Defining Success: Managing Partner Of Marketing Firm Offers Ways To Increase Employee Productivity & Efficiency

 
Laurie Cairns is the managing partner of Blast! Marketing & PR. Blast! was established in 2002 and is a full-service, brand-focused hospitality marketing firm. Their services include a full-spectrum of brand identity services such as strategy, planning, visual and verbal identity, which are backed by implementation services including promotions and events, public relations, direct response campaigns, hyper-local programs, social media and advertising.

Cairns is responsible for establishing systems and processes for managing workflow, as well as for providing strategic and creative guidance for key accounts. She works closely with individual employees and outside contractors to ensure that their programs and campaigns are goals-driven, brand appropriate and fully integrated. Cairns has received over 50 awards and has spoken at numerous events over her 25-plus-year career. She has developed brand identities, related strategies and campaigns across a broad spectrum of industries. Cairn's clients have included small family-owned businesses, Fortune 500 companies, and everything in between.

Laurie Cairns offers insight into the human resources aspect of running a small business.
 

 
Does your company promote work-life balance?

We champion the importance of life outside of the workplace. We celebrate our employee's personal milestones, are empathetic during setbacks, and offer flexibility in terms of office hours and personal time off. We firmly believe that an employee's performance should be measured on mutually agreed upon results, and that working long arduous hours is antithetical to long-term success.

 
Do you believe guided independence is important for your employees?

We believe that everyone should know what success looks like. We develop a concrete set of goals and objectives for each of our clients, and measure an employee's performance based upon their contributions to helping us meet those goals. We believe in individual empowerment over rigid business processes, and provide a flexible framework in which motivated employees can succeed.

 
Are employees given the opportunity to push boundaries?

We believe that diversity, in every sense of the word, is good for business. We encourage our employees to share ideas that fly in the face of convention and challenge management's way of thinking because we realize that this is one of the key ways that a business remains vital.

 
How do you handle feedback from your employees?

We believe in continuous feedback! We expect our employees to be communicative and accountable, and believe they should expect the same of us. We do not believe in formal reviews, as experience has taught us that feedback is more effective when it is given in real-or near real-time.

 
How do you define success?

Progress over perfection. We do not claim to be perfect, nor do we seek perfection in our employees, clients and business partners. We humbly believe that success comes when we continually improve and learn as cohesive teams.

 
This article was written by Michelle M. Guilbeau for CBS Small Business Pulse