"We don't care about what other agencies are doing, because we don't feel like we're competing with them," Akhia CEO Jan Gusich said. "We're focused on 'How can we be more valuable to our clients? What are their business challenges?'"
HUDSON, Ohio -- Jan Gusich is founder and chief executive of Akhia, an integrated marketing and business communications agency in Hudson. While its industry peers have scaled back, Akhia has grown, more than doubling its staff to 64 people over the past few years and raking in annual revenues of $6 million to $7 million.
"Most people start out with a skill they're really good at, and they just do it so well over time that it just builds a business," she said.
Gusich, 57, has also overseen Akhia's evolution from primarily public relations work to a broad menu of services including digital, video, content marketing, marketing automation and social media capabilities.
Gusich started Akhia in 1996, after MHW Advertising & Public Relations, then one of Cleveland's 10 largest advertising agencies, announced it was closing down and cutting 43 jobs after it lost two major clients. Unwilling to abandon her key public relations clients, Gusich proposed continuing to work for them, and launched her new career with three six-month contracts.
Akhia, named for the Ancient Greek city of Achaia, birthplace of the ionic column, now ranks 48th on The Weatherhead 100 list of the fastest-growing companies in Northeast Ohio, reporting sales growth of 167.63 percent over the past five years. Akhia was also named one of The Plain Dealer's Top Workplaces for 2014, which Gusich is especially proud of because it's based strictly on feedback from employees.
Q. What makes you someone to watch in 2015?
A. Because we want to change the perception of what an agency should be to a business. We want to change the traditional thoughts about how you work with your communications agency or your marketing agency. Google, Yahoo and Apple, they changed the perception of what a business should look like, and the environment you can create with your clients.
We work for a lot of major manufacturing organizations here in Cleveland, [whose names she is not allowed to disclose]. Their business has changed drastically in the last few years. Everything is based in measurables and successful results. The only way that we can be successful is if the messaging is consistent across the organization.
The major corporations that we work for, in the past their communications, marketing, and sales teams were very siloed. One of the key strategies that we're bringing to the table is integrating that communication. You cannot be successful today without that cross-communication.
Q. How is Akhia different from other marketing communications agencies?
A. Where I think we're different is that we don't care about what other agencies are doing, because we don't feel like we're competing with them. When we consider taking on a new client, the questions we ask are: 'Does it look like we can help them?' We're focused on 'How can we be more valuable to our clients? What are their business challenges?'
As CEO, I feel like my major responsibilities are to the employees, the clients, the culture. Employee: I feel like it's my duty to develop the next generation of leaders. I created something good here, and I want it to live beyond me.
Two, if you just worry about the clients, the rest will take care of itself. A lot of agencies are chasing that billable business, but what we do is ask 'What's the right thing to do for this client?' Three: culture. What keeps us grounded is our people. We always have to do the right thing. Doing the right thing always serves us well. Sometimes that gets lost in the day-to-day business.
Q. How do you maintain Akhia's unconventional culture?
A: The culture of our agency is one of our differentiators. That helps us attract and keep the best and the brightest. Our strongest people are the people who've worked someplace else. Younger employees, they're always wondering, 'What's it like somewhere else? Should I go work for a competitor?' We always have those people for three, four or five years.
But the people who've worked somewhere else, they'll stay, because they know what's it's like somewhere else. Or they'll leave and come back, saying, 'Yeah, I get it now. This place is special.'
Our culture, No. 1, is respectful of each other. We really strive to create a work-life balance. Honestly, we can't always do it, but we really strive to create that balance. And it's not just for working moms, it's for everybody.
Last Saturday, we had breakfast with Santa for all of our employees and their families, and we had 44 people here. We tend to have a lot of get-togethers. We have a person who works part-time come in and does pilates [classes] for us. We have coffee chats. We recognize everybody's birthdays and anniversary dates with pizza lunches every month.
Q. What's your biggest goal for Akhia in 2015?
A: We want to grow our sales by 15 percent, and our profitability by 20 percent, but it has to be the right kind of growth. That means looking for the great clients that fit our growth strategy, not just grow in terms of numbers.
Is 93 [employees] out of the question? We don't have a number in mind, but we are not striving for a number, we are striving for a reputation and a certain level of growth. Growth doesn't necessarily mean more people.
My primary goal was to get the agency to a size where it was sustainable. Where if you lose a client or two, you don't have to let people go or let the agency close. As CEO, that's one of my primary objectives: taking care of my employees.
By sustainable, I mean that the agency can sustain itself, that it can sustain the loss of a client. That represents planful growth: Are we getting the right clients in the right places, to diversify our industries so one area isn't too vulnerable to market changes, and successful enough where we can be more selective about our clients? It's nice to be able to have that freedom.
Follow @janetcho