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What is Business Design?

Learn about the modern approach to business building.

Business strategy and design thinking are converging into a new approach for solving business challenges known as business design. This makes sense given that design-driven companies continue to outperform their peers and also explains why so many management consultancies are rapidly acquiring design agencies. A decade ago, business design was an emerging role in design agencies. Today, however, it’s an established role in consulting and moving in-house as well.  

How do We Define Business Design?  

Business design brings a design mindset and methodology to solve business challenges and deliver viable business models. At Prophet, business design is a method for developing products, services and ventures for our clients that are differentiated in the market and able to capture value for their businesses.  

Why is Business Design the Modern Approach to Business Building? 

There is some magic that happens when you bring the design process of divergence and convergence to bear on business challenges. It gets business leaders out of the mindset of competing over existing market share and reorients them to think about what new value could be created based on the emerging needs, motivations and behaviors of all humans involved in the value creation equation – customers, users, employees and communities. 

At Prophet, when we embark on a business design project, there are some key things we set out to do:  

  • Achieve a deep understanding of business challenges faced 
  • Bring a design mindset and use design methods to solve them, including creating new methods 
  • Develop iterative plans and models based on real-world scenarios to understand what will be most viable in the market 

The goal of business design is to ensure that neither of these scenarios happens: 

  • The business minds determine all the requirements for a new offering and bring designers in to beautify the interface 
  • The design team creates the end-to-end user experience of a new offering and brings the business people in to give it a price tag 

The defining characteristic of the business design function is to constantly balance the needs of users with the needs of the business, in the near and long term. A business designer will always ensure that business logic informs any design-build or seek out to better understand the logic that supports their design – whether that be loyalty leading to higher customer lifetime value, efficiency leading to higher transaction volume or something else entirely. On the other hand, a business designer will see through a short-term value capture scheme if it has the potential to hurt the long-term viability of the business. So, it is about balance on two fronts: managing desirability and viability and managing the time horizons. 

Three Examples of Business Design Frameworks 

Here are some business design frameworks that show what it looks like to solve business challenges with design methodology: 

Human-Centered Opportunity Sizing = Total Addressable Problem 

The Total Addressable Market (TAM) approach to opportunity sizing assumes that companies are constrained by the industry in which they operate today and that to outgrow the market, they must take share from incumbents. In contrast, the business design approach to opportunity sizing is based on the Total Addressable Problem (TAP), which a business is trying to solve for users. Rather than starting with an existing industry, such as the hotel industry, it starts with a user need, like the ability to feel at home anywhere in the world. Framing the opportunity based on what you are helping users achieve creates new possibilities and use cases.  

Take Airbnb for instance. Airbnb’s growth far exceeded the budget travel market that it originally entered. Now, Airbnb competes with luxury hotels, short-term rentals and travel services outside of lodging. Uber is another great example. It started from the other end of the spectrum as a high-end car service but through a TAP framework, it far outgrew the taxi industry and instead became a micro-mobility platform with food delivery, bike rentals and healthcare transportation. Lastly, Amazon started in e-commerce, but through a TAP framework, grew to provide convenience in all aspects of household management, including building a smart home ecosystem.  

Human-Centered Commercialization = Incentive Design 

Business design creates outsized value by aligning emerging behavioral and business models and then makes value exchanges that are sustainable and durable in the long run. Before folding in 2013, late fees accounted for 16% of Blockbuster’s revenue. If the way a business captures value is in direct opposition to its users’ best interest, that is not a sustainable business model.  

Netflix’s subscription model, however, aligns user and business interests. The more you watch, the more data Netflix gets on what you like to watch, the better they can recommend additional content. Subscriptions lock in recurring revenue, enabling Netflix to make bigger bets in developing new content. And it is not just about value for customers. Netflix invests heavily in creators with new stories to tell and targets those stories to the right audiences. One of the most important activities in business design is creating growth feedback loops in which new demand drives new supply while increasing value for all stakeholders. 

Human-Centered Planning = Test and Learn 

Business design preferences emergent and iterative models over linear and deterministic planning. You can learn more about the viability of a new business in one meeting with users than in a week of modeling future cash flows based on historic assumptions. A business designer is comfortable with the knowledge that an assumption being off could mean a 10x change in revenue projections. They will not boil the ocean perfecting those assumptions, instead, they will put something into the market and see what happens. Of course, businesses need cash flow today to explore new problems to solve for their users tomorrow. A business designer will think about what can be EBIT-accretive today, while also investing in experiments to rapidly test and learn what new business models might be most relevant in the future. 

Check out our most recent research – Building Business Resilience Through Innovation

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite its gaining popularity, business design remains a widely misunderstood discipline, yet it is the most important future skill. At its core, it requires a human-centered approach that is simultaneously focused on the needs of customers, stakeholders and key business imperatives.  

