Happy Birthday to Us!

Ant Hill Communications turns one year today! What a year it has been and how exciting it is to anticipate what the future holds. We truly appreciate each of our clients and the synergy in which we operate. We began, and still are a scrappy bunch who love to work hard and love the results that hard work brings even more.

Special thanks to Mythic Paint, Orchid Ceramics, TunerBoone, CREW, MAP International, the Atlanta Ballet, and C PORT for your support in our efforts!

Glass Ceiling and Sticky Floor?

In the last 5 years, since CREW’s 2005 benchmark study, “Women in Commercial Real Estate”, women’s advancement to top positions (CEO, CFO, COO, board member) in commercial real estate had stagnated, or even regressed slightly. CREW’s new white paper, “Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor – The State of Women’s Advancement in Commercial Real Estate”, examines the reasons why and offers suggestions to reverse the progress. (http://www.crewnetwork.org/RESOURCES/WhitePaper_GlassCeiling_Dec09.pdf )

Some of the interesting observations found in the paper:

• Women leaders are perceived as competent or likeable, but rarely both.
• While recent female graduates entering the industry receive 89% of the compensation their male counterparts receive, as women approach age 35 and over receive only 75% of the compensation of their male counterparts..
• Both women and men were shown to perceive “taking care” behaviors as the defining qualities of women leaders, and “taking charge” behaviors as the defining qualities of men leaders.
• In Fortune 500 companies, those with the highest representation of women board directors and women corporate officers, on average, achieve higher financial performance than those with the lowest.
• Generally, women are perceived as working fewer hours than men. Studies also show that women are generally more productive than men while working.

What's it all about then?

How many blogs are there then? I mean really?

And I ask this in a totally hypothetical way because I have no desire to actually look into this question and provide a sensible answer. But I bet there are a gizillion. And do they all really have fabulous things to say? Well some of them do (the ones that I follow on this blog do at any rate). But this leads me to the real reason for my question. Do we really need another blog? And when confronted with the resounding 'no', then why am I starting one?

Well in truth, I wanted to start a blog for Ant Hill Communications to really do what we do all the time. I really want to talk about my clients. Mythic Paint, CREW Atlanta and SkyDesign. I want you to learn about them, and try them and ultimately fall in love with them (as I know that you will do). But you're not going to do that just because I want you to. You need an incentive. Something that's in it for you eh? So, I'm going to write about fun things. Interesting, informative and even (if I can manage it) things that are a little smart. So that you will come back and read on. And in doing so learn about our clients. For after all, isn't that what great PR is all about?