July 21, 2002

Facing Challenges A Joyful Task

As an American career woman, Whitney F. Small has been living and working alone in Asia for the past 17 years. Whitney was recently appointed the Managing Director of Hoffman Asia Pacific, and this is her first trip to Beijing since her promotion. I made a special trip to interview this tall American woman, so unlike her surname,“Small”.

Whitney's resume told me that she was Regional Director of Marketing and Sales for the Parks and Resorts Division of Walt Disney Company before she joined Hoffman. Before she joined Disney Asia Pacific, she had a five-year stint as vice-president, managing director of Burson-Masteller, the largest PR agency worldwide, in its Thailand representative office.

When I asked her why she chose to join Hoffman in spite of the downturn in the hi-tech industry, she replied that Hoffman was the only PR agency from the Silicon Valley focusing on the IT sector, and it is the fourth largest PR agency in Silicon Valley -- these were good enough reasons to motivate her to take this step. “The joy of living life comes from facing challenges," she said, "Adversity in fact often brings out the best in people. You end up putting in greater efforts not only in enforcement but also in planning. Then you no doubt achieve better results for your better efforts."

Whitney believes that the IT industry is going through temporary difficulties, as it is still a growing industry. In addition, she believes that PR professionals need to constantly develop and gain new skills due to the rapidly changing nature of technology. Furthermore, she believes that her work experience in Disney also played a major role in the success of her career. Her time in that company taught her a great deal about business operation and management, which not only familiarized her with and gave her a better understanding of business operation but also made her more aware of the challenges many enterprises face, and thus enabled her to better understand the needs of various clients.

She offers her own perspective on the PR sector. Whitney believes that PR is a form of two-way communication, in which the client transmits information on the products or services of his or her company with the help of a PR agency, so as to persuade others to consider and accept the products or services She disagrees with the idea that presenting an attractive image of a particular company is the function of PR.

"In that case, it would not be long before the image of the company concerned, as presented to the public, becomes a mere construct of the PR agency, rather than its true image. How long can you go on hiding the truth? Eventually, the truth will come out," says Whitney. Every organization has its own individual culture and traditions, based on its regular practices -- its true image, and accurately positioning and distributing the specialties of the organization concerned, is the main function of a PR agency. She believes that PR emphasizes problem solving -- that is, finding out the problems from the client, adopting a series of effective methods, such as planning taking relevant action by planning some appropriate activities, to help the client company resolve its problems and achieve its goals. Problems can in fact sometimes bring more opportunities, she adds.

Whitney loves China and has fully adjusted to life here. She has a great interest in oriental civilization, inspired by her parents when they brought some works of Chinese calligraphy for her from a trip to China. A Thai maid of Chinese origin has actually been by her side for the past 10 years, and they got along very well. Whenever Whitney goes out to run errands, her maid takes care of her beloved dog. However, there was one snag -- the dog always had to stay behind whenever Whitney would go home to America to visit family, as air travel for the dog cost much more than it did for Whitney herself. That proved to be no problem at all, as the maid would take excellent care of the dog even in Whitney's absence, to the point of spoiling her pet -- the privileged dog becomes too fat to be a little silly.

In her spare time, she often invites a few friends for billiards on her gigantic billiards table. When she is in a more solitary mood, she often spends hours at home making bijouterie. When I asked her if she planned to settle in Hong Kong, she jokingly and readily said, “yes,” as her billiards table was too big to leave behind.

She also enjoys reading. Whitney prefers to read books of different types at the same time. She lives by the motto: “Learn something new everyday and complete as many tasks as possible, because tomorrow will definitely bring more and more opportunities and challenges.”

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