Ad firm is case study of how family business survives serious crises
THE DARKEST day in Matt White’s life arrived in June 2004, when his family-run Virginia advertising firm lost the Amtrak account and more than half of its revenue.
“My heart went through my throat,” said the chairman of White64, the Tysons-based firm his “Mad Men” father founded in - no surprise given the firm’s name - 1964.
Revenue dropped from US$ 9 million ( RM35 million) annually to around US$ 4 million. White64 laid off a third of its 60 employees. Executive salaries were slashed in half. Travel, entertainment, you name it ... cut. Losing Amtrak also struck at the firm’s prestige, forcing White to get scrappy.
After the Amtrak debacle, which had been the firm’s mainstay client for 25 years, White’s team remade itself - and has been remaking itself ever since. The firm is a case study in small-business survival and how small companies remake themselves or die.
“We took on the mind- set of a start-up,” said the 56-year- old owner.
They had to. White64 began focusing on sales and soon secured a couple of new clients - the Virginia Tourism Corporation and Verizon Wireless - that stabilised the company.
There was no letup in the ensuing years, as the digital era savaged legacy businesses from newspapers to shopping malls to advertising. Then the financial crisis arrived.
Now, in the past 18 months, White64 is once again redefining itself as it seeks to nimbly navigate an evolving media world, preparing for the day when Matt White is no longer at the helm.
“It’s still the wild, wild West out there,” he said after a crazy, 12-year ride.
“Anybody who tells you they know where media is going from here is crazy. It is very humbling.”
Lately, White64 has taken action that would give any advertising executive the heebiejeebies:
White moved the firm from Herndon to Tysons Corner, Virginia, where it has remodelled its workspace and remade its corporate culture, making it more inviting to young, digitally minded “early adopters,” who he said are the company’s future.
“It was quite a shock for me to go to the cube life,” White said.
“We needed to take it to the next level and focus on talent - really focus on talent,” he said, adding that “it’s a very flexible environment, and it’s absolutely scary.”
White64’s new digs have all the hallmarks of millennial heaven. The firm abolished office hours for its 55 employees. Everyone got an Apple laptop. They sit cross-legged on their chairs, wearing what they want, showing up when they want.
There is unlimited time off as long as the work gets done. The office space is open, not siloed. There’s even a varsity-sized pingpong table.
The idea here is to attract the best and the brightest and hold them accountable for their work, and not worry about how they get there.
He pays them well. Top performers get six-figure-plus salaries.
“We are in the talent and idea business, and the clients we attract are only as good as the people we attract. ... We don’t have the big name.
“If we are going to attract talent that moves our clients’ businesses, we have to offer something compelling.”
Not only that, the company is media-agnostic.
“We don’t care about what media tool you use to get out the message. We are focused on going back to what my dad did: Focusing on the power of ideas.”
His dad, Jim, started the agency 52 years ago.
Jim White grew up professionally in the 1960s Mad Men era, as depicted on cable television, and started the firm with several partners. His father eventually bought out his partners, and Matt White now owns 80 per cent. — WPBloomberg