[PCT Leadership Winner] Cindy Mannes

Relationships. It’s is a word many use loosely. But a real relationship, one where there’s true give and take, is unusual in today’s business world. If you’re lucky enough to find a person with whom you connect, with whom you can exchange ideas, concerns and dreams, hold onto them. They’re worth their weight in gold.
And if you could sum up in one word the reason for Cindy Mannes’ success in the pest management industry, it would be “relationships.”
“Cindy has great relationships and a tremendous credibility with industry participants and leaders,” said Glen Rollins, president, Orkin Pest Control, Atlanta, Ga.
“Cindy has a very bright mind, and a great background in our industry from her time with manufacturing,” said veteran PCO Tommy Fortson, chairman of the Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA). “She has an intuitive way of knowing how to reach people the right way. The thing with Cindy, with her background, she knew all the back doors, and to me, that’s one of the things she’s brought to PPMA — she knows how to make things happen.”
“Make things happen” is an understatement. Since October 2001, when Mannes signed on as executive director for the Professional Pest Management Alliance, the organization has grown to more than 200 Guardians (PCOs who give one-tenth of one percent of their company’s annual revenues) and contributors, generating more than $5.5 million in financial support for the organization during the past four years.

A DUAL LEADERSHIP ROLE
Cindy Mannes holds two key positions within the industry, both of which play a critical role in shaping the public’s perceptions of pest management professionals throughout the globe. As executive director for the Professional Pest Management Alliance, Mannes serves as an industry spokesperson, as well as oversees the development of media outreach, advertising and public relations materials proactively promoting the benefits of professional pest control. 
“PPMA is a cause that is essential to the success of the pest management industry and Cindy has been able to bring together all segments and bring focus to the importance of an organized public outreach initiative,” said Rob Lederer, executive vice president, NPMA.
As vice president primarily responsible for public affairs for the National Pest Management Association, Mannes is responsible for educating consumers about all facets of pest management, from the benefits of selecting a professional to understanding IPM. She has been instrumental in enhancing the image and value to consumers of pest management professionals through her work with local, state and national media.
Prior to joining NPMA, Mannes served as marketing communications manager for a major chemical company where she helped launch several new products, while raising the market profile of numerous existing products.
Mannes was a survivor of five company mergers, an admirable accomplishment given the disruptive nature of market consolidation. The company was getting ready to go through its sixth merger when Mannes said enough is enough.
“I had been through five company changes and then we were getting ready for another change,” she said. “I was offered a position with a company as their chief marketing officer and that was something I just felt I couldn’t turn down. I thought it may be time to try something different and it sounded challenging.” So Mannes left the pest management industry to become chief marketing officer at Xertus Synergistics, King of Prussia, Pa., a company specializing in voice portal technology for business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets.
“So I took the job,” she said, but it wasn’t long before she began to question her decision. The hours were good and the workload was manageable. It just wasn’t particularly gratifying. “There was no traveling involved. It was 9 to 5. You went to the gym at lunch, you had lunch, and you came home at 5. I was just bored.”

A NEW CHALLENGE
Once Mannes realized the new venture wasn’t working out for her (she knew after only four weeks), she started to reconsider the pest management field. “I was still in touch with my friends in the industry,” she said.
Then an opportunity came knocking that she couldn’t pass up. She was offered the executive director position at PPMA, a position that two others had held since 1999. At the time, PPMA had faced some ups and downs.
“I felt this was a really big challenge. I think one of the things I like best is to take a pile of stuff that’s in a lot of different places and try to organize it,” Mannes said. “Very good plans had been made for the organization, but the industry had not committed to support the effort.
“I give NPMA credit, particularly Rob Lederer, for not giving up and for continuing to fight the good fight and bang the drum to promote the value of PPMA. In this industry, people need to know you and you need to be credible,” she said. “If they don’t know you, you are treated differently. Because I already knew a lot of folks it gave me the ability to ask a lot of questions from all of the industry stakeholders, and ultimately identify key issues and put together a plan for the industry that was attainable, measurable and would give the industry results for their financial commitment.”
“With years of background in the pest management industry she has brought to the table an awareness of the challenges that we face in the area of consumer outreach and a focus on how to address our challenges in this area,” Lederer said.
 In hindsight, it seems as if the skills necessary to successfully run PPMA were custom made for Mannes. “This is all the stuff that I loved — knowing the pest control company owners and operators, the scientific community, the technical people, the sales people and manufacturers,” she said. “There were two things I felt the first year that we had to do and that was credible results and fully communicate to the industry the value of this initiative.”
Tommy Forston, president, Terminix Service, Columbia, S.C., has known Mannes for many years. The two were acquaintances in Mannes’ former life as a chemical company executive, but Fortson knew even then that he would enjoy working with her. “You could tell she was full of energy then,” he said. “She has boundless energy.”
Full of energy, Mannes took on the task of working for the PPMA board of directors to elevate the industry’s awareness among consumers. That board, which reads like a “who’s who” of the pest management industry, approves Mannes’ plans for PPMA but Fortson said that’s just a formality. “One of the things that impresses me and the board is she has no fear in the sense that she’s a doer. We don’t have to worry if she’s out promoting PPMA — she lives and breathes what she does,” he said.
“Cindy has my complete confidence and admiration,” Rollins said. “I always look forward to interacting with her about how her team benefits our industry.”

