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...