SINGAPORE – Jacqueline Alexis Thng, partner and Southeast Asia lead of global digital transformation consultancy Prophet, has been endorsed by Enterprise Singapore, the government agency that champions enterprise development in Singapore, as an accredited management consultant.

The certification recognizes management consultants who possess the competence, professionalism and ethics to support businesses in their projects and growth strategies. As the national standards and accreditation body, Enterprise Singapore continues to build trust in Singapore’s products and services through such initiatives.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by Enterprise Singapore,” said Jacqueline. “Singapore is an exciting hub for innovative businesses and entrepreneurs across Asia. We applaud the Singaporean government’s commitment to growing local businesses and global trading. We look forward to helping more companies in the region embark on their transformation journey, helping them to build capabilities, innovate and internationalize.”

With over 25 years of experience, Jacqueline combines in-depth analytics and strategic thinking in brand development, identifying and activating strategic growth opportunities for clients across diverse industries. She has served as the lead strategic advisor on a variety of engagements in Asia and globally, instrumental in driving significant value creation with clients such as DBS Bank, MB Bank, BNP Paribas Cardif, SAP, AXA, CapitaLand, Shangri-la Hotel, Coca-Cola, P&G and TCL. Prior to Prophet, she was Managing Director of Brand Union (WPP) and CEO of Lexis Branding. She is a prominent speaker at conferences and contributes regularly to regional media.

In 2020, Prophet was recognized as one of America’s Best Management Consulting Firms by Forbes and one of the “UK’s Leading Management Consultants” by the Financial Times. Recently, Prophet was awarded with seven awards, including four gold and two silver, at the Transform Awards Asia 2020.

About Prophet

SHANGHAI — Prophet, a leading global business transformation consultancy, announced that Cecilia Huang, former SVP of Isobar China, has joined the firm as a partner in its Shanghai office. Cecilia will support driving further brand and marketing excellence for Prophet clients in the region.

Cecilia has over 20 years of experience in brand consulting, digital marketing, retailing and big data analytics, helping both traditional and digital-native businesses develop purpose-led and data-driven transformation strategies.

“We are excited to welcome Cecilia to join our team in Asia,” said Alan Casey, partner and regional lead of Prophet Asia. “Cecilia has a proven ability to uncover insights that get to the heart of the business issue at hand. With her breadth of experience in driving businesses forward through brand, marketing and digital experiences, we have no doubt she will be an important ally for our clients in China.”

Prior to joining Prophet, Cecilia served as Senior Vice President of Brand Commerce Consultancy at Isobar China, Dentsu Group. She worked with clients to create brand positioning, brand identity, product & digital innovation, e-commerce strategy and big data analytics. She also held leadership roles at Interbrand China and a leading home furnishing retailer in China. She has partnered with leading clients, including Tencent, Master Kong, Heineken, Amway, Nippon Paint and Danone, to identify growth opportunities and drive digital transformation in China.

“I’m thrilled to join Prophet who is a renowned expert in the fields of brand marketing and digital transformation,” said Cecilia Huang. “Businesses in China are growing and innovating at an unprecedented speed. Many of them are finding the importance of a strategic approach to brand building and digital marketing. Prophet is uniquely positioned to partner with these clients to provide customer-centric, innovative yet pragmatic solutions that meet their challenges.”

About Prophet

SHANGHAI – Prophet, a leading global business transformation consultancy, was recognized with seven awards, including four gold awards at the Transform Awards Asia 2020 for its work with AXA, Walmart, MB Bank and BOE Technology.

Established in 2009, the Transform Awards, which recognizes excellence in rebranding and brand development, hosted its Asia awards ceremony virtually on January 14, 2021. Prophet was recognized for its excellence in brand experience, brand development and visual identity design.  Prophet helped AXA to create a humanized digital brand experience in Asia, rejuvenate Walmart’s retail brand in China, and reimagined the brands of the Vietnamese financial group MB Bank and Chinese technology group BOE.

