The Irving firm built a durable PR business by declining to know a little about everything. Its real product is context - the civic, financial and real-estate kind that makes complicated messages land.
CIM Marketing Partners built a business by coordinating every marketing channel. Its most revealing result, though, came when research persuaded a client not to market anything at all.

After two decades moving between accounting, regulation, and software, BDO Canada's chief marketer has turned one small word inside the firm's name into a practical test for culture, clients, and change.