Albert Einstein said, “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” That insight lies at the heart of the services offered by The Canoe Group, Inc., a shared practice of integrated and collaborative services based in Portland, Oregon. Founded in the summer of 2008 by Marta Mellinger, David Frackelton, Michael Kosmala and Deborah Elliott, the company partners with its clients to explore and develop new ways of doing business in a rapidly changing world.
The four principals of The Canoe Group work with clients individually or in teams to meet client needs. With their overlapping areas of expertise, the company is a robust group that can:
- Guide clients through complex analysis, employing community/key leader engagement and research, and issue and opportunity analysis;
- Help clarify vision and goals, through creative and collaborative approaches that align all stakeholders and engage new partners;
- Develop and articulate strategic plans and communications strategies; and
- Support implementation of business improvements through internal and external strategic communications, operational improvement/staff development, and information technology upgrades. Training and other implementation services are provided as business opportunities come into focus.
“We offer creative, collaborative tools to help our clients see where they are right now and envision where they want to go,” says Mellinger. “We help our clients move obstacles out of the way. The business that stays ‘stuck’ in information overload just can’t succeed in today’s world. And sometimes a business finds it must think, create, change and grow faster than existing staff expertise/capacities can support. That’s where The Canoe Group comes in.”
The Canoe Group’s first project was to redesign the marketing and box office structures and marketing strategy for Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland. Kosmala undertook issue identification and analyzed operations through a series of staff and patron interviews and process examinations; Mellinger coached leadership, developed new marketing and brand strategy and organization improvement; Elliott crafted and implemented new media relations structures and strategy; and Frackelton surveyed information technology structures and recommended improvements. As a result of this successful effort, the four principals determined that their alignment of unique practices, goals and values could serve other clients, as well.
Current and future projects include design and event management for the Oregon Arts Commission’s first statewide arts education summit; project management and partnership development for a cultural video center initiative for the Portland Center for the Performing Arts; a community engagement/research and development project for The Ford Family Foundation; and strategic planning for the Clackamas County Arts Action Alliance. In addition, The Canoe Group is providing ongoing marketing and strategic communications consultation for a number of other clients.
The Canoe Group:
Marta Mellinger has worked in organization development and strategic communications since 1985, serving a broad range of non-profits, governments, communities and businesses with consultation, planning, facilitation, and implementation services. Mellinger is the team’s organization development learner: tracking and synthesizing on cutting-edge thinking about new organizational learning processes and operational structures that encourage and support rapid response to a quickly changing environment. She gathered The Canoe Group team as business’s need for integrated planning/communications consultation and implementation escalated in 2007 and 2008.
Michael Kosmala was responsible for developing the Oregon Symphony’s nationally recognized rural residency program and for increasing classical subscription sales for the first time in seven years while serving on the Symphony’s senior management team. Kosmala brings a combination of visioning, program development, marketing, operations improvement, data management, and information technology to The Canoe Group. Most recently the Symphony’s VP of Marketing and Community Engagement, Kosmala is passionate about optimizing web use and impact for clients and is committed to community engagement and planning processes that can align vision and goals and lead to actions that improve quality of life.
David Frackelton has a BA from Yale and an MS from the University of Oregon and serves as the group’s information systems, design futurist and technical writer. Working at the nexus of sales, marketing, information technology and product development, Frackelton’s most recent position was Director of Market Intelligence for Cayuse, a software company. Additionally, he has over 15 years consulting to non-profit and for-profit organizations. Frackelton is the team’s leading techno-geek learner.
Deborah Elliott moved to the Portland area in 2008 after 16 years as a leading public relations specialist in Ashland. Elliott served for eight years as publicist for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and four years as director of marketing and community relations for Providence Health System in southern Oregon. She also founded Panache Event Planning, one of the Rogue Valley’s leading event design/management and public relations companies and is a co-founder of The Hamazons, an improvisational theater company. Her passion is creating public enthusiasm for client offerings through relationship-based and innovative media and press strategies.
I was lunching with a client this week over Thai curry who said to me, “I can’t keep doing my work with the same old tools. It’s like I’m in a pit, and I keep digging faster and faster, but my hands can’t shovel fast enough, and I’m not getting out of the pit and the pile of dirt at the bottom is up around my ankles.”