THE AMPERSAND 
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
First off, the flood. To everyone impacted, directly or indirectly, our heartfelt thoughts are with you. If you don’t live in Calgary, and even if you do, unless you waded down to the “war zone” as so many called it, you can’t comprehend the scale of loss and devastation. Like many, I’ve been amazed by our city’s resilience, impressed by our Mayor and reminded of our “can do” attitude.
What in years past has been a minor annoyance, “circle left, circle right…now Dosado…and Promenade” underneath my office window on Stephen Avenue Mall is today a minor miracle. Square Dancing on the streets of Calgary would not have been thought possible even one week ago. At Pekarsky Stein, our “problems” were so minor they’re barely worth noting. No power in our office for a few days, some spoiled milk and a clumsy year-end is about all we endured. But we felt the pain of so many friends, clients and people we care about and we put our downtime to use by getting quite good at ripping out friends’ drywall, a skill hopefully never needed again. As a firm that often talks about commitment to community, we have done our part. Not only with our work boots but last night at our client Stampede party we passed around a pair of lovely pink cowboy boots, filled them to brim with cash and cheques donated by our generous clients and friends raising just over $2,600. Pekarsky Stein will match that amount dollar for dollar. We’ll be walking a cheque over to the Red Cross later today. It’s the least we can do.
“Pass thru, split two…Slip the clutch and box the gnat…”. Did he really just say box the gnat?
We shift gears now, from rolling up our sleeves to rolling out our brand. For the past several months, we have shared with you our evolving brand and our focused efforts, the essence of which were centered on the goal of getting more people aware of our firm’s ability to do top notch search work across numerous industries and a wide variety of job types and levels. Our current clients know what we can do and their testimonials can be found throughout the new website. The challenge is attracting new clients and letting more people know about our unique approach to search and busting the myth that the big global search firms somehow have a “bigger database” and more reach. Turns out we know how to operate a telephone and use the World Wide Web, too. But what really sets us apart is our knowledge of the local market and the people who live and work in it every day.
Our new tag line, We Know People, was an immediate hit when the talented team at Foundry Communications first shared it with us. Since then, we’ve sprinkled our Pekarsky Stein pixie dust on the idea and today we introduce a cutting edge website, a great new brochure, business cards and a fresh new look and feel. Thing is, none of that on its own will land us a single new search. At the end of the day, it’s about people, relationships, trust and credibility. Our client audit assured us we’re on the right track as those themes were oft-repeated by clients and candidates alike. In fact, as recently as yesterday a client emailed us saying, “I want to wish you all the success with the launch of your new brand and the business going forward. Just keep on doing business the way you have always done and it will go well.”
Yes, we do know people. And some of the best people we know are inside our four walls. With new additions, Associate Brendan Wade and Office Manager Carley Beddome, we got a lot younger and hipper in a hurry. Brendan, who left a fledgling career as a political junkie, and Carley, who joins us from the Apple Store where she was a Business Specialist for the past two years, complement our tenured team of me, Terry, Ranju and Lisa who collectively have 14 years of time served at Pekarsky Stein.
Rather than go on at length telling you all about it, I’d simply invite you to spend some time on our website and accepting our invitations over the coming weeks to meet with you in person to see how we can help with any of your search needs. This newsletter will continue in its present form though it will be enhanced by a new blog feature on our website which will be inter-connected to our Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other things Carley and Brendan tell us we need to be doing.
One minor change is we will next write in September, foregoing our August newsletter and instead calling this our Summer Edition. We need a few weeks to get the blog blogging and to iron out the inevitable technical wrinkles. Our usual sampling of interesting articles will return in the fall.
One thing we are ready for is more work. It’s choppy out there and now is the best time to high-grade your team, grab talent and prepare for the next upturn in the business cycle. We know how to help. After all, we know people.
Now Circle to a Line…All Around The Left Hand Lady…and don’t forget to box the gnat!
Happy Stampede!
Regards,
Adam
