Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was
prepared for the March 19, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All
rights reserved.
QLM: Downsized, But Heads Up
Bob Lipsky — ever the promotional marketer —
has a good story of how down-sizing helped him reinvent his business,
QLM Marketing. Last year he had 32,000 square feet at Research Park
and occupied his own building. Now he occupies only the space that
his photography department once had (470 Wall Street, 609-683-1177;
fax, 609-924-8007, www.qlm.com).
"British Airways was one of our largest clients, and they stopped
spending money after 9/11," says Lipsky. "We are doing more
consulting and market planning rather execution." Other current
clients are Johnson & Johnson, Tfal, Hershey’s, Church & Dwight, and
Sara Lee.
He explains that because communication is taking place through
extranets,
and because communication is getting more basic, billings are lower.
"Clients are not looking for complicated design elements that
take a long time to download. We are more involved in the strategic
and upfront thinking."
"I saw, as we downsized, that there were too many empty
offices,"
says Lipsky. "Instead of us having the whole building and
subletting,
we took over the photographer’s space and created an open space
environment."
(The photographer, Dan Engongoro, has moved his studio
to Lambertville.) "Everybody who was left enjoyed the energy.
All of a sudden we are in fresh new space and everybody is together,
and everyone who is here is busy and working."
The space is painted white with big panels of bright colors instead
of bulletin boards. "And we are hanging photos of our work. My
one perk is that one whole wall has my photos on it," says Lipsky,
an avid photographer who markets his work as greeting cards. He has
no private office but shares space like everybody else.
There was some trepidation about the open space plan at first.
Employees
were used to having a private office, and they worried about others
listening to the phone calls. But soon no one was listening to the
phone calls. And those who need to make a personal call can use the
conference room.
Lipsky turned the downsizing negative into a team-working positive
in other ways. "We looked at every single item on the expense
line and have reduced every single one, from big items like people
and rent to the smallest things." One person suggested saving
$1,200 a year by not using the Pitney Bowes postage machine and
offered
to be the designated stamp-purchaser. "When you have five clients
instead of 25, you don’t have the same volume of mail," says
Lipsky.
"And we are communicating more by E-mail."
— Barbara Fox
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