is spent on meetings, office politics and other things that aren't core PR activities)

Aside from the benefits of consulting, there were other reasons that I've decided to start RMCC:

• There are so many great small companies out there that are too small to be able to afford a large agency, won't get good service even if they do retain a large agency, don't have enough on-going news to justify a large agency, and can't afford an in-house resource dedicated to PR. What these companies need is a top-tier resource to help them build their brand through PR and communications.
  
  
• I love working with creative people. While in-house can be great, it's the same group of people year after year, which curbs your enthusiasm and passion. With consulting you get to work with a diverse group of people and help each of them in their specific business growth plans. That diversity and impact-oriented model of PR is highly appealing.
  
  
• In every business I've worked in I've been involved in many aspects of the business. While I didn't realize it at the time, these experiences have prepared me for the multiple hats you need to wear to run your own business. I love business development, sales and marketing, which made me realize, wow, aside from being great at PR, I've got all the knowledge required to do great with my own business, so why not use those skills.
  
  
• I do have a grander vision. While RMCC right now will be a one-man show, my long term ambition is to evolve RMCC into a PR agency. There's so much PR talent out there whose potential is not being maximized. While it might take a few years, I one day hope to be announcing the launch of my own agency that will embody the principles and enthusiasm that RMCC lives by. 
  
  
• Life is short. By this I mean, if there is something you love doing (and you are good at), then you should try your best to spend as much of your time doing that. For me I love generating media coverage for a company - it gets me out of bed with a spring in my step. I dislike meetings, or office politics, or not getting honest input from others who are more concerned with not being seen as saying the wrong thing - in essence I tend to dislike things that slow down the process towards accomplishing goals. With consulting, it's all about the work and not about the trivial stuff (reminds me of the Diet Coke saying - at least I think it was Diet Coke -  all the great taste, none of the calories).
  
  
• Meritocracy. I use to have a boss that talked about meritocracy - the notion of those that work hard reap the rewards. But as every PR person knows, that's rarely the case for PR when you are in-house. Unfortunately, most management teams don't really understand the processes and labor that goes in to PR (which is reflected in pay structures... you get what you get whether you do a great job or mediocre job).
  
  As a result, PR is often this nebulous department that people don't understand - a little bit like legal or accounting. But with consulting, it's all about results. It doesn't matter if your client knows how hard you are working... all they care about is the results. I'm a big believer that the world should run on this model and I can't wait to be living it myself.
  

Outside of my specific reasons for starting RMCC, I also think the world is trending towards entrepreneurship. Businesses are running lean and mean. In terms of opex, their focus is on product development and sales, anything outside of that is run at the bare minimum and support is outsourced as needed.

This trend is going to continue I believe. For a few reasons:

The first is that companies aren't going to be augmenting operations any time soon. The recession we are in is still going to take a couple of years to work itself through. Even when the damage is (un)done, the psychological effects will curb (or to be politically correct - optimize) spending for a long time to come.

The second is that the internal voices that would champion increased PR aren't inside these companies any more. The voice of sales and product development are so much louder and carry so much weight (as a result of their functions being tied directly to the balance sheet) that marketing and communications folks simply don't have the weight to double or triple their departments (which they need to do to really grow their brand the way they would like). So companies will turn to trusted outsourcing services to help them achieve these goals versus spending on in-house headcount.

The third is that as baby boomers retire, there won't be enough PR people to satisfy the PR requirements of all the companies out there. So many companies, faced with a lack of PR talent, will turn to outsourcing. The irony though is that the demand will outstrip the supply - and those who are in-house will find themselves overloaded as resourcing will remain below operational requirements (as a result of the supply demand issues). 

And lastly, while product development and sales are critical, most companies are under prepared for the importance communications is going to play in the future (the recent usage based billing fiasco in Canada is a prime example of companies not being prepared for the PR after effects of their actions). As new business models unfold to address the shortage of talent that will emerge as a result of baby boomers retiring, one of the key elements around adoption of an organization's market offering will be how well the public understand and connect with that offering.

Companies right now can increase their sales force and embrace the push model of generating business (recessions actually support a push model very well and shun the pull model - as indicated by reductions in advertising expenditures).

But in the future, with their own company under resourced, as well as their potential customers being under resources, they will have to adopt a pull model of business generation. Which means the companies who are in the media, who are expanding their publics and who have an identifiable brand are the ones that customers are going to be pulled towards. Those companies that are Out of Sight will, as the saying goes, also be Out of Mind. Great sales and great product development won't be enough to win the race in the future... great PR is going to be essential to maximizing revenue.

So there you have it folks, RMCC is now live!

If you know anyone in need of PR or communications services, direct them to my Web site to review what RMCC offers and let them know to feel free to call any time.

Exciting times lay ahead, so let the journey officially begin!