At Prophet, our business design team comes from the design world and the business world. We self-selected into business design because we saw that there was no longer a product-solution fit between traditional business strategy tools and the types of challenges we are tasked with solving for clients today. A business design approach is fit-for-purpose to future-proofing businesses as the needs, behaviors and expectations of humans and what is enabled by technology changes at an unprecedented rate. 

Start employing business design to solve key business challenges. Get in touch today.  

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Is Ineffective Collaboration Hindering Your Organization’s Transformation?

Remote work makes cross-organizational change harder. But our Collaboration Flywheel model shows that the right interventions can create a virtuous cycle of cooperation.

As businesses work toward transformation, many find themselves trapped in a structural paradox. The Collaborative Advantage, the latest global research report from Prophet’s Organization & Culture practice, finds 80% of business leaders recognize that collaboration throughout the enterprise is essential. Yet, 50% are struggling to achieve it. And hybrid working compounds this challenge further with only 28% saying they believe their organization effectively supports collaboration in this environment.  

The most successful transformers? They have worked to break down silos and build collaborative muscles by progressing through three essential phases, which we have encapsulated in a new model: Collaboration Flywheel. It’s a virtuous cycle of interdepartmental breakthroughs that reveals a path for leaders to more impactful outcomes and faster growth.  

Prophet’s Collaboration Flywheel

The Flywheel provides a perfect metaphor for organizational culture. Taking a holistic, human-centered approach, it works by reinforcing positive behaviors and outcomes and minimizing negative feedback loops. It builds momentum over time. Each time the wheel turns, it generates more power and benefits for both the business and individuals.  

Phase One: Coordination

This is where many organizations begin and end their development journey. Different groups, traditionally siloed, recognize the need to align horizontally rather than vertically. When leaders promote a broader strategic goal, teams understand that working together is beneficial. And they also understand when it makes more sense to continue with traditional, business-as-usual approaches. To create clarity, organizations need to define the goal and role model the desired collaborative work.  

An example of this in practice might be helping employees to invest time in understanding how different parts of the organization work and identify connection points (e.g., shadow a colleague in another function) or creating a shared vocabulary – even just a few key terms – to use consistently in cross-organizational efforts.  

Phase Two: Cooperation

As each group gains experience in coordination, they get a clearer understanding of how their work fits into the bigger picture. Trust, shared ways of working and incentives become more explicit, making it easier for groups to proactively call on collective capabilities. They move into the who and how of the collaborative effort. They start to define roles and decision-making responsibilities. 

They see the value of shared effort more quickly. They’re informed by a common ambition, a central fact base and well-articulated ways of working. They will also have the right tools to navigate the complexity of their growing interdependence. All of this means cooperation is far more likely to have a greater collective impact than straightforward coordination might produce and depend less on the day-to-day involvement of leadership.  

Phase Three: Collaboration

As this proactive cooperation builds a shared context across independent groups, interdependence and synergy increase. At this point, the organization can celebrate the visible progress of piloting and embedding new ways of working. Cross-organizational teams see an increase in quality, with a healthy mix of synchronous and asynchronous work. Synchronously working teammates often generate new ideas together. Asynchronously working colleagues bring objectivity and clarity.  

Working together becomes the norm, not the exception. And so, the Flywheel spins. When combined with our human-centered approach to transformation, this new organizational muscle of collaboration taps into the enterprise’s DNA, Body, Mind and Soul.  

With collaboration now a default behavior, it becomes sustainable. Innovation and disruption replace old and ineffective ways of working, which in turn leads to accelerated transformation and results for the enterprise.  

Better Outcomes – For the Business and Individuals

The research shows that higher levels of teamwork enrich individuals, building new skills that increase engagement and job satisfaction – a critical lever in today’s dynamic talent landscape. Of the 1,000+ people we spoke to across the U.S., Europe and Asia, 77% say the organizational emphasis on collaboration enables higher productivity. 

As evidence of its ROI increases, it’s clear that collaboration has moved from a buzzword to a core business strategy. Organizations no longer need to be sold on the benefits and importance of collaboration. Leaders and managers worldwide understand that practical cross-organizational efforts lead to greater success.  

This is especially true as companies step up their efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion, and environmental, social and governance issues. By definition, this work needs to permeate every part of the company and be understood by each employee. Often, it even requires reaching out beyond the organization’s borders and interacting with external stakeholders that may include government, NGOs and communities.  

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Collaboration is the future of work. Securing the next competitive advantage depends on agility, finding the most effective and innovative ways to bring the best out of every part of the enterprise. And it calls for incorporating that fluidity into the organizational DNA. Working together, companies are learning, is what sets them apart.  

Want to learn more about how to unleash the transformative power of collaboration? Download The Collaborative Advantage report now.

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Modernize the Marketing Planning Cycle

Clear your calendar. It’s time to make room for a brand-new approach to annual marketing plans.

