I am ashamed at the infrequency of my posts for 2009, but I can say it's one year I'm happy to see in the rearview mirror -- at least from a business standpoint. To say it was one of the most challenging of my professional and personal life is an understatement -- not bad, but extremely challenging. I guess that's where 'stretching' makes us more flexible.
I started my second year at Avanade (two years January 2010). The global economic meltdown of 2008 and 2009 put tremendous strain on the business of our customers. However, as a company we still grew a few percentage points, which cannot be said for most of our competitors. In fact, IT services as a sector declined anywhere between 4 and 6 percent, depending on which analyst report you read. But when you're used to growing 20% y-o-y for nine years, growing a few percentage points is a sharp contrast.
It prompted us to make adjustments to our business to accommodate the changes in buying patterns. That forced the marketing team to reassess our own priorities and make adjustments to the function.
There were a lot of programs the marketing team executed, even in this tough business climate. And there were some additions to our team, as well.
One area of investment we didn't sacrifice was our thought leadership initiatives, or what the IT Services Marketing Association calls "Idea Marketing." In essence, Avanade provides the same services as our competitors -- application development, business solutions, outsourcing, and so on. So in the marketplace of ideas, what differentiates Avanade from the competition is our views on business and technology issues and trends. That, essentially, is our thought leadership initiative. We launched two thought leadership campaigns in calendar 2009, both on the topic of cloud computing, both of which placed Avanade in the thick of the debate regarding cloud and positioned us as a leader. Here's one in a series of videos we produced discussing our views on cloud by Avanade's CTO, Tyson Hartman.
Another big area of focus for me was when internal communications folded into external communications within marketing. This was an unexpected change. It's an area of organizational communications that has interested me for many years, but not an area in which I have had much experience. I have enjoyed getting to know my new colleagues and learning a tremendous amount about internal communications from them.
We continued to globalize the Avanade public relations and analyst relations function. In fact, we will soon be bringing on our first dedicated communications lead for Europe. That's a big step in helping us shape our PR, AR and executive communications functions in our two largest markets -- Americas and Europe.
Finally, we upleveled the Avanade story toward business outcomes, not technology outputs. Many of our competitors tend to talk about IT for IT sake (emphasis on outputs). We decided to focus our positioning on business technology services.
And while all this was going on at work, and the stresses of the economy were in full force, home life continued to be as busy as ever. Henry started the terrible twos at 18 months and at 3.5 years old he hasn't let up. But, we're trying to stay consistent in focusing on shepherding his heart (great book by that title from Ted Tripp if you need some solid parenting counsel).
Clara entered Kindergarten, and hates to miss one day. And Isabella is taking 7th grade by storm. Both girls are at Valley Christian School.
And, my beautiful bride, Antonia, and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. Two hearts united in one purpose who also happens to be my best friend. It doesn't get any better than that.
So as I look back on 2009, if I were to sum it all up, I would say it was a year of stretching, a humbling year that I hope helped me stay grounded and focused, a year of gratitude -- for my family, my wife, my job, and for work of God in my life.
Happy New Year.
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