What we talked about
Today I’m joined by Nicholas E. Adams, a nationally recognized CEO, advisor, and executive leader. As President and CEO of NINICO® since 2011, Nicholas has guided organizations through transformative growth, brand positioning, and strategic communications. He also serves as an advisor and shareholder in innovative ventures like Mapply.ai and mQOL, and has been recognized with honors such as the MarCom Gold Career Award and being named among the Top 50 MarCom Leaders in America. Beyond business, Nicholas plays an active role in civic life, serving as Chairman of the Board at the San Jose Chamber of Commerce. His career is a powerful blend of corporate strategy, public positioning, and community impact. Nicholas, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show.
Show notes
Today I’m joined by Nicholas E. Adams, a nationally recognized CEO, advisor, and executive leader. As President and CEO of NINICO® since 2011, Nicholas has guided organizations through transformative growth, brand positioning, and strategic communications. He also serves as an advisor and shareholder in innovative ventures like Mapply.ai and mQOL, and has been recognized with honors such as the MarCom Gold Career Award and being named among the Top 50 MarCom Leaders in America. Beyond business, Nicholas plays an active role in civic life, serving as Chairman of the Board at the San Jose Chamber of Commerce. His career is a powerful blend of corporate strategy, public positioning, and community impact. Nicholas, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show.
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:00) Welcome back to the PreVetted Podcast, where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Today we are joined by Nicholas E. Adams. He’s a nationally recognized CEO, advisor, and executive leader. As president and CEO of NINICO since 2011, Nicholas has guided organizations through transformative growth, brand positioning, and strategic communication.
He also serves as an advisor and shareholder in innovative ventures like MAPLY.ai MQL and has been recognized with honors such as the Markham Gold Career Award and being named the top 50 Markham leaders in America. So beyond business, Nicholas plays an active role in civic life serving as chairman of the board at the San Jose Chamber of Commerce.
So his career is a powerful blend of corporate strategy, public positioning, and community impact. Nicholas, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show.
Nicholas E. Adams (01:03) Federico, thank you for having me today. I appreciate it.
Federico Ramallo (01:07) Awesome, awesome, it’s an honor, yeah. So where do you draw your inspiration for business decisions and leadership?
Nicholas E. Adams (01:18) I think early on
my inspiration was family. My parents are very inspirational and I still draw a source of inspiration from them the way they raised me, the way they raised both their kids, wanting to ensure that strong values and morals and ethics were always at the forefront of everything we did. So especially my dad in the business community, I still draw a lot of…
He’s a source. He’s a source for me of good. And I would say in our industry, there were a couple gentlemen who played a really critical role for me as I started down the path of the PR and advertising agency life. The now former Coakley-Hagarty firm, which I worked at and for for a couple years before joining NINICO, now almost 15 years ago.
But Dave Hagerty and John Hagerty were among I think in our industry the top of the top especially in Northern California when you consider that they started in the 50s in this industry and really carved out a really unique space I think and balancing this idea of now what we call comms and creative but at that time
it was still classified as public relations and advertising. Not only did they do that, they did it well, and they did it with these ethics and these values that I was talking about just before. So, really still draw a lot of inspiration from those two gentlemen as well, who I had the pleasure of getting to know and who were sort of, you know, this guiding light for me.
Federico Ramallo (03:00) Amazing, The way that I think of values is that help us make decisions on any situation. It gives us this north. What is inspirational? It could be inspirational and aspirational, but it gives us this clarity to make decisions so we don’t second guess ourselves, right? And I think that’s…
that becomes very powerful. It took me many years to realize the value of the values instilling in me, you my family, as you mentioned, your family, and the power that it has through our careers. So I think that’s amazing. So you mentioned a little bit of your early influences. Can you expand a little bit more on how did they shape
your leadership style?
