Last night, at the awards gala of the Toronto Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Environics Communications was named Large Agency of the Year for 2010.

It was also gratifying to win The Bobbie Resnick Philanthropy Award for our charitable work at the same time.

Last month, the Great Place to Work Institute named our firm as #1 on the list of Best Workplaces in Canada for 2010. All of these honors reflect our commitment to the triple bottom-line concept of profit for the company, the community and our people.

This is a winning year for Environics and we should feel proud. At the same time, I am aware these and other awards have come from an unrelenting mix of creative thinking, experienced counsel, careful execution, integrity and plain old hard work. We can never rest on past glories because our clients have come to expect our high standards to continue day after day, week after week, year after year.

The challenge in the agency business is understanding the big picture but also taking care of the details. The vision has to be right, but the financial practices have to be sound. The hiring should be smart but the training must be generous. The entrepreneurial drive must be strong, but there also needs to be a supportive and caring culture. Agency managers at every level need to match communications savvy with emotional intelligence skills.

It is impossible to assign weighting to these myriad skills and considerations that create and maintain success. The priority would vary by the day or the hour, even if we could. It also takes the whole team practicing these skills for the agency to succeed. We have been particularly diligent at Environics about recruiting people who recognize this team philosophy.

Our friends at Argyle Communications did very well too at the IABC event, picking up several awards including People’s Choice Award for best campaign of the year and the title of Mid-Sized Agency of the Year for 2010! Congratulations! Lastly, my thanks and congratulations to the IABC team for a very well run event.