Looking at Alexander Jutkowitz
Beginning in May 2017, Alexander Jutkowitz became the US CEO of Hill & Knowlton, Inc., a subsidiary of Hill+Knowlton where he also serves as Chief Global Strategist and Vice Chairman. He has also filled the position at Group SJR of CEO since 2014, Group SJR is a digital and content firm acquired by H+K. At H+K he works with global clients on their strategies regarding public relations and content with the focus of increasing the return on investment for those clients. In the past, Jutkowitz also was the CEO of Truffle Pig and Colloquial.
Over the years, more than 20 to be exact, he’s worked as a political pollster, content creator, brand strategist, digital architect, and many points in between. All this while working for clients in more than 30 countries overseeing their communications and marketing for non-profits, governments, political campaigns, trade associations, and multinational corporations. Some clients have included Dell, Target, TED, General Electric, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Sony, American Airlines, Credit Suisse, Disney, and governments such as Kazakhstan, Mexico, and Columbia.
He also is a popular speaker and advisor for C-level executives and conferences geared toward them. Since late in 2015 he’s been a Director at The Advertising Council, Inc., is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, and is on the board of overseers for Columbia Journalism review.
After his recent promotion, Jutkowitz said: “This transition will be a huge opportunity for all of us to develop new skills and work in parts of the businesses that are new to us – to color outside the lines and sharpen our competitive edge. We’ll also be working as a single company, convening talent and resources from everywhere in the U.S. and measuring our profits and losses in the same way.”
With help from Jukowitz, H+K saw increased revenue growth in 2016, part of which came directly from Group SJR with a 26% revenue growth.
In a recent article Jukowitz shared on his LinkedIn account, he wrote about finding creative talent. He advised to stop looking for the “unicorn,” which is a myth and instead look for real people who take a different approach to problems. When your company is not the biggest or the strongest competitor, using a different approach can win the day. But he also advised that you should look for people who are collaborators and are willing to work hard, put in the extra time to come up with winning ideas and then see them through.
Clearly, Alexander Jutkowitz has applied those requirements to his career allowing him to rise to the top. But one additional word of advice. Change things up often, he mentioned Google’s logo on their home page, have you noticed it is always changing, even coded to show a birthday message for those who have Gmail accounts or other Google offerings. Again, Jutkowitz seems to have mastered this ability as well.
