“One of the things I think that has been key to my success is I’ve always invested in professional development as CEO” say Barbara. “You start your own business because you’re passionate about what you do but you aren’t necessarily an experienced business person.” Winning multiple industry awards, working with the likes of HP and Facebook and maintaining an impeccable industry reputation over decades takes impressive leadership. So, when that’s your checkpoint, your litmus test, you tend to make decisions on behalf of your employees that also benefit you” says Barbara. We always wanted to build an organisation that we wanted to work in. “When I think about what it was like to manage not only being an owner but wanting to be a great employer, I think it comes back to really staying true to my values. “When your employees are your product basically that’s what we sell, the expertise and skill set attracting, developing and retaining talent is job one”.Īhead of other agencies, Eastwick adopted innovative workplace practices including Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE) and encouraging employees to design their own career path in the agency. “We decided to be an employee first organisation, which sounds sort of trite but when you are a service organisation like communication agencies are, to say that you’re going to put your employees first over clients is a huge deal, but it made business sense” says Barbara. The opportunity later arose to join two other friends in co-founding Eastwick, which would become one of Silicon Valley’s most respected PR and communications agencies. I got my first marketing job in Silicon Valley right before the big rush in technology in the early 80’s.” “I was a really good writer and communications is key to being a television journalist so I applied that to marketing. “I’d gotten married and decided it wasn’t fair to have my husband travel around the country as I took my next bigger job then next bigger job as a reporter” recalls Barbara. Originally a broadcast journalist, Barbara switched paths to marketing and communications when relocating for work as a reporter became too disruptive. In this week’s Success Story, Barbara talks with Catherine Robson about the value of designing effective employee engagement, the future of PR and being driven by failure. An industry thought leader she’s been published in Entrepreneur, MediaBistro, PR News, PRSA’s Tactics, and PR Week. She’s been called the Valley’s godmother of PR and is a respected connector and participant in the tech ecosystem. Barbara Bates is Global CEO of award-winning global communications agency Hotwire and co-founder of Eastwick, one of Silicon Valley’s premier communication firms.
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