Az Business spotlighted some of Arizona’s most influential leaders in the July issue, including Andrea Aker, CEO and president of Aker Ink.
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Andrea Aker
CEO and president
Background: Aker is an expert communicator and business strategist with a reputation for tenacity, perseverance and honesty. She’s willing to take on complex situations and thrives on new challenges — all traits that helped transform Aker Ink into one of Arizona’s leading boutique PR and marketing firms.
Qualities of a good leader: “One of the most important qualities is adaptability. You have no idea what’s going to hit you from the day to day. You have no idea when employees are going to come and go. You have no idea when clients are going to come and go. I think COVID-19 was by far the biggest world event that showed what true leadership is. If you don’t have a leader that can move with these ebbs and flows and still be confident in their decision-making, the team is going to suffer. Good leadership is about being flexible and nimble with whatever comes at you.”
Personal leadership style: “Running a PR and marketing agency, things can change all the time and we’re not just at the mercy of market conditions for ourselves, but for our clients and how their industries react. So adaptability is important. With my own team, I’m definitely a lead-by-example leader. I am very conscious about the way I act in front of my team, my demeanor, my attitude, my optimism. They take cues from me in their own interactions and it’s very top of mind for me.”
Source of pride: “It is by far building the team that we have. I think we have a very rare team where 100% of the people put in 100% of the effort. In most groups, you get 20% of the people putting in 80% of the effort. I feel like I’ve had to move mountains to get the team that I have. When I was younger, I thought that I could do everything better and that meant I needed to do everything myself. That was a big fallacy in my life that took 10 years to figure out. But once I did, I realized that when you have the right people around you, you can create something so much bigger and better than yourself.”
Best part of her work: “I love what I do. I get so much joy out of mentoring young professionals and seeing them thrive. I get so much joy out of building businesses and watching businesses achieve their growth goals and lead-generation. I often say that I like building things, I like building people, I like building concepts, I like building businesses. And I get so much joy out of seeing an achievement that it takes a team to create.”
