FOCUS: YEAR-END REVIEWS - Euro steers clear of dotcom craze

<p>Last year, I wrote that having heavily invested in all the </p><p>disciplines of communication and integrated our interactive capabilities </p><p>at the heart of our operations, we were ready to take up the challenge </p><p>of the new millennium and should achieve 20 per cent growth in 2000. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>By the end of this year, I realise how difficult predictions are, </p><p>particularly when they are about the future. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Our organic growth will probably be slightly above 18 per cent, but we </p><p>will achieve it in a very different way than the one we had envisaged a </p><p>year ago. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The first six months of this year were full of promises, fuelled by the </p><p>conjunction of a rosy economic outlook and the incredible growth of the </p><p>dotcom businesses feeding all the traditional channels with the </p><p>magnificence of their ad budgets. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In March, the Nasdaq rose to record heights. In March, our biggest </p><p>challenge was to stop our top interactive talents from leaving our </p><p>Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul and Singapore agencies, and succumb to the </p><p>stock option plans of startup mermaids promising them initial public </p><p>offerings, fame and fortune in less than a year. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Being a particularly technology-driven network, we had more than our </p><p>fair share of the new economy and its mermaids, and by July, 70 per cent </p><p>of our USdollars 80 million new business billings tally was in the new </p><p>economy. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This is when we decided that our mission should be more about applying </p><p>our integrated interactive ability to help the old economy get up to </p><p>speed with the new world, and less about contributing to the dotcom </p><p>craze. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Not because of any philanthropic streak in our business model, but </p><p>because we could see some clouds in this incredibly blue virtual </p><p>sky. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>By the end of this year, our new business effort will still be USdollars </p><p>80 million worth in billings, but this is real as opposed to virtual, as </p><p>dotcom businesses represent only 15 per cent of it. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And our interactive talents are happy with cash. And the Nasdaq is lower </p><p>than it was a year ago. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Parallel to a return to brick-and-mortar brands, our Hong Kong and </p><p>Singapore agencies have seen a return on their creative investments of </p><p>last year in the form of significant creative awards collected at major </p><p>international events, but also at local events where they finished in </p><p>the top creative league, reminding everybody that they used to be the </p><p>Ball Partnership. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>If 2000 taught me one thing, it is that more than ever we have to be </p><p>prepared to change the way we think and the way we act. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And more than ever, we have to be first at accepting and implementing </p><p>change. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>