In review ...

You ever heard the phrase "you can't see the forest for the trees?" I think this happens more often than not in the world of athletics, particularly in marketing.

A commonly troublesome relationship is one with a marketing department and an outsourced multimedia rightsholder. Ours is ISP. Now, let me say, ISP is as good as they get and very profitable for VU. However, their job is to push the envelope and one of mine is to protect the integrity of the game.

Recently we had a huge blowup over the apparent lack of respect their department was showing ours. They pretty much appeared to put on a show as though they cared about what we wanted, but yet did exactly what we asked them not to do. Taken in isolation the incident shouldn't have been a big deal. But since there is the unspoken assumption that we are getting screwed, these things seem to pile up.

Long story short, we all had a come-to-Jesus and things are great again. The one thing that came out of the meeting was the number of suggestions from us that they did do.

Looking at the long list of things that would be categorized as "good partner", I really feel naive for getting so upset. But as I try to do as often as possible, I look for what I can learn.

The learning lesson for me is that fellow employees cannot be counted on as knowing all of your successes. And in the face of ignorance, people will assume the worst.

Therefore I will try to provide an annual/semi-annual report for marketing that shows our successes over the past couple of years. It is not meant to be a brag session, but rather to make sure fellow colleagues are not clouded by a few isolated poor incidents.

In short, continue to remind clients, fans, and colleagues what the forest looks like.

Take care.