PPMA ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The initiatives of PPMA this past summer are indicative of the work Mannes and the board of directors have accomplished in the past four years.
PPMA’s radio public service announcements have aired more than 36,500 times since March. Similarly, the TV public service announcement (PSA) campaign has enjoyed significant success. Pest control customers (and potential new customers) in 62 markets have viewed PPMA’s TV spots positioning the industry as protectors of public health and property. Total ad values top out at nearly $1.5 million and more than 49 million impressions have been generated.
Thus far in 2005, overall proactive public relations values have topped $6 million (with an actual outlay of $500,000 in cash) and consumer impressions are at more than 385 million.
But there’s a reactive side to Mannes’ job as well.
PPMA’s defensive position was never stronger than in this past summer’s reaction to the “flawed Journal of American Medical Association study,” according to NPMA. After a careful analysis of the report, PPMA, in conjunction with NPMA, developed talking points to help its members deal with local media inquiries. PPMA also developed a letter that industry stakeholders could send to their school accounts so they could better understand the study and its implications.
In addition, since Mannes has been at the helm of the organization, PPMA has released a video series titled “Pride and Professionalism, the Pest Control Industry as Protectors of Public Health and Property;” launched the www.pestworldforkids.org Web site; developed a new consumer and media Web site; developed presentations and workshops to train industry representatives on such diverse topics as crisis communications and using public relations to grow your business; as well as many more initiatives to benefit the industry.
But all of this wouldn’t be possible unless the industry supported PPMA financially. “We continue to grow and recent research suggests we are making some headway with positive consumer attitudes who better understand what we do to help protect their property and health,” Mannes said. “I am very proud to represent this industry with the media because I truly believe in what we do to protect the quality of life we have here in the U.S.”
 
BUSY, BUSY, BUSY
Mannes, who lives in the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdale and shares her office time at NPMA headquarters in Fairfax, Va., as well as her home office, is just as busy in her personal life as she is in her professional life. She has three children, Emily (21), Kevin (19) and Kelly (16). “My number one passion is my kids and all the rest follows,” she said. She’s been married to Mike Mannes for 26 years. The couple met in the 1970s when they both worked for FMC. Today, Mike is in corporate real estate for Air Products and Chemicals, responsible for developing Southeast Asia.
Mannes enjoys golf, yoga, cooking and reading. “How boring,” she said. Yoga is a relatively new interest for Mannes and she wants people to know it’s not just breathing and meditating. “It involves strength training and focus training, which for someone like me who has a difficult time sitting in one place, is amazing.”
Mannes grew up “pretty much in the Delaware Valley” (which means the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania area for those that don’t live on the East Coast). Her parents are retired. Her father, Russ, worked for Ford Motor Co. Her mother, MaryEllen, was a stay-at-home mom, raising the couple’s five children. “I came from a family where family came first,” Mannes said. “On the weekends we did things like going to the Jersey shore or playing baseball or kickball in the streets. Family always came first.”

THE FUTURE
Mannes is always looking ahead to the future, anticipating opportunities and challenges for the pest management industry. “From my perspective, one of the biggest challenges is continuing to educate the consumer on the value of professional pest control. Many consumers still don’t understand that in many cases they simply can’t do it themselves,” she said. “The more people know about the value of what we do, the better off we are as an industry and the better off the consumer is as well.
“It’s been proven again and again that not only do we do a more efficient job, but we can give the consumer back some quality time with their families as well. And the more companies that are representing themselves as professionals, the better off we are as an industry. Unfortunately, there will always be companies that think they can come into this industry and go to Home Depot and throw a bag of materials into the back of their truck. They will continue to give us a bad name, bad rap and a bad reputation until we raise our industry standards.
“What we need to do is really raise the bar in terms of standards for how you can get into this industry to protect all of the businesses we have,” she added. “The whole idea of being able to communicate that to the consumer is still an enormous challenge, and we’ve made strides, but we still have a long way to go.”
While Mannes says she has a long way to go, the industry also knows she’s brought PPMA a long way from its early days. And bringing an organization as wide-reaching as PPMA from the implementation stage to a consistent market contributor requires focus and determination, two qualities Mannes possesses in abundance. Mannes said she keeps focused with one thought: She can be replaced. “My approach every day to work is that you can always be replaced,” she said. “Everybody can be replaced.
“I guess if there’s something I’ve learned over time is that building a foundation with a solid plan which is measurable, credible and provides results allows us to move forward as an industry,” Mannes said. “But to me, the real plus is all about the people I’ve met along the way and the opportunity I continue to have to represent them.”