The annual marketing planning cycle desperately needs a makeover. Every marketer who has ever groaned, “There has to be a better way to do this!” is right, and the most effective companies are already finding new ways to inject efficiency and effectiveness into a cumbersome process.  

While much of this change has been coming on gradually, changing customer behaviors, increasing demands of marketing within the enterprise and growing opportunities with technology have intensified it. And amid growing business uncertainties–inflation, supply-chain and recession concerns–modern marketers feel an urgency to help drive strategy, not just follow it.  

More and more, marketers are being asked to deliver value that is tied to the overall business outcomes.  

That’s because the customer journey is more complex and less linear every day, highlighting the tension between brand and demand marketing. Our recent research takes an in-depth look at the intersection of these marketing disciplines, tapping the insights of more than 500 marketers. Our findings underscore that an updated approach to planning separates the most successful companies from competitors.  

“Today’s marketers are coxing other execs out of their respective silos, moving to “a more agile, `brains in room’ format,” says Tyrrell Schmidt, CMO, U.S., TD Bank, one of our respondents. “We want to build a structure that puts the customer at the center.” 

And business leaders are learning that while the annual planning process is still way too full of retro drudgery, it’s also full of possibility and potential. Many see it as the most creative endeavor of the year, allowing them to show off the value modern marketing can bring to the enterprise.  

Here are five ways the most effective marketers are reshaping the annual planning process.

Take an Integrated View  

Historically, disparate marketing teams have driven different objectives. Because they’re working separately, they’re not optimized for holistic growth. They’re often not even pointing in the same direction. 

Marketing needs a more integrated process. That requires cooperation among brand, demand and corporate marketing teams so that they find agreement on all-important basics (We’ve covered other planning checklists in The Eight Essentials of a Successful Marketing Plan). 

For starters, these working groups can nail down a common language (“Do we say `initiatives’ or `programs’? `Campaigns’ or `tactics’?”). They can also agree on standard measurements, balancing short and long-term approaches, as well as lagging and leading indicators. And they can establish a set of unified tools, such as an integrated calendar and a single marketing brief. 

Focus on Customers-Not the Funnel

If companies want to be customer-centric in how they market, then they need to be customer-centric in how they plan. Yet too many firms lose sight of the people that matter most. 

Part of that stems from the limits of funnel vision. Yes, marketing funnels are the conventional backdrop for planning and helping identify specific marketing strategies. And we’re not suggesting companies shift from that approach outright.  

But on its own, the funnel does a poor job of coordinating multiple efforts. And by definition, it takes a company or product view. That’s the opposite of customer-centricity. 

A journey view helps assess how to best allocate resources to acquire customers and build loyalty. It also has the added vital benefit of revealing missed opportunities in customer experience. 

We understand the shift from the funnel to a customer-centric journey can be challenging, and many will ask if there’s room for both. Of course, marketers can–and maybe even should–keep the funnel in mind even as they develop the journey view. But ultimately, it’s the customer who makes the purchase, so anticipating their needs and providing the right solutions matter more than anything else. 

Align Under Shared Initiatives

Companies often struggle with overly complicated messaging strategies scattered across multiple product offerings and customer segments. They frequently say they’d like programming with “fewer, bigger, better” ideas but don’t know how to get there. 

It’s complex. Because demand marketing has an expanded role in driving revenue, there’s more pressure to crank out more messages and promotions. That means many competing, overlapping, and siloed marketing initiatives reach customers simultaneously.  

That can be managed better with unified views of calendars, a hierarchy for messages and promotions, and commonly integrated plans. Those all build more alignment and clarify optimal resource allocation during the planning process. This view then carries forward into activation and more frequent re-prioritization that may be needed throughout the year. 

It can also be an important venue to talk about experimentation. Test-and-learn thinking that too often gets left behind in the planning process. Will those NFTs pay off? The storefront in Horizon Worlds? Anamorphic billboards? No one yet knows what kind of return on investment these might have, and they indeed fail the “Bigger, better” test. But fledgling ideas need budgetary support if the organization wants to gain agility and build a marketing edge.  

In our research, we found that Marketers who work for businesses that successfully meet goals cite strategic experimentation as the predominant force behind their investment decision-making – perhaps shifting the mix based on objectives. Compare this to marketers who work for businesses that do not successfully meet goals. They, instead, rely mostly on industry best practices and historical effectiveness to inform their decisions – a more static and unchanging approach. 

Importantly, planning under a unified umbrella provides satisfaction. Teams can walk away knowing how their plans and responsibilities support the greater business objectives. 

Bring the Village

Those shared initiatives require inviting a bigger cast of characters into the planning process. Integrated marketing means inviting more people into the planning meeting. When setting up planning sessions, marketers should reach beyond product and sales to include research and insights, partners and operations. 

However, there’s no one size fits all approach. B2B companies may have to think this through differently, often including sales teams and product leaders even earlier, as part of the bottom-up planning process.  

