Last year, Dick Maggiore, president and CEO of Innis Maggiore Group, gave partial ownership of his advertising and public relations agency to three members of his management team. At the same time, he promoted them to vice presidents.
So when Maggiore says he depends so strongly upon the talents of his employees that it has made the company vulnerable, you tend to believe him.
By giving ownership of the company his father founded 25 years ago to his managers, he’s hoping to alleviate some of that vulnerability.
“We work continually on creating an atmosphere of total trust and total interdependence, and with that comes some vulnerability,” Maggiore says. “When you work in an interdependent fashion, you depend on each other more. We’re greater than the sum of all our talent.”
The ‘interdependent fashion’ Maggiore refers to is the way in which the staff handles its accounts. What makes Innis Maggiore stand out in its industry is the involvement each member of the staff has with every client, so it can package its services such as Web development, public relations and advertising.
“I know it sounds quite logical,” Maggiore says, “but it’s somewhat rare for a communications company to be fully integrated.”
Maggiore holds weekly interdepartmental meetings, at which accounts are reviewed by all members of the staff — creative, public relations and advertising.
“We discuss what’s going on with each client,” he says. “Everyone participates in that. Everyone is involved. Everyone on the staff is familiar with every account to some degree.”
Innis Maggiore has grown from a small print collateral house that Charles Innis started at his kitchen table, to an agency employing 29, with billings of more than $12.5 million in 1999.
In recent years, the agency has attracted clients from Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cleveland, often competing with PR agencies several times its size. Today, Innis Maggiore clients include Altman Health Foundation, Parker Hannifin Corp., Smithers-Oasis and Schumacher Homes.
The company is preparing for another growth spurt this year by expanding its Web-related services. Maggiore says he hopes to add at least four people to the Web staff of two by the end of 2000.
“Web growth started taking off a year and a half ago,” he says. “It’s the fastest growing part of our business today.”
How to reach: Innis Maggiore Group, (330) 492-5500
Connie Swenson