Nicholas E. Adams (03:43) Well, think the leadership style, hopefully the leadership style that people see that I possess is one that is true and honest and open. I’m in Silicon Valley, very proud to be, our business proud to be headquartered in Silicon Valley. And I’ve always said Silicon Valley is not necessarily a place, it’s more of a state of mind. And I think if you go into every single day working for your brand and your business and your clients and your network that you
hope to serve with that openness and that transparency. The idea of customer service becomes very critical and instrumental to everything that you do, regardless of type of industry. If it’s a business brand, a consumer brand, regardless of industry or space that you’re playing in, if customer service is at the forefront and you’re rolling out that red carpet experience for everybody internally,
your own staff and team externally your client base then hopefully that leadership style comes through in terms of sort of the responsiveness.
Federico Ramallo (04:46) Right, right. I think that you’re making a very interesting point on transparency and you talk about transparency. I’m adding ethics and values into the mix, because then that means that you’re not fractured in different personalities, so to speak. You’re not one person when you’re talking externally, another person when you’re talking internally, because that’s…
fracture if you like doesn’t provide you consistency throughout right and that affects the impact that you have on everything you do right so I think that that that’s what I’m using the word ethics maybe I should use the words integrity right because when you’re an integral person through and through then that shows on everything that you do so I think that’s amazing
Nicholas E. Adams (05:34) And that’s
not to say that some folks in the business community don’t follow that mantra, right? And that’s very true that they’re out there and they’re very present even in Silicon Valley. A place that is incredibly cutthroat to do business and to do business well. But I would say that, especially our region, is, Silicon Valley is not about me, it’s about we, right? It’s a very different idea. It’s not about me, it’s about we, the collective good.
and this idea that, you know, there are people from all across the world who come and descend upon this incredible place we call Silicon Valley to do good work and to create solutions for really big challenges. But you can only really do that. You can only really find those solutions creatively when you’re working with, you know, the collective and doing that in, you know, in a good spirit, in a good way, a positive way.
Federico Ramallo (06:31) Right, right. You have seen great communities in the Bay Area as I mentioned, I go there very often and yes, as you mentioned, we’re not achieving our things alone we are doing it within our community, supported by our community and fed by our community so going back to the community it becomes an important part of our work ethos, right?
So, as CEO of NINICO, what guiding philosophy do you bring to your role?
Nicholas E. Adams (07:01) That’s a great question. That’s a big question. Well, I would say as CEO of NINICO for the past 14 years, strategy always comes first, right? I, I task everybody on our team with really thinking strategically around what it is that we’re doing, how we’re deploying whatever that thing might be, whether it’s for ourselves internally at our agency, driving our brand promise and values and vision, or in most cases,
for our clients. So strategy first, you asked about a philosophy. Strategy first, execution always. And it’s And it’s really hand in glove. As a boutique agency, we’re all tasked with those things. Strategy first and execution always. And we’ll get into our conversation, I’m sure, at some point today around AI and the advent of AI and how we’re deploying that And that plays into strategy, both strategy and execution.
But I think, you know, philosophically, if you’re just executing on something that’s half baked, you’re not going to be creating ultimate success for whatever brand you’re trying to pour into. But really thinking creatively and strategically also means bringing all these other people in from the outside. How are we working as a team internally? But then let’s get out of that box and ensure that we’re working with other key partners and stakeholders externally. And that might not just be the client every
that might be a Chamber of Commerce, a Rotary Club, it might be some downtown unique initiative like some association that plays into the critical success of whatever it is that we’re working on. An industry group, right? Those are all part of the strategy. They have to be because if we’re only talking to back and forth here, what are we missing on the exterior?
