Haft Group - Counseling Small and Mid-Cap Ventures for 35 Years

Haft On Haft

Forty years ago, I started a public relations business, not so much in the public relations business, but in the financial relations side of the business. I was a limited partner in the New York Stock Exchange. I grew my wings down there, so to speak, my contacts down there so to speak. I merged up with Sue Industry, became head of PR within Warner communications. I decided that the best answer to communications that fit my goals and fit my personality was to really be a very hands-on type of individual firm where I could service clients directly, bracing each client individually, almost as a corporate psychiatrist where each person would come in and have their own time, tell their story.

If you can visualize dropping a pebble into a little bowl of water or into a little plate of water, and the different ripples widen out. At the core of that dropping of that pebble is what I do. I create a core audience around every client. You don't have to be friends with the whole world, what you do have to have are respect of a few that will follow your business, will be loyal to your business, and will understand you. They have to come through me in order to get to you. So I am your firewall as it were, and I'm very protective of that business.

The stake in my destiny with each client is my own credibility which interestingly enough I feel goes up and down in the elevator every day. You have to prove yourself every day. Investor relations and public relations is a 24/7 job, and it should be considered as such, it always has been for me. Things aren't always fabulous all the time. But over a period of 40 years during which I've represented a variety of companies, I've enjoyed and do enjoy representing the companies and the management therein.

The experience that has taught me the most is really a fabric of experiences. When I say a fabric of experiences, it's the people I've met, the background that I have, both as a professional and academic background. The knowledge I've assembled comes from many sources. I used to host a TV show several times on Channel 13 which was fun for me when I came out of Warner. I did go to Yale Drama School – that was a great piece of my puzzle. I became very much a practiced, people person then. I guess if you put together 40 years of experience, what really took the lead role in what I did was as an investor relations and public relations professional knowing people, knowing how to represent them, having good judgment and building good judgment over a period of years.

I have a very dedicated passion to represent clients with credibility and with truth because in the final analysis, it's not just the client that I'm representing, it's their shareholder base that I am representing and that they are representing.