Regardless, all companies should include as many perspectives as possible while also keeping their customers in mind.  

We recognize that this may bring up concerns about “too many cooks in the kitchen”? You’re not alone. While it can seem clumsy initially, it’s an important first step to being collaborative. The more companies strive to achieve cross-functional consensus, the less “re-work” and pivoting they need later.  

Map to Business Outcomes

Our research finds that marketers who describe their companies as top performers actively align marketing activities and tactics to shared business objectives. While many marketing objectives remain essential to the success of the plan’s performance, this calls for bigger thinking. It connects marketing to the goals of other stakeholders in the firm and functions far beyond their own. 

The first step is to decide on those “no-regrets” business opportunities and align the most supportive marketing strategies. Many start with a worksheet that looks like this: 

Download the Mapping Marketing Tactics to Shared Business Objectives Worksheet.

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The shift toward integrated, customer-centric planning requires weeks if not months of new kinds of preparation. That can include new journey maps and competitive intelligence.

But the pay-off is well worth it. Integrated marketing allows a company to develop a modern approach that connects brand to demand. And ultimately, it serves customer needs better, improves execution and leads to uncommon growth. 

Ready to reimagine your 2023 marketing planning process? Get in touch with our marketing and sales team today.

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Unlocking Sustainable Growth

How companies can link ESG strategy to business objectives to drive growth and shared value

In response to the rising demands of stakeholders, companies are racing to put out sustainability commitments, with 92% of the S&P 500 now publishing these reports.  

It’s an important shift. Companies with established environmental, social, governance structures have integrated ESG thinking into every aspect of their business – increasing transparency, rethinking environmental impact and improving how they treat employees and other stakeholders. Job seekers, particularly the newest entrants to the workforce, will disproportionately want to work for organizations with an established ESG strategy over others. New hires are also more likely to stay if the intensity of the business’ actions matches the commitments. Lastly, ESG matters more to investors, with 85% of investors now mulling a company’s ESG status before buying shares. 

Many companies, though, are struggling to connect their commitments to action. They set ambitious targets–and that’s a good start. But once it comes to integrating ESG across the business, change leaders often don’t know how to navigate the path from ambition to demonstrable impact. It can be hard to build positive business cases for ESG initiatives. This is because there often isn’t a clear operating model for driving durable change and an ESG strategy requires collaboration across all parts of the business.  

We think another major problem is that many companies still see ESG primarily as a compliance and risk mitigation tool, almost exclusively. 

But we recognize it as a bigger opportunity, offering the potential for shared value creation. And there are many reasons to believe that ESG will be the next big driver of growth and transformation in the coming decade.  

As companies use ESG strategies to find more purposeful, inclusive and regenerative business models, they create value in important ways: 

Attract Talent, Boost Retention and Increase Employee Well-Being

It’s hard to overstate how important positive environmental, social and governance practices are to the modern workforce. A recent study from Marsh & McLennan finds a strong correlation between high employee satisfaction and companies with the best ESG scores. These ESG outperformers are also especially attractive to students and young professionals, with 86% of employees preferring to work for companies that care about the same issues they do.  

Improve Customer Acquisition and Retention to Build Brand Strength

People care–and deeply–about how companies contribute to solving key issues in our culture and society today. Consumers and B2B buyers alike want to do business with organizations that are environmentally responsible and fair to employees. They want businesses to stand for something.  

Ipsos reports that 66% of U.S. adults say they prefer to buy brands that reflect their values, up from 50% in 2013. The global average is even higher, at 70% of respondents, with those in emerging markets especially likely to agree. 

Optimize Supply Chains, Drive Efficiencies and Create New Opportunities

While pandemic-era shortages may have vaulted supply-chain concerns to the popular consciousness, they’ve been growing in complexity for some time. They present dizzying ESG challenges, with the average company having 3,000 suppliers for every $1 billion it spends. Supply chains are fraught with risk, with the World Economic Forum estimating they account for about 90% of all emissions and widespread human-rights problems. 

Using ESG principles to optimize and build resilience into supply chains is a huge growth tool, as companies with advanced supplier collaboration and innovation outperformed their peers by 2x in growth. 

Power Innovation and Lead to New Business Models, Products and Services

As companies move through the early phases of ESG–from mitigating risks and achieving efficiencies–they reach the point where the assets and capabilities that power ESG performance can simultaneously become growth tools for competitive strategy and innovation. This requires deeper bridge-building across all parts of the organization. ESG may have first emanated from investor and regulatory pressures, but as it becomes more understood throughout organizations – including product, commercial, and go-to-market leaders. This should open up new pathways to business model innovation, new services and inspire new ways of working.  

Here again, bold and clear goals pay off. In a study of 1,000 companies with climate objectives, those with the most ambitious carbon targets invested the most and made significant operational changes. The result? They also drove the most innovation. 