Federico Ramallo (08:49) Interesting that you mentioned the Chamber of Commerce because I think that an AI, one of the things that I noticed with AI and we’re kind of going off topic here, anyway, with AI, something similar happened like with social networks that are supposed to unite us, but it makes us more isolated, right? Something similar is happening with
AI on the outreach, on the news, on the communications, because all of this now is generated with AI and it doesn’t resonate much with people. People are tired of that fake information, so to speak. And then, maybe not fake, but generic and blunt, right? And then I see that these type of organizations where
you meet with actual people and you’re working together has much more value within the times that we’re living now,
Nicholas E. Adams (09:46) That’s a really good point that you make. think, you know, this idea of, you know, B2B or B2C, yes, it might be relevant, but if you’re not connecting, you know, actual person to person as we are right now speaking, right, that you’re probably missing something, right? What, and I don’t know what it is that you’re missing, right? I can’t define that until I’m in the weeds on whatever that strategy or that process might be. I just returned, for example, from Atlanta where I was,
for almost a week with our mayor and half of our city council and 40 plus business and community leaders in the San Jose region to go study Atlanta. So let’s do a study mission with 50 people who are influencers in the region. But it’s not just talking, it’s let’s get into the weeds. Let’s actually go there. Let’s meet with the people who are driving success for Atlanta so that we can bring some of those big bold ideas back home to San Jose and shape
what success can look like here in our own town. Those things are so critically important to any industry, right? It’s then finding the mechanism and vehicle through which you actually get to plug in and do those things. AI is not gonna do those things for you. AI is not going to transport you to a different city to go sit down with these people face to face and get into the detail, that level of detail that is
so important that can actually move the needle for success back home wherever you are from and in your industry and in your business and with your team and with your clients. The domino effect is really incredible. So those things are very much important to me and it’s part of how I live my life and also lead our business.
Federico Ramallo (11:30) Right,
right. The value of being in the same room with the people, being able to look at them in the eyes, being able to shake their hands and being able to focus and getting to, as you mentioned, getting into the weeds of things, that becomes much more important. I agree. So how do you keep branding authentic while also reaching new audiences?
Nicholas E. Adams (11:53) Well, think branding is messaged in sort of an interesting way to the masses. I think branding is is all about, at least
you to, the general public about color scheme and logo treatment and taglines and how, you know, this idea of the visual representation of who you are as a company or as a business. And while that may be true,
I think branding goes back to telling what your truth is as a brand, as a company, as a team. So what is your truth? What is your promise? And then branding becomes the mechanism, the vehicle through which you tell that truth. Hopefully you tell that truth well, right? We, we don’t always talk about that. And I think that’s a failure of our industry, but we should talk about that a lot more. And my hope is that.
this idea of communications and creative coming together in a really bold and beautiful way continues to happen. We’re starting to see more of that. I think from the agency space, we’re seeing a lot more of that, especially in places like California and New York and even Texas. We’re seeing a lot of these things as I speak to other agency owners through our industry associations like Public Relations Society of America or AAF, American Advertising Federation, and others that we are connected to.
we’re starting to see that. But I think branding, when I boil it down, is telling your truth well, whatever that may be.
Federico Ramallo (13:20) Right, right. And I mentioned before, there’s a lot of noise that has been growing and growing and it becomes harder and harder to go, to punch through the nose, right? And having a powerful branding allows you to uniquely identify to the world, to the market, to the audience, right? In a very specific way, right?
So in what way is the Nico adapting to new marketing and communication trends?
Nicholas E. Adams (13:49) Well, that’s a great question. You know, I think we need to stay rooted in our values, right, while adapting to whatever message that might be for new audiences as we all grow. And we’re certainly leaning into digital and video and AI without losing that human connection. So here we go. We’re going to start talking about AI, right? I think the idea here of AI is something that we should not be scared of.
sort of started to come around in a big way a couple years ago. As we sit here, you know, in late September, early October of 2025, this has been something that we’ve all been looking at for, I think, long enough to realize it’s not going away, but at the same time, we shouldn’t be scared of it. So when we look back at other technology, a decade plus, 15, even 20 years, what that technology looks like over the course of those, you know, of those years.
