Earlier this year, my colleagues got a bit of a start — especially those in our firm's hometown of St. Louis — when a posting on my internal blog carried the headline: "Fleishman-Hillard Moving Headquarters..."

It had been on my mind for some time: To temporarily "move" our headquarters operations to other regions of the world. With that in mind, the CEO's office moved to Asia-Pacific in March/April; in June, Europe became the headquarters, following a varied itinerary that was heavy on visits with staff, as well as conversations with clients about their issues and priorities. We also spent time reviewing operations, pitching new business, recruiting new staff, visiting with partner agencies and doing promotional work.

Fully 70 percent of Fleishman-Hillard's top 100 clients ask us to work for them on more than one continent, as do 50 percent of our next 100 largest clients. As never before, our clients are really acting globally, and looking to us to help them align their communications to thrive in a global market. By taking our headquarters on the move — and sending a steady flow of blog entries on the experience out to our team — I hoped to make the global nature of our firm more tangible to our people, and help them feel more connected to one another.

Did these two months on the road accomplish that goal? Definitely. Were the jet lag, customs paperwork, and overall wear and tear worth it? Without question.

This was a transforming experience — documented in part on our fleishman.com site as Reflections on 30 Days in Asia and Reflections on 30 Days in Europe. These are non-agency specific blogs that try to capture some aspect of the culture and current (or in some cases, distant past) events. Feel free to post your own comments. Meanwhile, here are a few observations:

First, the "skills gap" in our profession between the United States and the rest of the world is a myth. The U.S. by no means defines the cutting edge when it comes to the practice of PR, and any gap that still exists from region to region is closing fast. In Japan, for example, where public relations is still relatively young, I saw our team helping clients cultivate relationships using social media with a skill and sophistication that rivals anything I've seen stateside.

I suspect that one reason for this growing parity is that the rising influence of digital channels truly is a global phenomenon. In London, I took part in a client and media event to launch the findings of the Fleishman-Hillard/Harris Interactive Digital Influence Index — the most detailed study to date on the influence of the Internet on European consumers. We all knew the leading role the Internet plays in influencing consumer decisions and behavior. But no one in that room expected its influence to be more than double that of the next channel, television. My guess is that we'll see similar results when we extend this research to Asia.

I had the pleasure of taking part in several other external events, including: A panel discussion in Mumbai to review a survey of U.S. and European C-Level executives' perspectives on India's reputation and readiness to "go global"; a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing for frank discussions of the U.S. political scene, the Western media and ways China might communicate differently in the run-up to the Olympics and beyond; and a presentation at Sciences Po in Paris on Barack Obama's breakthrough use of social media (http://pov.fleishman.com/?p=662).

In encounters like these with news media, political leaders, academics and other thought leaders, I was struck by their intense curiosity about what we do, and their hunger for knowledge about trends and developments in our business. It's a hunger we must continue to feed on a global basis.

After returning, one of my colleagues asked me how difficult it was to function so far away from the center of our organization. Well, I started out from the premise that you can't lead a global enterprise sitting in your headquarters office, and these journeys only served to reinforce that belief. Taking our headquarters on the road was liberating in ways that more than made up for any momentary inconveniences.

It also helped me redefine what the "center of our organization" really means. As does any global business enterprise, our firm has a headquarters office. But we don't have a fixed center. That's because we truly operate as a network — with a moving center of energy that follows the sun, time zone by time zone, as our people serve our clients around the world.

Dave Senay is president and CEO of Fleishman-Hillard International Communications. One of the world's leading public relations firms, Fleishman-Hillard has built its reputation by using strategic communications to deliver what its clients value most: meaningful, positive and measurable impact on the performance of their organizations.