It takes a special knack coupled with profound knowledge of the PR business to run an office like GolinHarris in Tokyo. Five months into his tenure as managing director, Eiichi Onozawa has revealed that knack and more as he remains focused on growing the business and expanding the scope of the GH brand in Japan. Only a year ago, Eiichi was looking forward to some quality time away from work after 35 years of dedicated service to sister IPG agency, Weber Shandwick. But if you were to meet him, you’d know exactly why he’s right back in the saddle and looking very much to the future.

Over nearly four decades working in PR, Eiichi has helped strategize programs in trading, telecommunications, aerospace and IT, and once spent seven incident-free years dealing with crisis communications for Boeing. But after a brief, premature retirement in which he did some traveling in France and Thailand and spent time with his wife and three grown children, Eiichi felt he still had years of active duty left in him. When word came from Takeo Nishitani, head of Weber Shandwick and the CMG Group in Tokyo, that GolinHarris' top job in Tokyo needed filling, he knew exactly what he wanted to be doing.

Since starting at GolinHarris, Eiichi has made sure that the building blocks in Tokyo are in place. "The future of PR activities at the Tokyo office will be based on five pillars: public affairs, travel & hospitality, brand marketing communications, product communications and crisis communications," says Eiichi, who has systematically arranged his staff so that teams of specialists look after accounts pertaining to their discipline. "We have a great list of clients who seek our services in all these areas already," he says, "like, PhRMA for public affairs, some high-profile brands like Hilton and Shangri-La Hotels, tourism commissions of the State of Oregon and Tahiti for travel & hospitality; SC Johnson for product communications; Jaguar, Land Rover and DHL for brand marketing; and Bio-Rad for crisis communications."

With these five pillars up and running, Eiichi must on many days don his crisp business suits to briefly meet and chat with all the clients in his care. On the days when he is in the office pursuing new business and running the office in general, Eiichi can be found wearing a casual suit with a faded and distressed designer shirt and matching, stylish tie reflecting his youthful spirit and "work hard, play hard" attitude. On weekends one can find Eiichi driving his family down to the beach house in his shiny convertible, making a point to stop by for breakfast at his favorite restaurant... McDonald’s.

Eiichi Onozawa, managing director of GolinHarris in Tokyo can be contacted at eonozawa@golinharris.com or tel: +81-3-5484-6001.

One does not need to delve deeply to find an innovative success story from the consumer products practice in Taipei. The team, led by account director Victor Chen, has coordinated a streak of creative consumer campaigns this year that have ensured happy clients and even happier staff.

Earlier in the year, the team led a campaign that saw more than 626 women broaden the local definition of beauty for Dove with an event where women of all shapes and sizes embraced their own natural beauty. To top that triumph, the team continued its work with Unilever to position the Mod’s Hair brand as "cool and fun." The team conceptualized the innovative concept of the "Bomb Squad" – Mod’s Hair ambassadors of cool – who helped raise awareness of the fun and energetic graffiti culture. The event culminated in a 1,000-person strong dance party at Taiwan’s hottest club, with each of the seven GH team members attending.

"The team is able to continuously create innovative campaigns for a number of reasons," said Victor. "First, the team is young and energetic, allowing them to absorb new information and stay on top of the latest trends. Second, while each member of the team has their own area of expertise, they are eager to share their knowledge. Finally, an overwhelming passion for work results in top performances."

To stimulate the team, Chen notes that the group gathers once a month at a restaurant as a break from work. There, they can share stories and grow together as a team. This culture provides Chen his greatest accomplishment since becoming an account director – a zero percent staff turnover rate.

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