The panel of highly respected industry specialists awarded Prophet:

GOLD – AXA: Best Brand Experience

SILVER – AXA: Best Visual Identity from the Financial Services Sector

GOLD – Walmart: Best Localization of an International Brand

GOLD – Walmart: Best Visual Identity from the Retail Sector

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Walmart: Best Creative Strategy

GOLD – MB Bank: Best Brand Development Project to Reflect a Change of Mission/Values/Positioning

SILVER – BOE Technology: Best Visual Identity from the Engineering and Manufacturing Sector

“We are excited to be recognized with seven awards at the Transform Awards,” said Young Kim, partner and executive creative director at Prophet. “In 2020, we had the pleasure to partner with many distinctive clients in Asia that were doing disruptive work to lead in their respective fields. We are honored to have been an ally in their journey. This new year, we look forward to continuing to use the power of creativity and innovation to fuel growth for our clients.”

Prophet’s distinctions at the Transform Awards stand as testaments to the team’s human-centric and creative approach to helping its clients differentiate their brands and propel their businesses forward.

Are you ready to grow your brand? Partner with us.

Prophet’s work with Thrivent Financial and MetLife was recognized with three gold and one silver awards at the sixth annual Transform Awards North America. Prophet’s excellence in rebranding and brand development was recognized in a field of highly-respected industry specialists.

Established in 2009, the Transform Awards has evolved into a celebration of the indispensable talent that exists within the branding sphere. Covering the Middle East and Africa, North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and the Nordic region the Transform brand itself is truly global, with no other outlet as committed to providing such comprehensive coverage of the brand environment.

The implementation, positioning and creativity of the corporate brand is becoming an increasingly treasured and valuable business asset. The Transform Awards evaluate exemplary work in brand development and acknowledge the growing significance of brand in strategic corporate communications – developing and sustaining a strong brand is imperative for success.

The firm won 2020 awards for its excellence in brand design, brand development and copywriting with financial services client, Thrivent.

GOLD – Thrivent: Best use of a visual property
GOLD – Thrivent: Best visual identity from the financial services sector
SILVER – Thrivent: Best use of copy style or tone of voice

“We are honored to be recognized alongside our amazing colleagues at Thrivent,” said Jeff Smith, Prophet senior partner and client lead for Thrivent. “Working with a financial services organization that is truly purpose-led and growth-oriented is incredibly rewarding. We are proud and are excited to see how this continues to fuel their growth and impact.”

Prophet was also recognized for its work with life insurance company, MetLife.

GOLD – MetLife: Best implementation of a brand development project

“Brands today are challenged to constantly adapt for different audiences,” said Craig Stout, Partner and Executive Creative Director at Prophet, who worked on the MetLife project. “And global brands need to truly understand the cultures and nuances in all their market. We were able to flex the MetLife design system to be relevant around the world.”

Prophet’s distinctions at the Transform Awards stand as testaments to the team’s human-centric and creative approach to helping its clients differentiate their brands and propel their businesses forward.

Are you ready to transform your brand? Partner with us.

Prophet (prophet.com) won a WebAward for Best Professional Services Website. This outstanding achievement, presented by the Web Marketing Association, recognized the exceptional quality of the growth strategy consultancy’s refreshed website experience.

Since 1997, the annual WebAward Competition has been setting the standard of excellence for website development and is the premier award recognition program for Web developers and advertising agencies. Independent expert judges from across the globe examine websites in 96 industries.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the Web Marketing Association in such a competitive category,” said Amanda Nizzere, Director of Marketing at Prophet. “We are always evolving and transforming our site to stay on the cutting edge of digital and design, always with the user in mind. It’s nice to celebrate our work.”

The new website and experience were designed by an interdisciplinary team of design, UX and digital experts, including Lindsay Malone, Alex Mulder, Andres Nicholls and Marissa Haro. Website development was led by Senior Creative Developer Danny Rivera. The web experience combines inspiration from black and white newspapers with vibrant pop art illustrations – creating a simple and fresh, yet eye-catching aesthetic.

