January 04, 2016
It is hard to believe another year has passed. It seems like just yesterday I was sending a note to all of you introducing myself as the IHAF Board Chairman. This is the time of year for us to reflect on the past and look forward to opportunities in the year to come. At IHAF, it's no different. In …
December 28, 2015
“If you want to achieve some really big and interesting goals, you have to learn to fall in love with hard work.” –Steve Pavlina, personal-development blogger, book author, and motivational speaker
Falling in love with hard work isn’t hard to do at IHAF—and boy, have we accomplished much in the …
September 21, 2015
In-house agency account management organizations that adopt top-down, iterative planning processes greatly increase their ability to optimize staffing and plan for the capabilities needed by internal clients.
How? These processes assure agency leaders and account managers not only get the input …
August 17, 2015
Raytheon’s in-house creative-services team, Advanced Media, consists of over 120 design professionals working from several different cities across the United States. We’re involved in the company’s proposal efforts, marketing campaigns, facility branding, employee and customer meetings, and …
August 10, 2015
When we were younger, team building happened all the time—without us even realizing it. As children, we learned how to get along in the sandbox, to share and play nicely with other kids. I’m reminded of an old folktale: The Four Harmonious Friends—Bird plants a seed; Rabbit waters it; Monkey …
April 27, 2015
Every spring the IHAF team hits the road to host one of our most popular annual events—the IHAF Huddle traveling discussion group series. This year, we’re adding another stop to our upcoming travel calendar, the ANA Financial Management Conference in Phoenix, AZ on April 26-29th.
This four-day …
April 21, 2015
One of the keys to leading a successful organization is recruiting and nurturing new leaders within your agency. Finding and cultivating people who could give us “more legs on the stool” became one of the most gratifying achievements for my core group of senior leaders and for me personally.
In …
April 13, 2015
Every organization has a culture built on its behaviors, habits, values and, most importantly, the collective energy of the people that comprise it. In my experience, strong culture is foundationally rooted in the ability to attract and retain the right people with the right energy, the right sense …
April 06, 2015
On paper, leading a strong in-house team is easy. All you have to do is: 1) hire the right people, 2) establish processes that enable them to work efficiently and productively, and 3) keep everyone (your team and your clients) happy. Unfortunately, doing all three is difficult.
What’s more, even …
February 23, 2015
While outside agencies host a revolving door of clients, we are perfectly happy with one. And it’s a big one. In fact, we have the coolest customer on the planet—The Boeing Company, designer and builder of some of the most important aerospace products in history.
We are Creative & Information …