► Tina Bassett: Ad Woman of the Year. Plan Of Action 01 ' o- •-• 01 1 any people make plans. Few put them into action. Very few make them work. Yet Tina Bassett is one of the very few. "In my professional life I always knew where I was go- ing," she says. Her direction was a path toward owning her own firm. One thing she did not plan was to work toward that goal with a husband. Tina met Leland Bassett at a business meeting 15 years ago. She was advertising director for Kresco, Inc., a restaurant holding firm. He was vice president of com- munications for the Greater Detroit Chamber of Com- merce. From the moment they met, Tina says, "we planned and built toward that mo- ment of opportunity" when they could open their own communications company. "We made decisions that we would gain our work ex- perience and build our net- working so when the time came to open our firm we would be known quantities in the marketplace," Bassett says. Then three years ago, when twin sons Robert and Josh, now 25, left home, Bassett and her husband quit their jobs and formed Bassett and Bassett, Inc. Three years later, the business, Bassett and Bassett, Inc., is successful enough for Tina Bassett to receive the Advertising Woman of the Year award from the Detroit Women's Advertising Club. Filmmaker Sue Marx, who has known Bassett for 15 years, nominated her for the award. She calls Bassett, "in- teligent, supportive, efficient, quick, creative. She's my idea of what a woman executive is all about. She's soft, in the sense that she has a very giv- ing nature, but she can also be tough — I've seen both sides?' Bassett says although many women are in the communica- tions business, not enough are at the top. "If you look at the top heads of the major advertising com- panies in the country, they are not women. Nor are the top heads of the major public relations firms. It makes you wonder, are we really making progress; are we making it in- to the boardroom?" "- Bassett does not see pre- judice against women, rather, "It's just part of the working cycle that women have been out there and the oppor- tunities to move forward are coming, but they're coming slowly." Marx praises Bassett for her interest in "networking with women. I think that's the only way women are going to continue to move for- ward in this man's business world. She's into quality but she knows women can deliver." The. Bassetts' nationwide client list includes Fortune 500 companies, as well as For- tune magazine. The Bassetts' firm does a variety of special sections for the business publication. The same type of planning that put Bassett and Bassett into business now goes into all of their client accounts, Advertising Woman Of The Year Tina Bassett has turned plans into reality as owner of a successful communications firm. MIKE ROSENBAUM Special to The Jewish News Bassett explains. "We design communications plans, much like you would design a business plan. We take all the elements of communications, be it advertising, public rela- tions, marketing, whatever those elements are that are necessary to achieve what a client wants us to achieve, and incorporate it in one plan. Much like you would bring all the instruments of an orchestra together to play a symphony. So each of the messages leverages off another!' Bassett gained much of her experience during a 12-year association with the city of Detroit. She began as 'a volunteer and rose to director of the city's department of in- formation. She resigned to open the firm. Dorothy Brodie, an ex- ecutive assistant to Detroit mayor Coleman Young," has known Bassett for nine years. "Tina's an extremely profes- sional individual," Brodie says. "She ran a very good department and the mayor seemed very pleased with the work that she did!' Under Bassett's leadership, the department of informa- tion was computerized. She had a TV studio built, developed a color photog- raphy section, and expanded the department into a 40-person, $3 million operation. During that time, Bassett also worked on political cam- paigns, including Dennis Ar- cher's successful run for state Supreme Court justice. Today, there is little time for such volunteer efforts, although Bassett worked on last year's annual Ford Auditorium concert to benefit the Zionist Organization of America. The one thing that has not gone strictly accor- ding to plan for the Bassetts is the time factor. "As we've become more suc- cessful," Bassett says, "the responsibilities grow as well. You take on new projects and new people and new things. It's tremendously ex- hilarating and professionally stimulating. I enjoy every minute of it; I'm never bored!' The down side of owning their business is "we do not have a lot of time for one another," she says. "That's been a big sacrifice because we are working all the time!' But the couple maintains a strong partnership. "We really work very well hand-in- hand and keep each other in- formed on what's going on. He tends to be a little more scientific and I tend to be a little more artistic?' In March, the pair took their first vacation since opening their business — for one week — "and we took a portable fax machine with us," Bassett says. The plus side is working their own way, with nobody above them to say "no." "You're allowed to really practice to the best of your ability," Bassett says, "with complete intellectual freedom?' Bassett's hope is that her company continues in its pre- sent direction. "We are living our dream," she says. "We're doing things that are very worthwhile and I'd like to do more of it, that's all." ❑ THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 73