and how we’ve used it, is it either a tool in our toolkit or is it this big scary monster that we don’t understand and we become frightened of so we start to fight? I don’t think we should be frightened of AI and I don’t think we should, you know, try to fight it. I think we should embrace it and I think it should be a tool in our toolkit, just like a lot of other technology has. And by the way, a lot of that other technology has allowed us
us to become incredibly connected and ultimately successful in the work that we do. Look at social media, right? Do you remember when Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and all these other platforms weren’t around and they started to come on the scene? I do. Do remember life without cell phones? Okay, I do. There are many folks who may watch this podcast who don’t remember those days, but you and I do. And the challenge, I think, or the opportunity
means that we can either look at this something as I’m gonna freak out because I don’t know how to define it and there’s no clarity around it or Let’s start to lean into it. Let’s not lose the human connection But let’s lean into it as a tool in our toolkit and for us at our agency at our business. We just released a few months ago our framework, our guidelines for AI Principles across our across our company and how we’re deploying
AI ethically,
and and how we’re doing that to also match what our industry is doing. The Public Relations Society of America is sort of the guiding light, is the go-to in our industry across America. And as they begin to uncover what they’re doing and how they’re starting to deploy their own guidelines and principles, we are taking what they are using and refining that and retooling that for for us.
and how that makes sense for California and the two communities that we’re in, especially San Jose and Los Angeles, but this idea of doing it ethically is really important to us.
Federico Ramallo (16:38) Yes, I think that’s key to the human connection, right? Because you’re still authentic and if you do the ethical values right, they should not be changing while the AI technologies will continue to evolve because they’re very fast, but the values will remain the same because they’re following rooted principles that give you the, you know,
the way to make the right decisions throughout the operation.
Nicholas E. Adams (17:07) There is a great AI ethicist and she’s actually based in Silicon Valley. She just completed a book. I highly recommend everyone who’s listening to this right now go Google “Olivia Gambelin” and you will find a plethora of information around her and her writing. But she is a brilliant AI ethicist that is now at the forefront of what you and I are talking about right now. And I find it very interesting that more and more businesses are starting to become interested
sit in that conversation because I don’t think they were a year or two ago. But now as OpenAI has come out with theirs, as Google has come out with theirs, as Meta continues to roll out theirs, I mean, there’s a lot more conversation around AI ethics. So I find it compelling to have that conversation more broadly.
Federico Ramallo (17:55) Right,
right. I always talk about the innovation versus regulation, right? I mean, if you go to the airplane industries, you have lots of regulations that hinders innovation because safety first, right? Which makes sense. But means…
Nicholas E. Adams (18:13) We could talk about that all day. mean, there’s a whole nother conversation
around that. Let’s do another hour on that in a few weeks. The idea of advancing smart policy is paramount. If you have advocacy initiatives that you’re surrounding yourself with for your business and your industry to ensure that smart policy is getting enacted, or at least in front of the folks who…
have the keys to open the powerful doors for your brand and your business, that is mission critical. So advancing smart policy for the business community is something I’m really passionate about, but doing it ethically has got to be there. so that is, I think that’s actually a unique opportunity for our business community. And when I say that, mean all businesses, all industries, let’s be agnostic about how we’re doing that, but it’s the celebration of our business community at large across.
America, we are not doing as well as we should in that category. So I think that policy advancement for these things that we’re talking about today becomes really important, especially for places like California.
Federico Ramallo (19:19) Right, right. And the value that I see on starting building these ethical principles is that these are voluntarily incorporated into the organizations, right? And that voluntarily adopting them means that they value the ethical principles enough to make those changes to
operate ethically and that becomes the initial seed for smart policies.
Nicholas E. Adams (19:47) agree 100 % agree with that.
Federico Ramallo (19:51) Awesome. And I will be happy to do another hour on talking just about that because, yeah, fine. I’m very passionate about that as well. So what major challenges have you faced as CEO and how did you overcome them?
Nicholas E. Adams (20:06) Well, that’s a loaded question. think I face challenges every day.
