Our colleague lost his mother yesterday, to illness and old age. I never met her but I've worked with her son, Charles, over the last several years. His mother must have been an extraordinary woman because he is an extraordinary man. His intelligence is matched only by his passion for developing strategies that powerfully position and guide our clients' brands in the marketplace. He is our Director of Brand Strategy and he does that brilliantly well, by any standard. That's because his mother made sure he and his siblings where possessed with the knowledge and skill set that allowed them to have choices in life and enabled them to compete with anyone anywhere in the world. She did what more parents need to do. She made sure they had a real thirst for knowledge, an insatiable desire to read and learn and travel and go to movies; and to the theatre and museums and learn and travel some more. Not just for the sake of acquiring knowledge, but rather so each of her children in his and her own way could do those things in life they loved doing. So as Charles' mother passes through the door of another life she leaves behind a son who is poised to continue doing research and developing strategies for the 'new global general market' like no one has even dared to talk about or develop before. And all his colleagues at Footsteps will continue to share that passion with him because it is ours as well. That's the only way we know how to work at Footsteps. We will take that incredible journey together as his mother continues hers...

Relevant Communications...

A few months ago, US General David Petraeus, head of the Iraq military operations, paid a visit to Walter Reed Medical Center to see Lt. Brian Brennan, a soldier badly wounded by a roadside bomb that killed three of his comrades in Iraq. Lt. Brian Brennan lost both legs and survived the bombing but was in a deep coma as a result. On a scale of 'one to ten' with 'ten' being the most grievous injury, Brennan was diagnosed as a 'one;' he was said to have significant brain damage and was not expected to survive his wounds. His family and friends tried to bring him back from the coma but to no avail. General Petraeus was trying to do the same thing but was unsuccessful as well. However, just as Petraeus was leaving the hospital room he returned to Lt. Brennan's bedside for one last attempt. He shouted "one, two, three...Currahee," a Native American phrase that means 'we stand alone.' It was also the motto that every member of Lt. Brennan's 101st Airborne Division lived by. Amazingly, Lt. Brennan began thrashing wildly, quickly moved his 'stumps' on the bed, and came out of his coma. He is now walking on his new prosthetic legs and speaking clearly and intelligently about his experience. Miraculously, he has made a full recovery. Talk about relevant communications...

Walter Cronkite

There was no one better and certainly no one as trusted. He spoke to us, not at us. And he was very knowledgeable and informed so we believed what he said. He earned our trust, comforted us through bad and difficult times and celebrated extraordinary accomplishments and major feats. That's why we invited him into our homes every night. That's a powerful relationship between a brand and its consumers, a relationship that is earned over time. A brand is but a promise kept; and Walter Cronkite certainly kept his promise to millions of consumers. We will miss him but we'll never forget him. The world must use his benchmark as a standard of excellence and cultivate and nurture those journalists who choose to follow his example;those who can write and tell stories and report in an honest and heartfelt way. We will listen to and be inspired by them, just as we listened to and were inspired by Cronkite. The 'news readers' of the day must step aside for those who are considerably more gifted and have so much more to share.