“Our global design studio, in collaboration with our corporate marketing team, developed a web experience that allowed us to showcase our work, thinking, and people, while maintaining a user-friendly interface that enabled easy navigation through the site,” explains Andres Nicholls, Global Executive Creative Director at Prophet. “The final product is very editorial and interactive – serving as a high-quality example of the blended creative-strategy work we produce for our clients.”

For the competition, each site is judged on each of seven criteria, earning a score between 0 to 70 points. In the ‘Consulting’ industry category, Prophet received a 64.5 score – 7.5 points higher than the industry average. In the ‘Professional Services’ category, Prophet received a 64.5 – 12.5 points higher than the industry average.  Prophet received above average scores in the following criteria: innovation, content, technology, interactivity and copywriting.

To learn more about our design team and how we help clients build differentiated brands, check out this page. To learn more about the awards Prophet has received over the years, explore our awards page.

About Prophet

Atlanta, GA – The 2020 Recipient of The Sheth Foundation Medal for Exceptional Contribution to Marketing Scholarship and Practice is Dr. David Aaker. 

Dr. Aaker is the author of more than 100 articles on marketing and branding, as well as 17 books that have been translated into 18 languages. He is the E.T. Grether Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business, vice chairman of Prophet, a global brand and strategy consultancy firm, and an advisor to Dentsu, a Japanese advertising agency.

The Sheth Foundation Medal is a bi-annual award designed to recognize a marketing academic who has made enduring and transformational contributions to (a) marketing scholarship and (b) marketing practice in the form of for-profit, not-for-profit, or governmental organizations. Dr. Aaker will be honored at a special virtual event on October 23, attended by his colleagues from around the world.

The President of The Sheth Foundation, Ruth N. Bolton, said: “David Aaker has made seminal contributions to branding over many years. He is an inspiring thought leader to marketers worldwide. The Board was especially impressed by how his contributions on branding have been made at the intersection of marketing scholarship and practice.”

Previous recipients of The Sheth Foundation Medal include:  Sam Palmisano (2006), Ratan Tata (2008), Dr. Phil Kotler (2013), Dr. John Little  (2014), Dr. Gerald Zaltman (2015), Dr. Michael Porter (2016), and Dr. Leonard L. Berry (2018). Nominations are accepted biannually from the: Academy of Marketing Science, Association for Consumer Research, Association for International Business, American Marketing Association, and INFORMS. The judging process is conducted by the Board of The Sheth Foundation, which is composed of distinguished marketing scholars.

Founded in 1992 by Dr. Jagdish Sheth and his wife Madhuri Sheth, The Sheth Foundation has given millions of dollars to support the activities of nonprofit marketing organizations around the world. It supports knowledge creation and dissemination in marketing, as well as knowledge recognition. It currently funds more than 15 awards in marketing.

For further information, see:  https://www.shethfoundation.org/grants/knowledge-recognition/ or contact info@shethfoundation.org

SAN FRANCISCO – Earlier this month Lauren Kelly joined global consulting firm, Prophet, as the newest member of its board of directors. Lauren’s rich experience in consulting, growth strategy, strategic execution, marketing and digital transformation will be invaluable to the board and the firm as Prophet continues its evolution.

“We’re in a whole new era of disruption which requires new thinking and transformative approaches to growth,” said Lauren.” This is why I am thrilled to join the board of Prophet, and help this incredible team continue to drive iterative solutions and long-term value for clients amidst a forever changing landscape.”

Lauren’s broad and diverse background across a range of marketing and growth leadership roles is perfectly suited to Prophet – both the strengths that we have built the firm around and the new areas we are investing in.  She currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer at ThoughtExchange, an enterprise discussion management platform that allows leaders to quickly gain critical insights and improve decision-making in large groups.

Prior to ThoughtExchange, Lauren served as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Irvine Company Office Properties. She has also held other leadership roles at organizations including Dell and Pepsi Co, as well as starting her career at Monitor, now part of Deloitte Consulting. Outside of her primary roles, Lauren has years of industry experience advising and coaching business leaders across categories and sectors in strategy and marketing and has earned awards including California Diversity Council’s 2020 Top 50 Diverse Leaders and 2020 CMO of the Year by the Internet Marketing Association. 

