As a journalist I find myself ghost writing books for self absorbed executives and politicians and never able to take credit for it. I usually get a call from the executive’s publicist and they want me to write a bunch of garbage about his soft side, his humanitarian side or his golf swing. The article is written, published, the clients happy and I feel like a sell out with no journalistic integrity because in this industry, to pay the bills means to compromise and do things you don’t like. This interview was different, completely different.
I met James Scott at Earl’s, a fine dining establishment for Bucks County’s upper crust. The waitress was a snob, I was invisible to the bartender and the experience of waiting for him to arrive was a pride swallowing nightmare that is difficult to put into words then James walks in, polished, confident and ready to get down to business. “Why is my friend still standing” he snapped at the waitress walking by, “I’ll be with you in a…” before she could finish, he interrupted, “we’ll find our own seat, you’ll find us and bring us menus, Steve follow me”. We grabbed a table and to him, this was normal. “If you wait once you’ll spend your life waiting. So what can I do for you?”
I was expecting someone older, in their 50’s or 60’s, he was in his 30’s with a chip on his shoulder to act as warning to any opposition, anytime, anyplace that you may start an argument or debate, he’ll finish it. I became drawn in immediately. He received a call as we sat down from a congressman in the north east and spoke with such confidence, eloquence and authority I felt as though I was sitting in front of an 80 year old statesman that’s been born and bred into the political strategies game.
When he hung up my first question was “Where do you get your confidence to talk to power players with such comfort and ease?” He looked up at me with a glare that was focused and made me feel he was looking into me as opposed to at me and replied, “I think confidence is all relative to what you know and what you know you know” with a grin, he crossed his legs, ran both hands over his slacks and continued, “I made it a habit early on to say as little as possible so that when I was ready to talk I had the attention of the entire room. I made sure that I studied the attendees and read through the body language and speech patterns of everyone there to find the leaders, followers, supporters and skeptics and after collecting all this information I could determine who I needed to address in the room. After 12 years of studying body language and voice patterns it becomes a process of analyzing the situation at hand and responding with an objective strategy that can be applied to the situation. I gained confidence from the successes of using this process time and time again.”
“How do you define this unique area of consulting that you specialize in? There are only 3 or 4 other consultants globally that have the contacts to both economic power players and political lobbyists and special interest groups. How do you keep everyone happy in such a stressful environment where crisis management is typically the job you’re being hired for?”
The waitress arrived at the table, it was 10:35am, some people were still having breakfast, I ordered a coffee, he ordered a vodka tonic, double Belvedere with extra lime as if drinking in the morning was normal behavior. He answered “My core consulting genre is strategic facilitation. I started with public and pre public corporations by setting them up properly to go public, then my firm would take them public, put together a post public investor relations process to grow their marketability to investors and then help them expedite their growth with acquisitions and merger identification and facilitation.” He continued, “I began getting involved on the political side as I would be contacted by a lobbyist group that was working with a congressman or senator who had issues they were trying to sort out and there was no one to call so they would typically get referred to me from a board member of a company I structured and they would say something like, ‘our candidate is having a similar issues that the CEO of ABC Inc was having and we wanted to see if you could come on board to help us work it out . . .’ and that’s how I started getting involved on the political side. Politics just like general corporate and economic strategies have many similar threads. I just try to use the experience from one project for the next and so on. I guess more than anything now I’m a fixer but I’m working more with lobbyists and special interest groups.”
I asked him what prompted the change from focusing on corporate strategies to lobby and special interest, “Well, at the end of the day politicians are the visual identification for an agenda. The agenda is typically started by demands from the localized constituency. Lobbyist and special interest groups spend millions of dollars researching statistics and geographic layouts to find the areas of the country/world that their prototypical support base resides. The next move is to identify the political power-base in that region and initiate support planning. If the political figures are open the next thing is localized job creation and general economics. The convergence of the two in a way that is conducive to instantaneous capitalization and results is where I come in. I work with lobby firms because that is where the real power is, not the actual politician.”
Again, every word was pronounced perfectly, his vocabulary was authoritative, his eyes didn’t blink, his posture was perfect and I have to admit, I couldn’t find a single chink in his armor. There wasn’t an ounce of pretentious or insecure put-downs or belittling of anyone and in talking to him I felt myself gaining more and more respect and admiration for him.
This 30 something ‘kid’ has more global political pull than even the most seasoned politician yet he was comfortable in his skin and completely calm. His breathing was paced and as I looked for the prototypical nervous habits such as a bouncing foot on the floor, sweaty brow, nail biting etc, none were present. He was, in every sense of the term a W.A.S.P without a single trace of insecurity. I was in awe and when I think about it now I believe I took something away with me that day. I’m 54 years old and I have to admit, I look up to him. That may sound strange and it’s even stranger to admit this after I’ve been writing on economics for 25 years.
As we wrapped up the meeting (he only set 20 minutes aside for me and time flew by) his next meeting rolled in. A Chinese oil company needing his strategies to help them out of some issues in Africa. “have a seat gentlemen” he said “I’m going to walk my friend out and will be back in a moment.” He walked me out and we shook hands and he said, “I know you’re a journalist and you’ll want to ask me how I want to be portrayed in the article and I would say this, just go with your gut. I have nothing to hide and my reputation is more about what I am able to accomplish for my clients as opposed to what potential clients read about me. Just write for your readers and it will be fine.” He put his left hand on my shoulder while his right hand stopped shaking my hand and just held it for a moment and then he walked away.
That’s it. That was my interview with James Scott, CEO of the almighty Princeton Corporate Solutions. We didn’t get into the juicy family topic because he wouldn’t mix work and family, we didn’t cover any controversy that surrounds him because there is none, there are no legitimacy issues with him as his cell phone has the world’s most influential professionals and political organizations on first name speed dial.
What I took away from this interview is one thing. The economy is in shambles our government is a disaster but there is a part of me that feels safe and secure knowing that James Scott is involved in the process. We need people like him to help the power structure keep order and to make the moves by these groups solid, strategic and strong enough to help us rebound the devastation we are now experiencing. We need leaders who were born to lead to take us as a people by the hand and tell us that it’s going to be OK and to just focus on our jobs and family, there are qualified people working in the shadows that don’t need nor want special recognition or their names in lights. James Scott is the silent leader that enables crumbling economies to rise again and hopeless corporate organizations to thrive. Keep an eye out for him; chances are he’s turning around a company or an economy near you.
Find out more about James Scott and Princeton Corporate Solutions, some more information can be found on their Corporate Blog