We clearly see how the principles of sustainable and socially responsible business can unlock opportunities for new products and services. The circular economy offers a $4.5 trillion economic opportunity. New business models focused on reuse, recycle and regenerate are unlocking new opportunities for innovation. Additionally, inclusive design, which embraces a larger view of the human spectrum, has proven to drive innovation that leads to business advantage.  

Moving From Ambition to Impact

Companies must find new and better ways to close the gap between ambition and impact. This requires designing scalable ESG solutions, exploring requirements for change throughout the organization and developing plans that integrate ESG into companywide strategies and operations. 

We’re not suggesting a common path. It’s essential to address what’s material to your industry. For example, water usage and resource availability will be crucial to CPG companies but less to professional services firms. In an analysis of 2,000 U.S. companies, a Harvard Business School study found that companies that consistently addressed material issues in ESG strategies significantly outperformed competitors. Those that paid more attention to immaterial problems, however, significantly underperformed.  

Stakeholders and consumers know when companies are authentically supporting their stances with strategy and when they are greenwashing, rainbow washing and virtue signaling. 70% of Gen-Z and Millennials are skeptical of virtue signaling from organizations, and roughly 80% of companies are just going through the motions and not holding themselves accountable with measurable action, continuing to erode public trust.  

It’s also important to take the ESG maturity of the organization into account. Some have been establishing and finetuning policies and programs for decades, while others are just beginning. 

That said, there are five fundamental shifts common to every organization seeking to sharpen ESG strategies to create new value. 

Companies must move from… 

Embarking on Your ESG Journey

Moving from ambition to action is a complex journey. Targets fluctuate as external factors and pressures increase. And as test-and-learn efforts enrich the company’s knowledge, they become agile and confident enough to take on new endeavors. 

To drive meaningful change, leaders need to evangelize the ESG mindset. Acting on these new tenets of sustainable and responsible business, they need to build coalitions, think creatively, iterate continuously and take risks. It’s a unique skill set but essential if ESG is to come to life throughout the company.  

We’ve found meaningful analogies to these shifts in digital transformation. We’ve helped dozens of companies take the role of digital executives from a single department to an enterprise-wide commitment. Digital thinking now forms the backbone of a modern company’s culture, operations, go-to-market strategies and business models. In many ways, chief sustainability officers are already traveling the same path. They’re driving the ESG mindset and bringing it to life throughout the company.  

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It’s time for companies to tap into the transformative potential of ESG. It continues to be an important tool for compliance and risk mitigation but can do much more. With bold ambitions, close alignment to business objectives, and commitment to high-impact follow-through, the ESG mindset can create shared value and uncommon growth.

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Small Acts of Inclusion 

How inclusivity is reshaping the way Prophet works

We have been continuing to work on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts here at Prophet and have have made steady progress since our last update. We know that achieving representation reflecting the communities where we live and work will take time. And we are also learning a lot when it comes to the importance of understanding the complexity of inclusivity. 

While some organizational practices need to be changed to be more inclusive, we are learning that it is at the micro, one-on-one level where change and impact are being felt most. When everyone at our firm understands and makes a habit of small acts of inclusion each day, we believe that change can happen at scale. 

Propheteers are very proud of our culture, and we should be. But as our inclusivity efforts have strengthened, we sometimes bump up against defensiveness. Even among those who are the most vocal about adding diverse representation, there’s a resistance, or perhaps better put, lack of understanding, to becoming more inclusive in our work.  

We are trying to reinforce that bias does exist here and everywhere. There is no organization where bias does not exist. And so creating a truly inclusive culture means looking at the day-to-day interactions that happen throughout the firm. These connections are the foundations of the employee experience. In each moment, they give people a sense of belonging, letting them know they are valuable members of the team.  

In other words, inclusivity has to be addressed at every level of interaction – macro, corporate level, team level and individual level. The quality of those interactions and the relationships that develop determine how well and for whom the systems are working. 

So far, we’ve found three focus areas that are especially helpful. 

Learning New Language

The ability to have DEI-related conversations throughout an organization requires a common language, and the evolving list of terms initially feels unfamiliar. A first step has been starting small group leadership discussions and introducing inclusion concepts through unconscious bias and allyship training. We’re proud that all of our 600-plus employees have completed this work. 

That’s only a start, though. It’s important to keep talking to translate ideas into individual and collective action. 

Tokenism is one example. Building an inclusive team means gender diversity should be represented. But if a partner asks a woman to work on a pitch just because she’s female, that’s not inclusion. Tokenism is just for show–it’s performative. On the other hand, representative teams are intentionally built because if the goal is cognitive diversity, we know that identity diversity is critical to adding a valuable perspective that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Who we are in the world shows up in how we think and navigate the world differently.   

As a practice, leaders should question “Am I building a team that is as representative as possible?”  Slowing down to process and talk about decisions that impact the way we work can open up healthy dialogues and lead to better outcomes.  