In addition to Prophet’s board of directors, Lauren has served on the boards of Internet Marketing Association, CEO Leadership Alliance and is a founding member of Black Executive CMO Alliance.

“We are excited to have Lauren join Prophet with her diverse, relevant leadership experience,” said Michael Dunn, CEO and Chairman at Prophet. “She has worked in consulting, has driven growth strategy and execution in large enterprises, and has taken on growth marketing leadership roles with large incumbents as well as with early-stage tech disruptors. Each piece of Lauren’s professional journey is so relevant to where we are pointing the firm. Her addition to the board is surely one that will help propel Prophet forward.”

About Prophet

NEW YORK – Fred Geyer, Senior Partner at Prophet, a global consultancy, and Joerg Niessing, Faculty Member at INSEAD, today release The Definitive Guide to B2B Digital Transformation – a playbook for B2B leaders looking to accelerate their growth and digital transformation efforts to win in today’s market.

“It’s clear the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on many B2B businesses. Those who deferred their digital decisions before are now seeing their vulnerabilities exposed, forcing many to wake up and accelerate their digital transformation efforts in order to build the operational resiliency needed to survive,” said Fred Geyer. “This book arms B2B growth leaders with the tools needed to move ahead.”

Providing a step-by-step path, The Definitive Guide to B2B Digital Transformation outlines the three transformative shifts that need to be taken by B2B businesses now to sustain profitable growth in the face of changing market dynamics:

• The Digital Selling Shift to digital demand generation
• The Digital Experience Makeover to digital customer engagement
• The Digital Proposition Pivot to data-powered, digital solutions

“Our research is showing that B2B leaders can only succeed with their digital transformation if they prioritize customers over technology. B2B companies need to first understand what customers really want and then think about the technologies that will help to fulfil these customer needs” said Joerg Niessing. “This is also the main principle of our book.”

The book includes rich case studies and best practices from companies including Maersk, Michelin, Adobe, IBM, Salesforce.com and Johnson & Johnson – all businesses that are putting customers at the heart of their digital transformations to successfully drive uncommon growth.

The Definitive Guide to B2B Digital Transformation is available in both eBook and hard copy here.

Reviews

“This book illuminates the secret sauce of digital transformation in the B2B space” – David Aaker, renowned brand strategist and bestselling author.

“A thought-provoking exploration of three crucial transformational shifts for B2B companies” – Vincent Clerc, CEO, Maersk Ocean & Logistics

“This is a great guide to applying best practices to the formidable challenge of digital transformation in complex markets and supply chains.” – Dr. Lars Brzoska, Chairman of the Board of Management, Jungheinrich AG

“By providing case examples and step by step assistance in determining where to play, how to win, what to do and who to win, this book fulfilled my need for inspiring and pragmatic transformation guidance” – Lindy Hood, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Zurich Financial North America

About the Authors

Fred Geyer is a senior partner at Prophet. He has helped B2B clients in the financial services, healthcare, and technology industries – including Zurich Financial, AXA, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices, Medtronic, and Avery Dennison – undertake customer-first transformations and address the challenges of digital disruption. Fred’s prior experience as president of Crayola Canada and chief marketing officer, North America, of Electrolux Floor Care, enables him to bring a practitioner’s perspective to making digital transformation work in the real world.

Joerg Niessing is a member of the faculty at INSEAD and is a globally recognized expert and strategic advisor on digital transformation, digital strategy, customer-centricity, and data analytics. He is the program director of INSEAD’s flagship programs “B2B Marketing Strategies” and “Leading Digital Marketing Strategy.” Over the past five years, Joerg has engaged with more than 3,000 executives from a wide range of companies in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia, including Google, Kone, Roche, Maersk, Michelin, IBM, Thales, PwC and Kion. Joerg’s prior experience as head of Prophet’s Insight and Analytics practice, along with his previous work as a marketing data scientist, inform his insights on ensuring that digital transformations are data-driven, customer-centric, and drive sustainable growth.