I think there are some CEOs out there who will absolutely say, I rise above those challenges in, you know, many years ago and I don’t have these anymore. Well, that’s not true. That doesn’t exist. We have challenges literally every day. There are things that land on my plate every day that might be something I’ve dealt with in the past, might not. It might be something new. might be something fresh. And that’s okay. I think the way I overcome obstacles is first by looking at it as an opportunity.
to
learn because I learn daily and be careful of talking to business leaders and brands who say we don’t learn there’s nothing left to learn that’s
That’s not true at all. But the way I think overcome some of those challenges is by looking at it as a growth opportunity, but also at that whatever that we’re trying to overcome by trusting my team. I can’t do that alone. I don’t do it alone, right? I mean, if we can trust our team internally and have these really big knife and fork conversations, these meaty, heavy conversations, then I think we grow from that experience as well.
and also being a business leader or a CEO at a company and going to your team and saying, you know what, I don’t have all the answers. That’s a powerful thing. But I think it’s a human thing. And I think it’s a thing that people respond well to. I don’t always have the answer. And maybe someone else on our team does. Or we get in the room and we start, you know, putting ideas up on the whiteboard and brainstorming around how we get to that answer collectively. Again, this goes back to this whole
Mantra of mine power of partnership. I think you know by doing it yourself You’re probably missing big opportunities and you might come up with the wrong answer But by putting other key partners in your space and doing it collectively you might get to the answer You might get there faster You might get there easier right or you might learn something about yourself and your team and your business So I think I overcome challenges by by trusting my team certainly having a number two
who you can trust implicitly really, really helps. Sarah Farrant, who is our vice president, who really runs our business, is an incredible leader of our company, but also in our industry. I don’t know what I would do without her. Our clients are successful because of her leadership, and our team is grounded in their ethics in our industry because of her vision and the quiet leadership that she
possesses. I think that unique partnership of of that CEO and a vice president or a CEO and a COO or a board leader and a CEO if you’re in a nonprofit sector or in a tech community. I think that balance is really important. You know, I’ve seen dozens of times with startups that I’ve coached or CEOs founders of of tech startups in and around Silicon
Valley who don’t know how to listen and a lot of times they they don’t know how to listen because they don’t know how to be quiet long enough to listen and those who can stay quiet long enough to listen they have not been able and in many cases to strike that balance between listening to their internal team and listening to their board or listening to their advisors you know we all work for somebody
We all work for somebody, right? I might be a CEO of a company, but I still work for my clients. And showing up every single day for our clients is important. And you’ve got to do it. And so there’s this balance that CEOs need to strike.
Federico Ramallo (23:43) Yes, I agree. I think it’s a delicate balance between stubbornness and sensitivity. Because as you mentioned, I’ve seen founders as well that you’re talking to them and they’re really preparing the answer to give you, but they’re not listening to you, right? So I find that frustrating. But also a little bit of stubbornness because as CEO, we are pushing a vision of things that
maybe nobody else see or a few people see, right? So it’s behind a hill. So now we have to keep pushing forward to get there without seeing the final goal, right? So being able to project that vision and being able to have that, I call it stubbornness, probably that’s not the best word, but this idea of pushing forward, even when the whole world is telling us we’re going in the wrong direction, right? Being able to convert dreams into reality, right?
And we need a little bit of that, but also a sensitivity to know when we need to listen, right? Because without that balance, it’s hard. mean, you can go to a dark side on one way or the other,
Nicholas E. Adams (24:50) But you can, I agree with that. You can also look at, you know, many, many examples of leaders in politics, in business, in technology who live their life that way as well to power forward, to continue to advance whatever mission or goal they may have. From, you know, George Washington. Do you think that he, I mean, right? There’s, do you think there was a moment that he said, no, maybe this isn’t for me.
Perhaps, but he didn’t let on to that, right? It was constant motivation. was constant movement. Bob Iger, who is one of my business heroes, CEO of the Walt Disney Company. Do you think there are moments in his days where he feels maybe not defeated, but challenged? Of course, but there’s constant foot on the gas pedal because he surrounds himself with the right players, the right people. He’s not doing it by himself, right? These are business leaders who actually understand that. So when you can look at brain,
and businesses like that who keep their foot on the gas pedal even when industry is changing, those are the businesses and business leaders to look at, right? Warren Buffett, leaders of Adobe or Google, right? These are titans of industry for a reason.
