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In late February Andy Cunningham paid a visit to Boston. Over lunch, on one of the few seasonably cold days of the winter, she waxed contemplative about her agency and her role as its leader.
Life, she says, has become more balanced: she runs five miles a day, and works "only" from about 10 a.m. till 7 p.m. "I love doing what I do," she muses. "Helping people grow, keeping them on track."
Sitting back from the table, Cunningham says her company finally feels stable. "This is the first time it's felt that way, ever," she says. Stable, and exceptional: In 1991 CCI's revenues reached $5.1 million, surpassing the company goal of $4.6 million, and the company was 21% pretax profitable, up from 15% the year before. CCI had become the largest PR firm in Santa Clara County, and had made the 1991 Inc. 500.
Cunningham's challenges now, she knows, are keeping excitement alive in the firm and continuing to communicate its vision. But, as board member Mike Gullard says, Cunningham has a personality advantage: "She's an evangelist," he testifies, "and she's building a very strong following." She has also shed some possessiveness. "Andy's layers of ego and ownership are a little smaller now," says Ron Ricci, "and that was hard for her to do." It's true, Cunningham says. "I've finally gotten to the point where I don't have to do everything to feel good about myself."
She had come to Boston, in fact, to spend a few weeks coaching Maura FitzGerald, who wants help shedding some of her possessiveness. "If you're the account rep, as Maura is -- and as I was -- you feel you don't have the time to teach people to do things, or boost morale," says Cunningham, pushing her long hair back behind her ears. "PR people are very ownership oriented; you think that if you do it, it'll get done right, and Maura's still that way. It takes a lot to get someone out of that mode, to move up and look at the big picture and guide people."
Three weeks earlier CCI's Santa Clara staff had gathered at a local comedy club for its annual update and planning meeting. Dressed in a bulky white sweater and blue jeans, Cunningham herself had told her staff that she's still learning how to do her job.
"Basically, the management team of this company is just five regular people who know nothing more about running a company than any of you do," she told them. "It's just that we spend more of our time doing it. We make a lot of mistakes; we do our experiments; we change things. We're not perfect." CCI will have to change more in 1992 to grow, she said, and change is uncomfortable. "But," she added, looking serene and happy and, at last, utterly convinced of what she was about to predict, "it will be OK."
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Martha E. Mangelsdorf contributed to the reporting for this story.
(continued)
CCI IN PERSPECTIVE
National Regional
firms competitors
CCI (medians) (averages)
Age of firm 6 years NA 9 years
Number of employees 52 14 10
Revenues $5.1 million $1.3 million $870,000
Pretax profit margin 21% 15% NA
Revenue per employee $98,000 $93,000 $87,000
Revenue per client $319,000 NA $71,000
Employee/client ratio 3:1 NA 1:2
Sources: For CCI -- 1991 financials. For national firms -- 1990 industry medians from James E. Arnold Consultants and the Public Relations Society of America. For regional competitors -- 1991 averages based on ranking of largest agencies in Santa Clara County, Calif., reported in the Business Journal, of San Jose.
WRITER'S NOTEBOOK:
Inside Cunningham Communication Inc.
Hiring: An employee is paid $1,000 if a person he or she recommends is hired. In 1991 CCI handed out $10,000, which partner Allison Hopkins considers a bargain. "Between 1988 and 1989 the company paid $75,000 to a headhunter," she says. "If we'd used her in 1991 for all our hires, we probably would have paid $150,000."
Values: In the summer of 1991 Andy Cunningham had her first child -- McKinley, known as Mickey. Cunningham hired CCI employee Alex Chisholm to be her "manny" after he proofread her nanny application and asked for the job. Although he cares for Mickey full-time, half that time he's at the CCI office with her perched on his hip as he edits the company newsletter and helps Cunningham research a book on the industry. Seeing him fly down the hall with baby in tow reinforces CCI's attitude about the importance of extra-CCI life in general. When one visiting three-year-old drew a masterpiece on a wall and announced, "Look what I did!" Cunningham replied encouragingly, "Oh, that's nice. . . ."
Networking: Monthly, a group of about 15 heads of Silicon Valley PR companies, which calls itself PR Principals, gets together to shoot the breeze. "There's a new breed of agencies that are much friendlier with each other," says Cunningham. "It's fun to get together and gossip about the PR industry." In 1989 Hopkins organized a salary survey for the group, getting an outside firm to compile information confidentially.
Mistakes: Partner Leon Hunt once told the staff that the company had finally accomplished one of its goals, paying down its line of credit to zero. One associate misinterpreted the triumph and told a potential client that her agency had a zero line of credit. Hunt had to reassure the client that, indeed, CCI was an operating business with the confidence of its bank.
Collections: A CCI goal for 1991 was to get accounts receivable down from 88 days to 70. By year-end they were down to 66 days. How did CCI associates do it? In many cases, says Hunt, they just asked. "We've got relationships with our clients, and we just explained to them that our bonus was tied to how well we handle our receivables."