About INSEAD, The Business School for the World

As one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools, INSEAD brings together people, cultures and ideas to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society. Our research, teaching and partnerships reflect this global perspective and cultural diversity.

With locations in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi), and now North America (San Francisco), INSEAD’s business education and research spans four regions. Our 165 renowned Faculty members from 41 countries inspire more than 1,300 degree participants annually in our MBA, Global Executive MBA, Specialised Master’s degrees (Executive Master in Finance and Executive Master in Change) and PhD programmes. In addition, more than 11,000 executives participate in INSEAD Executive Education programmes each year.

INSEAD continues to conduct cutting-edge research and innovate across all our programmes. We provide business leaders with the knowledge and awareness to operate anywhere. Our core values drive academic excellence and serve the global community as The Business School for the World.

NEW YORK — Prophet, a leading strategy consulting firm, announced today that David Novak has joined the firm as a senior partner to add strong capabilities and support to Prophet’s focus on driving digital transformation of marketing & sales.  He will work out of Prophet’s New York office.

David’s 25 years of business consulting and marketing experience have made him an expert in leading teams that modernize marketing capabilities, deliver more real-time personalized interactions and improve overall marketing effectiveness.

“We are thrilled to welcome David to Prophet, especially as the changes brought on by the current pandemic have escalated the urgency for digital transformation as our clients drive toward effective marketing and sales,” explained Chiaki Nishino, President, and Head of North America at Prophet.  “As a leader in marketing consulting, David will enhance our ability to deliver high level returns for our clients – even as they face disruption.”

David advises clients on customer data strategy, content and campaign management and improving cross-channel customer experience through marketing automation and optimization of data/segmentation. He has developed a keen focus on performance marketing outcomes – helping clients build best-in-class data-centered capabilities while delivering cost-effective results.

“We look forward to David joining our team of transformational growth leaders,” said Chan Suh, Chief Digital Officer at Prophet. “His expertise in helping Fortune 100 clients with marketing for the digital age will be an important addition to our team. We look forward to adding David’s leadership to the firm.”

David spent the last 10 years at IBM iX leading a North American team to deliver customer engagement strategy and implementation to Fortune 100 clients via digital marketing, personalization, artificial intelligence, eCommerce/web, mobile/AR and social. Prior to this role, he led a US team focused on consumer and enterprise mobile transformation for the retail, consumer packaged goods, life sciences, and travel industries. Earlier in his career, he was a solo practitioner serving clients on issues across digital marketing, social, and strategy and prior to that, was VP Marketing for Pace Plc, the world’s largest digital home gateway provider for pay television services.

“David is a strong addition to our senior leadership team – bringing a wealth of experience in helping clients drive growth-anchored, multi-year marketing transformation programs that increase enterprise value,” said Michael Dunn, Chairman and CEO at Prophet.

Throughout his career David has worked with leading brands including; United Airlines, Staples, Kohl’s, PepsiCo, Apple, Sephora, Mattel, Kraft.

“Prophet is a legendary brand marketing firm rooted in its understanding of the core values that represent a company and its relationship to customers. They have literally written the books,” David said. “Now more than ever in a digital world, clients will need to instrument their brand interactions with the ability to scale and increase their level of personalization. Those same core brand values exist but we can now help clients improve the speed, consistency, and level of connection to the brand across all touchpoints seamlessly.”

About Prophet

SAN FRANSISCO – David Aaker, Vice Chairman of the global growth consultancy Prophet, has released his 17^th book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in the Digital Age, a playbook for marketing and business leaders seeking new avenues of growth via marketing and branding.

As the 21^st century sits on the edge of digital transformation and disruption, in Owning Game-Changing Subcategories, Aaker walks readers through real-world examples that illustrate how subcategory creation has led to uncommon growth. The book includes case studies from notable companies including Airbnb, Etsy, Warby Parker, Prius and Muji—all modern brands that have won by creating “must-haves” that define new categories.