Federico Ramallo (26:01) Right, right. And then when the achievement, when they achieve things, right? I remember an interview with Bezos when he was talking about what Amazon was. And it was in the 90s and nobody would understand internet yet. So the interviewer was asking questions because they wouldn’t understand the concept, grasping the concept he was talking about, right? And now he became…
He built a multi-billion company based on that vision. having that force to, as you said, keep pushing the pedal forward. I think that’s something that I admire as well.
So how do you see the future of marketing evolving in the next decades?
Nicholas E. Adams (26:47) In the next decade, well, I’m not sure that my crystal ball is as clear as yours. I’m not sure that I can predict 10 years from now, but I will say in the next couple years, I think, you know, it’s going to be more personal. It’s going to have to be more personal. Marketing will have to become even more personal than it has been because of technology. And if we don’t create something that’s more personal, if our industry doesn’t move in that direction, I think we’re
going to see some fallout because of that. So I think it will be more personal. I think it will be even more data driven than it is now. And I think it’s going to be truly global. And I think global is a word that we all throw around in our marketing communications industry, but we sometimes don’t know what that really means. I think we will truly see marketing have this unique shift to global communications in a way we have not seen before.
And we’ve already in the past two to three years seen mass consolidation of marketing communications, public relations, advertising agencies. We’re starting to see that with big agencies as well. And this reach, this idea of global becomes even more important from a messaging standpoint, but more important than messaging, I think it’s how do you remain relevant and meaningful while ensuring that you are global, right? You’ve got to remain
relevant and meaningful as you are expanding. If you’re not remaining those two things,
Those are not the only two things, but those are two big ones. If you’re not remaining relevant and meaningful to your audiences, to your consumers, to your clients, you’re going to slip pretty fast. So I think there’s probably more than those three things, but marketing will probably be more personal, more data-driven, and I think more global.
Federico Ramallo (28:29) Right, right. Yeah, and the concept of hyper-personalization is becoming more relevant because of that. Yeah, I agree. We talk a little bit about AI, right? But I want to expand a little bit on what role do you think AI will play in shaping communication and branding?
Nicholas E. Adams (28:48) Well, it depends on who you talk to. You know, I think it’s going to help us work smarter. It’s already helping us work faster. I think it’s going to help us work with more precision, a little bit more focus. But you’ve gotta keep keep that human connection present.
So I think if If it allows us to work smarter and faster and with more precision, that’s all great. But we can’t lose that human connection. And that’s really, I think, the sort of foundation upon which we have built our business’, our company’s, guiding principles around this AI usage and and the way we’re going to deploy and the way we are deploying this technology. Yes, it’s going to help us be faster and maybe work a little bit
closer to what it is that we need to accomplish. Probably save us a lot of time as well. But we can’t lose that human connection because we have sensitivities galore. Can you imagine a public relations agency dealing with the sensitive content that we have coming into our office on a daily, into our email inbox on a daily? We can’t just be putting this information into AI platforms
know, willy-nilly and assuming it’s safe out there. It’s not. We know that it’s not. So we have to be very cognizant of these things as we’re starting to explore with the technology and and actually, even in some cases, deploy this technology for client work, internal work, etc. And I think that is not something that most businesses are talking about.
Federico Ramallo (30:17) Right, right. I see a parallel when we start talking about privacy online, you know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, something like that. With now AI, we’re starting to have a new conversation about privacy because all of the rules of engagement have changed so dramatically and we haven’t figured out how the extent of the impact that all of this has.
And that is generating a lot of question marks, right? What is going to happen? How are we going to solve this, right?
Nicholas E. Adams (30:51) And I think there are some…
industry associations and universities that are beginning to study some of these things that are actually uncovering some good opportunities and I think driving some good conversation. Santa Clara University, which is Silicon Valley’s Jesuit University, they have this incredible program called the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and they are starting to do some work in this space. That’s one that I’m starting
to look at a little bit closely and study some of that and see if there’s opportunity to pull from universities like this and research programs. The tech museum innovation now called Tech Interactive is starting to do some of this as well with their Bowers Institute. So there are are places and people out there that are starting to do some of this really good work.
