John F. Robitaille

Background: Robitaille founded Perspective Communications in Middletown in 1987 after years of working in the communications industry. The company specializes in a range of production services, meetings and events. Robitaille and his team of nine employees and freelancers have provided communication services to Textron, Kellogg’s, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, GTECH, Fleet Bank, Hard Rock Hotels and many others. He has held managerial positions with Frito-Lay, Continental Can Company and Stone Container Corporations before he founded Perspective. He has worked as a motivational speaker for companies including The New York Times and Ernst & Young. He also uses the company’s production capabilities to help nonprofit groups. Robitaille was awarded the 2003 Partner in Philanthropy Award by the Samaritans. While attending Providence College, he entered an ROTC program and spent three years in Germany in field artillery. In 1973 he returned to the United States and spent two years at Fort Bragg working in Special Forces.

Education: Bachelor’s in business management, Providence College (1970); master’s of science in human resource management, University of Utah (1975)

Residence: Portsmouth

Age: 55

PBN: Did you know what you wanted to do when you left the military?

ROBITAILLE: No. I thought I would make a military career for myself, but it was at the tail end of the Vietnam War and there were fewer military positions available. The economy was improving, and private-sector companies were looking to lure military workers, so I left my command and took a private-sector job.

Q. How did you become a motivational speaker?

A. I like to talk. I had an opportunity to speak in front of large groups of people when I was in the military. Then 12 years ago, I was thrust into a position where I had to speak in front of large groups and media, and began to realize I had a certain comfort level speaking about issues, and causes. I was getting feedback from people who wanted me to speak for their companies about success and personal motivation, overcoming obstacles in life. It wasn’t a plan, it just happened. I still do it about six to 10 times a year, and I don’t promote myself as a motivational speaker. I have a business to run, and there aren’t many hours left in the day for it. I speak to employees about self-improvement and success. … The bottom line is we are our own worst enemies in life, you have to overcome your own baggage and come to the point in your life where you realize that you are your own worst enemy in life. That is when things start changing.

Q. What kinds of problems do clients come to you with – or are most projects advertising related?

A. Any type of communication – internal issues, strategies or changes in employee benefits – we’ll work with clients to find the best way to deliver the message they need to get out. On the marketing side, it could be anything from helping a client roll out a new product, train their customers on using a product through a video or CD-ROM, creating a video for a shareholders’ meeting, or writing speeches and presentations for executives. Anything that has to do with communications, we do it.

Q. When this company was founded 17 years ago, what type of communications company was it – when did the technology focus come in?

A. It came in kicking and screaming. I had an IBM typewriter, with the interchangeable type balls, for years, and we still have one of the first Macintosh computers we bought 16 years ago. I didn’t want to give up my typewriter, but finally became a believer in it. In the last five or six years, we could not have created and produced the level of work we’ve produced without the highest-level software, fastest computers and the talented people who know how to use those tools. You still need creative people to use those tools, but the tools allow us to control costs, and get things done much faster than we ever could. It’s amazing what technology has enabled us to do – faster, cheaper, better. We were always a video production company. If you needed a video, you’d go to us, or if you needed to stage a sales meeting, we’d do the lighting, the staging, the direction and the audio. Now, it has grown into just about every type of communications you can imagine.

Q. What made you want to leave a big corporation and start your own business?

A. It was happenstance. I was flying back from Chicago, and I was sitting near a man who owned his own production company. I had been on the road for several weeks, burnt out, tired, covering about 30 manufacturing plants, dealing with employee problems and different communication projects. We struck up a friendly conversation and he said I should come down and visit his company in Boston. At the time, I wasn’t looking to change careers, but when I went to visit, I was so intrigued with the creativity … a whole creative side of me was awakened. Over the next few weeks, I just kept talking with him, and weighed working for a big company, the stress, not having control over my own destiny, versus working for a small company and exploring my creative side. I was used to structure and discipline, and this was a little less structured. I never looked back. I worked for the company (Total Communication) for a couple of years, until the owner died in a car wreck. I was the general manager; it was a large communications company in the ’60s and ’70s, so I was left to handle the company. There were legal problems that the company could not survive, so I started my own business and served our customers.

Q. How long did it take to make that transition?

A. Like most small businesses, we were undercapitalized. I started it not long after a divorce, I had no cash and borrowed $5,000 from my parents to start a business, and started this little company with a partner. It was not easy, developing clientele, and buying the equipment. The cameras were much more expensive back then (1987), all old analog equipment, so we begged and borrowed to get it. Banks laughed at us. It has been a slow steady growth, unlike those companies that have a steep climb. (Production) is the first thing that gets axed off company budgets in tough economic times, but we’ve survived the past couple years. We have clients, like Textron, which has been with us for 13 years, that are always with us.

A. We haven’t done a lot of self-promotion; we did try, but in this business, relationship marketing is more effective than running ads, for us. The stuff that we do involves high visibility, and it requires trust. It isn’t the kind of thing corporations go to the Yellow Pages to find. They need a recommendation, and we spend a lot of time developing that, and getting ourselves in the industry, through the Chamber of Commerce and different organizations.

Q. Tell me about the philanthropy award you received.

A. I was nominated for the 2003 Partner in Philanthropy Award by the Samaritans for helping them with their Web site. We chose to help the Samaritans of Rhode Island, we built them a Web site from the ground up. The award is basically for people who go above and beyond what they need to do. The Samaritans is a special cause for me, because I lost a daughter to suicide six years ago, and had I known about the Samaritans, they could have been help to her when she was struggling with her disease, bipolar disorder. We are also helping the Children’s Museum in Providence develop a video to raise some money. We are trying to be good citizens, as well as businesspeople.

Q. Do you think this comes back to you, the charity work? You could be working on projects, earning money instead. What do you get from this?

A. It does in many ways – sometimes you get referred to people and get paying jobs – but mostly it comes back in that you get such a great feeling from doing something for the community. Especially now, when nonprofits are having such a difficult time raising money and funding. These nonprofits have worthy causes, and more small-business owners need to pitch in and help causes and get involved with the community. It is just part of being a good citizen. Business has been good the past couple years, and we decided to get more involved with the community. On the public side, I needed to get involved, knowing how hard it is to run a business in Rhode Island, and it isn’t getting easier. We have an anti-business climate here, driven by the fact that we have a one-party state, dominated by the public employee and union bosses. … The problem is we have an anti-business Legislature that allows the small-business owners to pay the highest taxes. … We are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to being business-friendly and the top of the list when it comes to taxes (in the country). If all the small-business owners in the state got together and called their representatives and said things need to change or we will vote them out of office or relocate our businesses, things could change.