The right language takes these daily conversations from defensive to pragmatic, hopefully making them more productive.  

Reconfiguring Networks

Internal networks–often invisible and informal–are places of exclusion in many workplaces. Remote work has made this even more challenging. Do the people who choose to go into the office, for example, have more access to certain leaders and the chance to develop relationships, while those working remotely may not? Or do certain groups have an easier time interacting and building relationships in a virtual group environment than others?

Making Intentional Connections

We are creating strong employee resource groups, which make space for people to build community and find support. These include Black@Prophet, Pride atProphet, Latino@Prophet and Women In Leadership. And we’re constantly looking for new ways to bring people with shared interests together. We need to do more, though. So we’ve begun opening up opportunities to learn about our leaders and different parts of the company. 

How Inclusivity Needs to Change Our Work

We are focused on moving inclusion beyond awareness through group training and individual coaching. We’re seeking more actionable strategies that impact the way we work, including business development and other go-to-market practices. By setting expectations, mitigating structural bias, and role modeling small acts of inclusion, we know that we can create a firm with imperfect people and their biases that nevertheless contribute to maintaining a healthy and inclusive environment.  

We know that more inclusive teams lead to more innovative and varied approaches to our work for clients, from broader digital transformation strategies to more accessible user experiences. We are trying hard to make this a consistent way of doing business. 

There’s growing urgency to these efforts. Like so many other companies, our work accelerated with the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020. It continues to speed up, fueled not just by the increasing awareness of racial and gender disparities but also by the Great Resignation’s tailwinds. An inclusive culture is key to recruiting and retaining the best people–that’s true for Prophet and every one of the clients we work so hard for. 

So we’re not slowing down. We’ve intensified our planning, becoming more intentional. We’re leveraging strategic approaches within campus, lateral and executive hiring efforts to increase the diversity of the candidate pipeline and, ultimately, incoming hires. And we’re systematizing our process, creating a scalable program based on business rules, such as an Inclusion Rule for diversity on interview slates. We’re completing contract-bound pipeline requirements for external search partners. 

We’re looking to our data to understand employee experience across all diversity dimensions. And we’re using that lens across the board to help ensure that we support diverse teams to lead clients to the best solutions.  

The end goal? A Prophet where one cannot predict a person’s success based on how they look, whom they love or whom they pray to.  To get us there we’re working to clarify and communicate each employee’s role in DEI. We’ll know we’ve arrived when DEI is no longer seen as the responsibility of a handful of people but as a new kind of thinking and behavior each of us brings to work every day. 

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Prophet’s purpose–the reason we exist in the world–is to help our clients find uncommon business growth. Our inclusivity efforts are helping people find uncommon personal growth, using curiosity and innovation as they discover more equitable and inclusive ways of working with one another.

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Catalysts: The Collaborative Advantage

Accelerate transformation by unlocking the power of collaboration across the organization and working environments.

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Collaboration is the future of work, benefiting customers, employees and your bottom line. The trouble is executing it effectively. As hybrid and remote working proliferate, it’s never been more important to ask: Are we collaborating effectively?

For business leaders, it’s imperative to find the right way forward. Siloed work, detached from organizational goals, is still common.

The latest global research from our Organization & Culture practice offers actionable tactics to unlock the power of collaboration across all working environments through a holistic, human-centered approach.

A focus on cross-organizational collaboration is another means to accelerate transformation. This report outlines the three phases organizations need to progress through in order to evolve their understanding of effective collaboration and drive better results.

Key Takeaways:

  • A deep dive into collaboration today and the opportunities in remote, hybrid and face-to-face workplaces
  • A new model: Prophet’s Collaboration Flywheel, helps leaders and organizations move toward a collaborative environment that is sustainable and delivers more impactful outcomes faster over time
  • Understanding collaboration as a muscle and its power to unlock the potential of a more human-centered organization and accelerate transformation
  • The enhanced outcomes and benefits for the business and individuals – beyond financial gains

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Brand and Demand Marketing: A Love Story 

It’s time for brand and demand to stop competing – because together, they are the ultimate power couple to build relevance and unlock uncommon growth.

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Today’s marketing organizations are experiencing tension between brand marketing and demand generation – a tension that undercuts growth and harms performance.  

But it’s time for brand and demand teams to stop thinking in silos and instead, work together in harmony on a shared agenda.  

To learn how the most effective organizations balance brand and demand we interviewed 10 senior marketing executives and surveyed 500+ global marketing and advertising leaders for our report: Brand and Demand Marketing: A Love Story.  

Key Takeaways

In our research, we uncovered the factors influencing investment decisions and operating model setup. We also looked for ways the best marketers measure the success of brand and demand. 

We found that the most effective marketers follow four common principles:  

  • Anchor Marketing Investment in Business Objectives 
  • Experiment to Win 
  • Build a Modern Marketing Organization 
  • Put the Customer at the Center

Interested in our Brand and Demand research? Get our latest report with fresh insights from the world’s top CMOs. Download today!

