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.

NEW YORK — Prophet, a leading global consulting firm that helps clients unlock uncommon growth, announced today that Amy Silverstein has joined the firm as senior partner and chief financial officer. She will work out of Prophet’s New York office.

Amy, who will serve as a member of the firm’s executive committee, comes from Kantar Media and Kantar Consulting, where she held various CFO titles in her 10-year tenure at the organization. Amy comes armed with over 20 years of experience that includes a unique mix of law, investment banking and finance leadership roles at professional services firms, most recently Kantar and Ogilvy & Mather.

“We are excited to benefit from Amy’s diverse experience and all that she brings to the table,” said Michael Dunn, chairman and CEO at Prophet. “Her unique skill set will help Prophet in many ways and we’re very excited to have her on board to drive the firm’s next chapter of growth.”

Throughout her career, Amy has successfully managed multiple M&A transactions, overseen restructuring events and been a key leader helping drive periods of rapid change and growth.  She is highly regarded for creating a work environment that fosters innovation and measured risk-taking to maximize revenue and bottom-line results.

Amy earned her JD/MBA from York University in Toronto, Ontario and her Bachelor’s in Finance and Marketing from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

“It is a privilege to be joining such an exceptional firm with talented teams across the globe,” Amy said. “Prophet’s potential is tremendous, and I look forward to being a part of the firm’s continued growth and success.”