Seven Outposts, One Money-Making Philosophy

Rance Crain has been talking to Eric Mower of Eric Mower & Associates about the consolidated bottom line.

Key to understanding his strategy is that he operates his offices with a consolidated bottom line to “eliminate the forces of nonintegration,” as he nicely puts it.

“When everyone in an agency organization realized that their interests — and those of their clients — are best served through collaboration, integration becomes the behavior of choice. Our seven offices, multiple practice groups and numerous client teams all know that individual rewards are based on: value delivered to clients, productivity and collaboration.” The agency, of course, tracks the P&L of each of his seven offices, but employees are rewarded on how the entire operation does.
Eric controls 100% of the voting stock but 30 partners have non-voting stock and dividends are paid on a pro-rata basis to all stockholders. He said eight members of his top management team decide on bonuses based on a profit pool each year. Allocations depend on the performance (value to client, productivity, collaboration) of each employee.

Eric Mower & Associates has offices in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Atlanta, Charlotte and Sarasota.