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How Top Brands Get to the Hearts of Consumers

Three standout trends the top heart brands are doing to become relentlessly relevant to consumers.

It’s no secret that the brands consumers are obsessed with hit closest to our hearts–the ones that make up our identities and help express who we are. The brands we call “magic makers” make us feel true affinity and loyalty: the sneakerheads, gamers, Tesla owners and devotees get it. There is no logical explanation for this kind of love— the kind of love that has lines wrapped around the block at Gucci and people camping out to see the next Marvel movie, even amidst a global pandemic. In the 2022 Prophet Brand Relevant Index (BRI), our annual study which asks 13,500 U.S. consumers which brands are most relevant to their lives, we learned what the top-performing brands do to attract such devoted consumers. For one, they create emotional stories and connections that consumers just have to have and experience. Unlike their counterparts, brands that appeal more to our head and practical side, these brands, fill an emotional need that goes straight to our hearts.

In addition to our overall BRI ranking, we have identified the top brands that speak directly to consumers’ hearts.

Top 25 Heart brands, ranked:

So, what do the top heart brands do to be considered relentlessly relevant to consumers? We discovered three standout trends where brands appealing to consumers’ hearts are excelling.  

Bringing the Fantasy to Us

To create “magic,” brands need to do more than fill a need in our life—they must make us feel like part of something bigger and provide connection and stimulation to escape monotonous days. Gaming and platforms such as PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox enable escape and connection, and respondents agree that they could turn to their consoles to engage in new and unexpected ways. Marvel, Disney, MLB and NFL joined our top ten for brands that “Connect with me emotionally,” making us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. The power of these “magic makers” is to transport us out of our lives and into the past, the future or another planet entirely—and recently that transport mostly happened in our homes.

Nothing gets you closer to a shared in-person experience than live sports and the NFL had an especially strong showing in its first year in the BRI. Despite a variety of controversies, the NFL had more viewers in 2021 than in the previous six years. Because the experience of watching a game depends on live viewership, advertisers could count on a present audience, a rarity in today’s TV market. Innovations in adjacent categories also helped NFL: Sports betting laws opened up and a record 45.2 million Americans are expected to bet on NFL games and wager more than $20 billion, according to CNBC.

Inspiring Authentic Expression

2021 was the year the “creator economy” exploded in full force. From Etsy and Pinterest to YouTube and TikTok, extra time at home coupled with the “Great Resignation” led to increased engagement with social platforms for both viewers and creators. There are over 50 million who consider themselves ‘creators’, according to Forbes, especially among younger generations with strong aspirations to maximize their platform as a career. Creators love these platforms because they allow them to monetize their personal brands and connect directly with their audiences in ways that were never possible before. 

Ranked 13th on “Heart” and 21st most relevant brand overall, Etsy helped connect makers with products they needed and wanted during the pandemic. Etsy reported in 2021 that they had sold an astounding $346 million dollars just in reusable face masks. These products not only fulfilled a need but also felt special and infused with the maker’s craft and love. 

Making Us Feel Special

While still stuck at home during the pandemic with nowhere to go, the 2022 Index shows that we embrace brands that make us feel alive and special, even when they are impractical to our current needs.  Some of our highest performing magic makers were luxury brands: Tesla, Gucci, Sephora and Mercedes-Benz were beloved by consumers and rounded out our top 20 for “Makes me feel inspired.” In the last year, luxury brands rebounded faster than many expected. In times of uncertainty, enduring status and quality symbols can feel reassuring.

Luxury brands have seen record levels of growth coming out of the pandemic. “Revenge shopping” or the phenomenon of those with means spending on luxury goods to fill a void left by canceled social and cultural events may explain the quick comeback of high-end brands. Luxury items aren’t just objects—they deliver a transportive experience that activates their brand. Luxury may not solve problems, but in a time when we sacrificed so much, it delivers the fulfilling indulgence that only a wildly expensive, exquisitely designed object or experience can.

What Can Heart Brands Teach Us?

To go from a commodity to relentlessly relevant, brands need to connect with our hearts. Top heart brands have found ways to connect with consumers’ emotions by:

  • Targeting micro-communities of fans who are obsessed with the same sports team or TV show. Instead of trying to appeal to everybody, narrow in on the people who are most likely to connect with the product or service offered.
  • Bringing together commerce and community. The best brands create loyal followers who look for every new product drop and turn up to every store experience: turn consumers into brand evangelists.
  • Delivering on personalization and quality, whether that’s highlighting the stories of artisans and innovators who design products or offering a customized experience through an algorithm or brand design, makes every person who walks through the doors feel special and loved. Magic.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Want to learn more about how the most relevant brands are tapping into the head and heart of consumers? The Prophet BRI serves as a roadmap for building relevance with consumers. Contact our team to learn how to apply the insights from the 2022 Index to your organization. 

