Breakaway is the first company I’ve worked for that has a global presence. While that fact may not be important to all people, it was an attribute I was looking for in an agency. First, I’ve previously seen how not having a global footprint can hurt an agency’s chances at getting business from companies that do have one. I was always curious how proposals and pitching new business would be different if you had manpower in more than one time zone and continent. Second, I really like to travel. OK, that may seem lame to some people, but I’ve been categorized as a workaholic in the past, so most of the travel I’ve done in the last five or six years has been business-related. I like to explore new places while not having to use too many vacation days.
Luckily for me, Breakaway IS a global agency, with offices in New York, San Francisco and London, and global agency partners in nearly every other geography you can think of. As I said, this is great for business. When current clients or prospects come to us wanting to expand into a new market or simply step up PR in a specific region, we’re able to meet their needs and create new opportunities for the agency, as well. By extension this makes it easier for our clients to expand their PR presence, without the hassle of having to look for an unaffiliated agency in a particular region. By leveraging our network, they know that they’ll get integrated, strategic global service regardless of where they might need it.
So while our presence around the world is strategic for our business, it’s also a pretty good bonus for me and the other Breakaway-ians. I was hired here in our New York office, but from day one I’ve been excited about our San Francisco office. Now as I said, I love to travel. I’ve been to Paris and Dublin – but oddly, never to California. That was, until late last month…Having worked closely for several months now with some of the great folks in our San Francisco office (and in an effort to avoid yet another snow and ice storm here on the East Coast), I requested to work out of the West Coast office for a few days. While I was out there I was able to do some wine tasting in Sonoma as well as check out the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf. In all, it was a great experience. And while many folks might have to take several days off of work to have the kind of adventure I had, a simple half-day for a flight was all I had to take to enjoy five great days in a new city in our office across the country.
Having a Breakaway presence around the globe is great for our clients’ businesses and ours. And it certainly doesn’t hurt our leisure travel either! Be sure to check out some of my pictures from my trip on the Breakaway Facebook page.
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