This feeling of connection, says Bloom, "requires one hell of a lot of communication and role clarity." People need to know what their jobs are, what is expected of them, and where they fit into the company's future. In a start-up, Bloom says, teamwork occurs naturally. But when a business grows to more than 300 employees, as the Bloom Agency has, such informal teamwork deteriorates. To prevent this deterioration, Bloom has introduced performance evaluation reviews (PERs). At least once a year, everyone in the company, including Bloom, evaluates his own performance, as well as that of his supervisor and his subordinates, and sets sixmonth goals. "Sure, there's a lot of fuzziness," admits Bloom. "Job descriptions, for a creative person especially, aren't clear-cut. The important thing is that everyone should be able to say to his supervisor, 'Hey, I've got a problem. I don't know what's expected of me.' "
Spending time writing down objectives initially strikes some people as a waste of time. "At first I resented the whole business," says Schiera, propping his boots on the art deco bar in his office. "But it helped me do something I'd never done in my life, which is to think about what bothered me and what excited me in my work. It was like a revelation that all of a sudden I should have goals."
By encouraging evaluation, Bob Bloom has created a climate where people feel free to criticize him. Tony Wainwright, chairman and chief executive officer of Bloom Agency, formerly with Marschalk Co. in New York, has helped Bloom almost double its billings in the last two years. Last year he appraised his boss's performance. "One of my critiques of Bob was that he cloistered himself," says Wainwright. "He'd get in his office like a mole. 'You've got to get out, walk around, and talk to people,' I told him.
Bob, by his own account, prefers solitude. "I'm constantly going to dinner parties and leaving early," he says. "I'd rather spend three hours sitting at the pool by myself. " But, says Wainwright, Bloom did get out and circulate. "At first he scared people to death. People couldn't figure out what he was doing in their offices."
In recent years, Bloom Agency has added a twist to PERs by subjecting the agency to its own grilling. Each year the company undergoes an assessment of its performance in a meeting with each client. "We don't allow ourselves to get defensive," says Wainwright. "The clients end up telling what's inside here," he says, pointing to his gut. Often, dissatisfaction results not from a problem with the advertising but because of a personality conflict. "It's like being in a marriage: If your wife doesn't tell you she doesn't like it if you leave dishes in the sink, you don't change the habit, and it becomes an irritant. You have to address yourself to the irritants."
In October, Bloom landed several new accounts: Abbott Laboratories' Murine Eye Drops, Murine Plus, and Clear Eyes, as well as Wine Group, producer of Mogen David and Franzia wines and Tribuno vermouth. Bob Bloom has reason to be pleased -- but little time to gloat. "In this business," he says, "you have to maintain a sense of urgency" and anticipate problems that growth will bring.
Beginning in 1973 with the creation of Automated Production Inc., a typography and reproduction services company, Bloom Agency began to spin off subsidiaries that specialized in communications services, including industrial advertising, public relations, and sales promotions. Last March, Bloom Cos., the holding company for the subsidiaries formed in August 1980, acquired Mathieu, Gerfen & Bresner (MGB), a New York agency that has handled such prestigious imported products as Perrier sparkling water and Remy Martin cognac. "The acquisition has given the company a very different shape," says Bloom. "We're going to have to find ways to accelerate integration and capitalize on the Dallas -- New York axis."
Just as in the early 1970s specialization bred parochialism and created a rift between the creative and marketing departments, Bloom predicts, the current diversification of Bloom Cos. will require a whole new technology of communications that, he admits, "I don't even understand yet."
Once again Bob Bloom considers "communication and role clarity" as critical elements in managing growth. He has appointed a management committee consisting of the top managers from the business units, which meets weekly to discuss everything from financial and new business matters to morale and turnover. Each fall, when Bloom Cos.' three-year strategic plan is rolled forward, the committee reviews the profit and volume goals for each business unit.
Planning entails more than discussion. Every year each of Bloom Cos.' 17 top managers -- including Bob Bloom -- are required to draw up a list of no more than 10 goals. The goals, arranged according to an appropriate measure -- dates, dollars, or percentages, for example -- are reviewed by Bob Bloom, as well as by the company's compensation committee, made up of 3 outside members of its 10-member board of directors. Once the goals are agreed to, Bloom places each person's top 3 goals on a chart. "We have 17 people doing different jobs, all pulling the same wagon," he says.
At Bloom, managers don't think up goals just for the exercise. Accomplishing objectives affects the size of bonuses, a combination of cash and stock. Placing such value on achieving objectives does more than provide incentive. "Bonuses are common in the agency business, but most of the time they're very discretionary," says Bloom. "When we hand out bonuses at the end of the year usually 10% to 30% of a person's annual compensation, and we talk about goals, everyone knows it's not a bunch of baloney."
Planning strategy and compensation takes time, admits Arlen Bryant, who represents the creative department on the management committee. "To go through that process while you're trying to create advertising and put out the day-to-day fires is a lot of work, but it's critical if you're going to create your own future." "Creating your own future" may sound like a cliche, but Bob Bloom and his employees take it seriously. Furthermore, people say that one of the reasons they put up with the planning procedures is that Bob Bloom works harder at them than anyone else.
"Bob's mind is way out in front of where it has a right to be," says Pete Mathieu, chairman and creative director of MGB. "He's made an investment in the future of the business," planning for growth that is unheard-of in most small agencies and rare in many larger ones. Mathieu argues that Bob Bloom 's planning ultimately liberates, rather than stifles, creativity. Adds Wainwright: "Bob's planning is the best I've seen in the advertising business. What that means is that I can spend time with my clients and try to think of a great idea. That is the big contribution that an agency can make to a client. One idea can make all the difference in the world."