Federico Ramallo (31:40) Right, right. And I remember this phrase of a friend of mine was saying that Silicon Valley is this 35 square miles of land surrounded by reality, right? And I think that a lot of the innovation that is happening on Silicon Valley then, you know, expand to the rest of the world, right? And I think that’s where it starts.
Nicholas E. Adams (32:08) You know, I spend a lot of time in our Los Angeles office. And so Silicon Beach has quite a presence, obviously, in Southern California. And there’s Silicon Prairie in the Midwest. And there’s Silicon Alley in Manhattan. You know, there are these places, these hubs of innovation. I do think that they’re
they’re learning something in a profound way. And what they’re learning is this idea of innovation does not happen when you don’t bring people together. Innovation only happens when you bring people together. And I think that’s, if that’s something that Silicon Valley and the capital of Silicon Valley, San Jose, can share with the rest of the world. And what a beautiful, powerful legacy for my region of the world to be able to
to share with the rest of the globe and the rest of humanity. I think it’s incredible.
Federico Ramallo (32:58) Yes, and having this impact beyond our lives, our community, our surroundings, and see how what we’re doing has a global impact and is changing people’s life across the globe. think that’s very powerful.
So what practice do you use to foster creativity within your team?
Nicholas E. Adams (33:17) That’s a great question. I think there’s a lot of different ways that we can talk about creativity and maybe even the way that AI is starting to play a role in how we are creative. And that’s something that is true and honest. AI is starting to allow businesses and brands to become creative by sparking conversation points where it’s not maybe deploying all of the strategies
that AI is putting out, but the brand or business leader is taking some nuggets of wisdom that the technology is actually starting to create from sort of the brainstorming piece of it at least, and that becomes then the catalyst for the conversation and strategy piece of it. So AI and that technology can be leveraged, I think, for some really good things. I think this idea of creativity, though, has got to be collaborative, right?
can’t just be technology. You know, it’s an opportunity, but it’s got to be guided by people and values. And I think our creative language and our creative ethos has also got to be driven by people and values that are connected to something bigger than just themselves and their business. I think some of the most creative people in the world see that and actually communicate that as well. They become evangelists
for that creativity and that creative process. I think some of the most creative people in the world show us how to be creative. They don’t tell us how to be creative. And I think there’s a uniqueness and something really powerful there as well.
Federico Ramallo (34:50) Amazing. What role does social responsibility, you talk a little bit about social responsibility, but I want to give you opportunity to expand on it. What role does social responsibility play in an eco’s culture?
Nicholas E. Adams (35:04) Well, I think social responsibility is just baked into our DNA as a company, as a business. It’s how we define our success. It’s this whole idea of power of partnership. You know, there’s a reason why we trademarked that with USPTO. Power of partnership is not just something that we put up on our wall or on our business card. It’s not just lip service. It’s actually who we are as a brand and as a business. This idea of being a good corporate citizen
truly having
the driving effect on the success of our business, our business development pipeline, our clients, the better understanding of what motivates their business. We can’t understand how to communicate their brand effectively until we understand their business, their business challenges, what their paths to revenue might be, right? All of those things. So this idea of power of partnership and return on involvement,
The
new ROI is not return on investment. It’s this idea of return on involvement It goes back to this question that you’re asking about sort of the responsibility factor I think I believe because I’ve seen it work really well that when you embed yourself in your business and your brand in the community that you live and you work and you play That it has a tremendous positive effect on your business and your bottom line
but also about how the region approaches who you are as a business leader and quite frankly how they want to work with you and So I think it’s a very powerful statement when companies are incredibly, you know involved in their community in volunteerism
But also beyond that, involved in their industry associations that can help create positive change and effect for whatever it is that they’re trying to accomplish, whatever that goal, that big goal is. If you are involved with associations that can…
move the needle in a powerful way, again, you’re leaning into this idea of I’m doing it with others and I’m probably going to learn something about myself and my own business because of that.
Federico Ramallo (37:21) Amazing, Yeah, I was going to ask you about the power of partnership, but you explained it so eloquently. How do you see business leaders balancing profitability with social impact?
