As we look forward to the upcoming holiday season, we must be careful that in using the Internet and other of today's automated ways of buying, selling and communicating, we do not lose the human touch that converts transactions into services.

Service is that unique value that only one human being can offer to another. What makes something memorable isn't just its quality or value but the human experience and satisfaction that goes with it.

As professionals, we give our best effort to the work at hand.  To do less would be to deprive ourselves and our clients of the quality of imagination, invention and service that is our heritage.

In thinking of the essence of the forthcoming holidays, I was reminded of a poem, a copy of which I always keep near at hand because it defines what we must always resist.

It is by William Wordsworth who, even in his time, rejected the philosophy of pure materialism.  He wrote:


"The World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"

At Wunderman, we are in the business of encouraging both getting and spending but we do not, and will not ever, give away our sense of human values.  Our tradition has always been to provide both work and service that is both state of the art and state of the heart.

My best wishes to all for the holiday season and the year to come.