Shortly after I became CEO, I congratulated our people for their commitment to our clients – and challenged everyone to make Razorfish better. I firmly believe that now is the time to enact some bold changes to make Razorfish a more collaborative, innovative, valuable organization for our clients. Let me share with you some changes that we’re making now, starting with our U.S. operations:
• First, we’re moving management of our U.S. operations to an international model. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve appointed Dave Friedman as president of Razorfish Americas. In this role, Dave will manage U.S. operations and lead our expansion into Latin America. His appointment is consistent with how we’re operating as a more global firm, with presidents having been appointed to manage our Asia/Pacific and Europe regions in recent months.
• We’re also making innovation a full-time job at Razorfish by appointing Colin Kinsella as the first-ever Razorfish chief innovation officer. Colin will focus on making our work more innovative across Razorfish. Colin knows our business inside-out and has helped many clients take digital to the next level.
• To provide clients more efficient service across our agency, we’re also making stronger investments into global offerings that pull together our best thinking. These offerings include CRM, business intelligence, specialty vertical market expertise, and Social Influence Marketing™, among others. In coming weeks, you can expect announcements about these investments.
• We’re also moving our office operations to a more collaborative model, including the introduction of flexible, virtual working arrangements in our Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and Portland offices. We’re continuing to service our clients in those markets in a smarter, more efficient way.
The benefit to our clients is simple: Razorfish will increase the value of our service. We’ll be a stronger partner to them as they anticipate and respond to change. We are focusing and re-deploying our resources for the sole purpose of becoming more strategic thought partners to our clients and enabling them to be more responsive to their customers.
Although today’s news focuses on the Americas, everything I’m sharing with you today connects to a strategic growth plan that will strengthen our leadership at a global level. Our growth plan calls for investments into our capabilities, improving our efficiencies, strengthening our client relationships, and developing our people.
Down the road, you can expect announcements about more promotions to our national team and the development of significant new offerings. I’m personally excited about the team we’re building and the offerings we’re providing.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through Jeff Lanctot, jeff.lanctot@razorfish.com.
Thank you.
Bob Lord
Razorfish Global CEO
May 15, 2009