Nicholas E. Adams (37:32) with social impact? Well, unfortunately, the truth is I don’t see that happening as frequently as I should. Unfortunately, I’d like to see a lot more of it. And yes, of course, there are businesses out there that are doing this, this idea of balance. I think profit and purpose are are not opposites that
Federico Ramallo (37:34) social impact, yes.
Ha
Nicholas E. Adams (38:01) Profit and purpose should reinforce each other. They can reinforce each other But you really have to believe that and you have to you have to work really hard at that. I think that this idea of Partnership can actually enhance a business development pipeline. I think really strong strategic marketing and messaging processes can
influence and educate a business development goal. But I think you’ve got to have a team that really believes that. And I I work with people all the time who see that and create success. And I work with people all the time who see that, but they don’t believe it.
And so they lean into maybe a slightly different message or they are working on the same objective that somebody else might be working on. But the people who don’t understand profit and purpose, as I’m talking about it, they’re approaching the work differently. They might ultimately be successful, but they’re approaching the work differently and…
the community they’re surrounding them themselves with and by looks and feels and sounds very different. So hopefully I’m communicating this effectively to you and your listeners, but I really think profit and purpose are not opposites.
Federico Ramallo (39:21) Right, right, yeah I agree with you, profits and purpose, there’s a way to align them, there are situations where social impact and profitability could have opposites, but they’re not mutually exclusive, there are places where you can have both, finding those, I think it’s important having a business with a social mission.
right, social impact mission. I think is important, right. And I was talking with a founder that he was saying that instead of doing a non-profit organization and raising funds, getting donations, that the donation was a distraction for his mission. He would rather be profitable because now he has the independence to pursue the mission, right.
So I can see how that is happening, right? And he was pursuing a mission with social impact, but also making the company profitable so it could be self-sustainable, right?
Nicholas E. Adams (40:19) It is… I like where you’re going with this.
to continue that conversation, you know, we are engaged in nonprofit work very often in both of our regions. And people will often ask me, well, why are we going to do work, you know, with this organization? Why do you lean so hard into that one nonprofit or these few, you know, 501c3 organizations that you’re doing work with? First of all, nonprofit, it really bothers me that nonprofit gets thrown into this weird category.
It’s a business. It might be an arts business. It might be an education business. It might be a youth development or a health and humanitarian services sort of business. But 501c3 and nonprofit is just their exemption status for tax purposes. I think the minute you get out of that box and start thinking of them as a legit business, you look at them differently. And I certainly do.
talk about that, right? That’s not of importance. What is important is ensuring that their mission is being served. And by the way, when you lean hard into those organizations that are doing well, but also doing good, you create the stickiness that ultimately then powers your own business development pipeline. How many times have I
partnered with a non-profit organization in whatever industry and some board member on that organization’s board has come to us and said, hey, I’m the CEO of whatever organization that this tech company or this retail or real estate company, very powerful influencer who was a board member of this non-profit, come to us and said, I wanna do business with you. I like the way you’re doing business, right? And so then it accelerates our business development.
goal, but we would never have even achieved that new client, that board member, that company, if we had not been engaged in the community in that powerful way. So again, this idea of balance, this idea of profit and purpose are not opposites is very much how we move our business forward.
Federico Ramallo (42:25) Amazing. That’s an amazing story. Unfortunately, we’re running out of time, but I want to appreciate you being here today. Do you want to share some final remarks before we wrap it up?
Nicholas E. Adams (42:37) I’m very appreciative of the time that you have given me, Federico, thank you very much. To all of your listeners, my hope is that you maybe learned one or two nuggets of wisdom here. And if you didn’t, there’s a whole litany of opportunity for you to continue to engage with your own industry. And my ask of your listeners is to go out and get involved and realize a new partnership, whatever that may be.
whatever partnership might look like for them, however they might define partnership, whether that’s internally or externally for them, for themselves, their business, their industry, go create a new bold, unique, powerful partnership.
Federico Ramallo (43:17) Amazing,
Nicholas, thank you very much for joining us today.
Nicholas E. Adams (43:23) Thank you.