The Perfect Storm: Olympic Edition
When Uncertainties Converge, Stay Steady at the Helm
by Joe Goldblatt | Published in January 2007 Event Currents
During the tumultuous period following Sept. 11, 2001, Bill Morton, chairman of Jack Morton Worldwide, one of the world’s largest event and experience marketing firms, identified what he described as “the perfect storm.”
And after 60 years of doing business, his company was in the eye of it.
The company was contracted to produce the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, to take place in 2004. But as 2001 drew to a close, it was clear that forces he couldn’t control were at work.
“The general economy had been slowing, a major terrorist act had further damaged our ability to grow and sustain the business, and the Iraq war had created further uncertainty in the markets,” Morton says.
A survey of events industry professionals confirms the singular potency of this storm: the economy was overwhelmingly chosen as the number-one problem facing the industry in 2001, according to the Event Solutions Black Book. The threat of terrorism was number two.
How did Morton and his team of event leaders overcome these serious challenges and threats and go on just three years later to produce the opening and closing ceremonies of the world’s largest event?
The short answer is that they discovered and used a business secret far more powerful than the ancient oracle in Delphi.
The long answer? According to Morton, who was president and CEO of the company at the time, it can be encapsulated in just four words: steady as she goes.
The phrase does not appear in most business school textbooks. However, a fundamental truth of all organizations is that without stable leadership, as exemplified in this instance by Morton, there is little incentive for anyone to show up for work and much less incentive to follow that leader.
Morton believes that true leadership is based upon a leader’s ability to cultivate and transmit hope to others. Jack Morton Worldwide’s international president, Lois Jacobs, stated that when Morton acquired her previous firm, Caribener, she agreed to join Morton’s team because she knew and greatly respected Morton’s reputation for steady and solid leadership over many years.
For his part, Morton acknowledges that the cultivation and transmission of hope to your team members is something that results from consistent and steady performance by the leader during times of great pressure, such as the period he now refers to as the perfect storm.
However, when the leader is successful at not only cultivating a sense of hope but also transmitting this belief to others, the organization is better positioned for future sustainable success. And Jack Morton Worldwide has through both perilous times as well as glorious times achieved the kind of sustainable success others would do well to emulate.
The result of his steady hand in leadership? The largest television audience in history tuned in to watch these magnificent ceremonies — estimated at 3.5 billion people around the world. The perfect storm had become, as journalists took to calling it, “the miracle in Greece.”
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles based upon interviews conducted by Joe Goldblatt with the world’s top strategic event leaders, including producers of the Olympic Games, the NFL Super Bowl Half-Time Spectacular, major corporate and social events, and conferences and expositions. Next: Bill Morton describes how his firm managed the planning and production of the opening and closing ceremonies in half the time that is normally available for an event of this magnitude.