“The alternative, ‘my brand is better than your brand’ competition, rarely generates growth and is so not fun,” explains David Aaker. “The ONLY way to grow in the digital age is with ‘must-haves” that define game-changing subcategories.”

In the book, Aaker shares that digital transformation plays an increasingly crucial role in achieving strategic growth. He argues that subcategory-driven growth has exploded in the digital era because of technological advances and the fast, inexpensive market access made possible by e-commerce and digital communication.

Other highlights of the book include:

• Explanation of why growth almost always involves “must haves” defining new subcategories, earning exemplar brand status, and creating competitor barriers
• Tips for identifying and creating “must haves” and examples with case studies with notable leading brands
• Deep dive into digital tech trends like e-commerce, the Internet of Things, brand communities and more that drive growth through subcategory formation

Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in the Digital Age is available wherever books are sold, both in e-book and hard copy.

About the Author

David Aaker, is the author of more than one hundred articles and 17 books on marketing, business strategy, and branding that have sold over one million copies. A recognized global authority on branding, he has developed concepts and methods on brand building that are used by organizations around the world. Aaker has served as Vice Chairman at Prophet, a global growth consultancy, for over 20 years.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Prophet and client Russell Reynolds Associates won a Killer Content Award (KCA), honoring our breakthrough work on content strategy.  The award was presented by Demand Gen Report, celebrating the ninth annual KCA winners. The KCAs – “Finnys” – honor B2B companies that are embracing new rules of engagement, using creativity and innovation to build cutting-edge campaigns. This was one of the KCA’s most competitive years, with 37 unique companies recognized across 19 B2B marketing categories.

Russell Reynolds Associates, a global leadership advisory and search firm, won a “Finny” in the short form content category for its work with Prophet and renowned cartoonist Tom Fishburne (“The Marketoonist”) to develop “The 99^th Floor” – a bi-weekly cartoon series that uses humor to tackle topics such as executive succession, attracting top talent and leadership attributes for the digital age.

“The cartoon format is a great device to raise awareness on important topics and simplify complex issues,” said Mat Zucker, partner at Prophet.

“The 99^th Floor” campaign beat previous engagement benchmarks increasing performance across channels. The cartoon series drove new traffic to thought leadership articles and earned new followers on social, as well as subscriptions to their valuable email list. The series also equipped the client’s consultants with fresh new content every week to engage their most senior clients.

“The cartoon series helped us to creatively break through the content clutter, and it’s exciting to see external recognition for the campaign’s success,” said Sangeeta Prasad, Chief Marketing Officer of Russell Reynolds Associates.

About Russell Reynolds Associates

Russell Reynolds Associates is a global leadership advisory and search firm. Our 470+ consultants in 46 offices work with public, private and nonprofit organizations across all industries and regions. We help our clients build teams of transformational leaders who can meet today’s challenges and anticipate the digital, economic and political trends that are reshaping the global business environment. From helping boards with their structure, culture and effectiveness to identifying, assessing and defining the best leadership for organizations, our teams bring their decades of expertise to help clients address their most complex leadership issues. We exist to improve the way the world is led. www.russellreynolds.com

LONDON – For the third consecutive year, Prophet has been named as one of the leading management consultants in the UK by the Financial Times. Based on the recommendation of senior executives at both client and peer organisations, Prophet has received coveted recognition once again for its expertise in the marketing and brand sector in the annual rating.

“The inclusion of Prophet is a great endorsement to the outstanding transformational work we are delivering for our clients in the UK and around the world,” said Tobias Bärschneider, Partner and EMEA Regional Lead at Prophet.

“Our high caliber team of strategic and creative experts is answering the growing demand for services and solutions that unlock uncommon growth for our clients, helping them to navigate these turbulent times and drive their businesses forward. From purpose to product, brand to experience, customers to operations, we bring the insight and expertise needed to enable our clients to realise such transformative opportunities.”

The full list, and details of the survey’s methodology, can be found here.