This blogger has seen many communications shops go belly-up, especially during the 2000-01 downturn. What is news about Ovation is the way that President Ralph Heath, a self-described “classic entrepreneur with more ideas than time to execute," is publicizing the shutdown.
Ralph is no wall flower. He has posted a video on Ovation’s website to tell the world the bad news. Heath is ready to take on a full-time job of author. He has a book coming out this summer that will take a big chunk of his time.Heath concedes that Ovation has been hurt by the acquisition of its two biggest clients -- Anheuser-Busch and Aearo Technologies by InBev and 3M, respectively. Finding clients to fill those big gaps would take a lot of time and effort especially in the current tough economic clients, according to Heath, who is ready to move on to other things.
Heath ends by grabbing a Budweiser and giving a toast to his “confident and cocky” soon-to-be ex-employees. “Just because you are changing careers doesn’t mean you have to change your beer,” he said.
The video ends with black and white images of Ovation’s 33 employees, many with more than 10 years of experience there. There is a quote from Michael Jordan, a guy who missed 9,000 shots during his career. The basketball great is quoting saying the only reason why he succeeded was because he failed over and over again.
Good luck to the staffers at Ovation. Here’s hope Ovation clients Hershey, Microsoft, State Farm, Shell Oil, Wolverine World Wide, State Farm and Betty Crocker remember the good work you did for them, and send some business your way.
Another thing: It’s okay if you change your brand of beer.