I have just returned from our 1st very successful “Hamptons Roundtable” event held at 5WPR’s luxurious East Hamptons summer residence. If you weren’t with us, you missed a good group of business networking and a real good time.

We look forward to bringing brands, businesses, tastemakers and celebrities together in the Hamptons this summer, and as I said during my welcome speech “If you aren’t here to do business, don’t come…”

Pick up this week’s Business Week (June 5th edition) for a good description of what we will be doing in the Hamptons this summer.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR

It has been a personally rewarding experience to watch the brightest and most ambitious young leaders and future PR pros from across the country interview for internships at 5WPR. So many of these kids are hungry and ready to succeed – it’s a similar energy that we foster here at 5W.

I am very proud that we have developed one of the most competitive and highly sought after internship programs in the PR industry. Many prospective interns came to our office telling us that their professors or friends in the field advised them to apply here. The success of our internship program is predicated on the same philosophy that led to the unprecedented growth and success of 5WPR. That is, we always encourage our interns to work harder, to be aggressive, and to take on and appreciate greater responsibility.

Unlike many other companies, an internship at 5WPR is not about getting your boss a cup of coffee. Rather, we’ve fostered an environment where our interns will learn, practice, and execute the fundamental skills required in the public relations industry.

While I cannot stress enough the importance of a formal education, in many ways, we’ve geared our internship program at my company to create a “secondary education” for our interns so that they can learn firsthand about all facets of the public relations industry. We believe that interns are part of the workplace and that all great companies must understand how to tactfully combine their corporate objectives with the goals and interests of the interns themselves.

5WPR has developed a reputation throughout the PR industry for representing hungry, passionate, and relentlessly driven clients. The best way to cater to this type A personality is to imbue our company with an intense energy that starts with our interns and moves upward to the corner offices.

I look forward to meeting each of the 14 interns who are currently working at our NY office this summer. Furthermore, I’d like to dispel the rumor that we never hire our interns for PR Jobs – over the past few months, we’ve hired eight as junior associates.

Ronn Torossian, CEO and President of 5WPR.

Ronn Torossian, CEO 5WPR on Business

I found this week’s New York Magazine article on the most influential New Yorkers to be further validation of the reason of 5W’s continued explosive growth. We are run by our founder as entrepreneurs, and are independent.

In the description of the PR section, the article spoke of how the 2 leading NY PR firms/media companies (which I would describe as our primary competitors) are “caught between generations,” and how the 74 year old chairman of 1 firm is handing over the reins to his son (always a recipe for disaster), and how another firm owner left the agency to “make films.”

While I was quite happy to read this, I was further validated in reviewing 2005 PR industry rankings and it came to me that not another owner of 1 of the 50 largest PR firms is under the age of 45 – Not 1, and maybe 3 are under the age of 50. That is absurd in an industry driven by creativity, hunger and passion. It’s why we succeed.

5WPR will be 1 of the 25 largest independent PR firms in the US in 2006.

We grow because:
1) More than half of our clients are entrepreneurs and like to know that we have someone who cares about their business and owns this agency running the show.
2) We have at least 75% of our clients under the age of 50 and we uniquely understand them as our competitors do not.
3) Our staff is more diverse racially, ethnically and in every way than any other firm – From Vietnam Vets to yoga instructors, former school teachers to former Producers. Our staff ranges in age from 20-60+.
4) We care more, work harder and are simply better.

I hope my primary competitors continue to be caught between generations, make great movies and pass the reins in a clumsy manner from legendary father to the silver-spooned son.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR