Although no inmedianauts were stranded yesterday when Ottawa-based Zoom Airlines suspended operations as it sought bankruptcy protection in the face of actions by several of its leaseholders and creditors, we very easily could have been. Ever since our Danny Sullivan repatriated himself to his native Scotland and set up office for us in Glasgow a few years back, we have been enthusiastic and regular passengers on this quirky little airline that offered good prices, excellent service and a peculiar schedule that gave us direct, non-stop flights for most of the year between Ottawa and Glasgow. It’s as though Zoom was made for us.

Our best experience happened when we flew Danny on Zoom to Ottawa on fairly short notice when a long-time client hired a new marketing vice president and wanted to talk about an aggressive new program. The veep, who had flown in from San Jose, did not believe that Danny had come to town just for that meeting. Turned out, however, that it cost less and took less time for Danny to get there than it did for the veep!

Zoom was a favoured carrier for my family, too. In the winter, Zoom used to offer non-stop weekend service between Ottawa and St. Maarten that could see a winter-weary citizen of this frozen northern capital get on a plane at about 6:30 a.m. and be frolicking in the warm Caribbean by noon. And three summers ago, we flew Zoom to Scotland for a family vacation in England, Scotland and Ireland.

From a PR and crisis communications perspective, though, Zoom does not seem to be managing this potentially fatal setback nearly as well as it managed its early growth and success. News stories have focused on the suddeness of the shut down, the lack of communication to stranded passengers and the apparent abandoning of their posts by Zoom personnel at airports. This does not create the kind of forgiveness and understanding a company needs to successfully emerge from such a crisis. And that would be too bad for Zoom and those of us who enjoyed flying with them.

Technorati Tags: Zoom Airlines, travel, bankruptcy protection, crisis communications

This week has been a perfect case in point for why inmedia has a horizontal rather than a vertical account structure. What I mean by that is that our agency, unlike a lot of agencies, puts at least two senior consultants on each account. It is these consultants, with support from the balance of the team, that do all - and I mean all - of the work on a client account, from initial briefings with the client to developing the media list, to writing the materials, to pitching the story to the media and so on. That way, if one of the consultants is unavailable or out of town on business as is the case this week, the remaining consultants can capably manage any and all requirements for that client because they’ve been involved from the outset and have the same knowledge about the client as the other consultant.

In agencies that employ a vertical account structure, the most junior of consultants with the least experience is typically tasked with outreach to the media, having had little to no involvement in the procuring of the client, the learning of their story or development of the materials. If a journalist has a question that requires additional knowledge beyond the news release that the consultant has been handed to pitch, well, let’s just say that it’s this lack of full understanding of clients and their stories that has given our industry such a bad reputation.

This has been a busy week, with a number of our consultants doing international travel, new clients coming into the fold, big projects with upcoming deadlines in production and preparations to be made for several major campaigns getting underway next week. Still, despite being far flung across time zones and countries, the team has been able to keep all of the proper plates spinning because of our account schema. This provides both our clients and consultants with peace of mind, knowing that the needs of clients are not superseded by out of office requirements and that work continues seamlessly on their behalf.

That said, it’ll be nice to have the Ottawa team assembled once again when two of our consultants return from overseas, to hear of their most recent adventures and determine whether any of them picked up a detectable brogue on their travels.

Technorati Tags: PR agency, account structure, business travel

Ottawa technology entrepreneurs were reminded again this morning that India is the world’s second-fastest growing market encompassing 1.1 billion consumers, 300 million of them middle class and about 500 million of them under 25, and that with a confluence of manpower, money and a can-d0 attitude, it’s a market most technology companies will want to consider.

At the same time, Peter Sommerer, a veteran of Ottawa’s telecom sector who now advises companies on how to do business on the sub-continent, warned that there are still many challenges associated with chasing that opportunity. Quoting his former boss and current investment partner Terry Matthews, Sommerer said, “If it wasn’t easy, everyone would be doing it.”

Sommerer, who heads up consulting firm Erlauf Holding, was speaking to the regular Dollars and Sense CFO’s forum along with Raj Narula, co-founder of TaraSpan Group, which also helps companies explore business opportunities in India. The two also presented what they called a platform that has been developed by TaraSpan and Matthews’s private investment company, Wesley Clover, that technology companies can use to expedite their entry into the Indian market.

Technorati Tags: India, international business, entrepreneurship

The announcement this morning that global computer services company IBM has struck a deal to acquire Ottawa’s Cognos will end months of speculation over who would eventually claim the largest remaining independent business intelligence software company. However, the disappearance from the public markets of Ottawa’s second-largest (after Nortel) publicly traded company is sure to reignite the hand-wringing over why this town can’t seem to create and sustain many large public companies. Bridgewater Systems’ announcement earlier this month that it was planning an initial public offering will do little to assuage the angst.

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I’m working from home today, sniffling, coughing and feeling generally miserable. The culprit? Business travel. Francis and I went to Calgary earlier this week for several meetings and to attend a forum on business and sustainability. Unfortunately, as soon as I got back, I started feeling under the weather. Turns out I’m not the only one that seems to always get a cold after flying, according to this article from the Independent Traveler.

Looking at the author’s suggestions, I did everything short of wearing the face mask and I still got sick! Ugh. For those business people that have to travel frequently as part of their work, I wonder if you have any tips you can share on how you avoid the dreaded airplane cold. It’s too late for me, but maybe others can learn from your suggestions and avoid my fate. That’s all for me for today as tea and a warm blanket are beckoning.

Technorati Tags: business travel, travel, sick, flu