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Prophet Impact: Earth Month Recap

Embarking on Prophet’s Sustainability Journey

In 2020, Prophet embarked on a sustainability journey to assess our climate choices and identify steps we can take towards a greener future. We partnered with South Pole to understand our current environmental impacts, see how we stack up against peers and identify potential areas for improvement. Over the last year, we have gone through piles of data and reports from our enterprise-wide audit across global offices to understand Prophet’s carbon emissions and climate change risks.

SBT’s. GHG. CO2te. Net-Zero. Scopes 1-3. What does this all mean? How does a circular design affect the way we look at our economy? How do we interpret the results of our GHG emission report to guide climate actions? How do we inspire our people to act and have a tangible impact on our clients and in our communities? These are just some of the questions we’ve been asking since we began our sustainability journey and Earth Month presented an opportunity to pose these questions to our larger community at Prophet. We knew it was critical to engage Propheteers to share Prophet’s progress in our sustainability journey and be a part of the conversation.

Earth Month Recap

One day is simply not enough to immerse in conservation and celebrate this beautiful planet we call home. So, with Earth Day on April 22nd, the Prophet Impact Sustainability Team took Propheteers on a month-long sustainability journey. This April, we spotlighted Mother Earth through a variety of programming to spark learning, conversation and action around sustainability across the firm.

Our first event was an inspiring start to Earth Month and exposed Propheteers to the different actors that are working together to slow down the negative impacts of climate change. Special guest panelists, Marc O’Brien, Co-founder of Climate Designers, Rosalia Lugo, Environmental Health Activist, Austin Whitman, Founder and CEO of Climate Neutral, and our very own Tosson El Noshokaty, Founding Partner and Advisor for Good Carbon and Oceans2050, shared their perspectives on the climate crisis and how they are leading a more sustainable future across sectors.

Our second educational event was all about circular design. Propheteers learned about shifting to a circular economy and key design principles to create more sustainable products, services and solutions. Propheteers had a chance to break out into small groups and ideate around a real-life design challenge to apply these circular design principles and learn how these concepts might play into our lives and work at Prophet. We also shared some of the client stories that put sustainability at the center: from working with a nonprofit to protect biodiversity in Vietnam, to partnering with a high growth organization focused on building a sustainable and productive food system, to envisioning a fast-food brand’s future kitchen where material and energy waste is designed out.

Our final event looked internally and provided Propheteers with an overview of our sustainability journey from the South Pole team. Propheteers gained insight into key climate terms like Scope 1-2-3 emissions, carbon credits, and net-zero. In addition to sharing Prophet’s GHG footprint from 2019 and 2020, we also began to explore what actions we might take to start reducing our carbon footprint such as setting a science-based target, leveraging renewable energy, and investing in climate credits.

“We know that our own sustainability journey can always be enhanced and Prophet and our clients can continue to do better for our planet.”

Alongside these educational events, we held an Earth Day Every Day photo challenge, where Propheteers were invited to submit photos in three categories: #Act Now, #Natural Beauty and #Nature Selfie. From photos of a glacier park in Iceland to the mighty Iguazu Falls, Propheteers captured the scenic wonders of our Planet. There were also photos of trash piling up in Hawai’i and an overflowing makeshift trash can that highlighted the urgent need to take action now to build a greener future together. Propheteers across the firm also gathered with their local office teammates in person and virtually to celebrate Earth Day. There was fun to be had- from panting succulents to enjoying a plant-based meal together, to participating in a sustainability-themed trivia.

Prophet’s Next Steps

So where are going from here?

At the individual level, we hope that Earth Month inspired Propheteers around what it means to live more sustainably. Many have committed to making more sustainable choices daily and volunteering their time to participate in sustainability-focused activities during our upcoming Prophet Impact Day.

At the firm level, Prophet will be continuing to partner with South Pole to declare a greenhouse gas reduction goal (e.g., Net Zero), and subsequently develop sustainability strategies and a roadmap to reduce our carbon footprint. On the client-side, Prophet has dedicated resources to building a suite of ESG offers to help business leaders apply a systems thinking mindset that involves the planet and elevates sustainability in their organizations. ESG efforts will be critical to making sustainability more “real” across the business world.

Finally, at the global level, we will continue to spotlight and drive action for more sustainable practices, both within our firm, to our clients and to our networks. We know that our own sustainability journey can always be enhanced and Prophet and our clients can continue to do better for our planet.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While Earth Month at Prophet may have ended, the conversations around climate and sustainability continue. We know it will take a coordinated effort between governments, institutions, businesses and people all over the world to build a more sustainable future. At Prophet, we are proud to be taking steps in our own sustainability journey.

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Four Critical Shifts for Tech Brands Today

Technological advancement has long been a driving force moving society forward. From underlying network advancements to ongoing software and hardware innovations, many of today’s biggest companies have achieved success by being at the forefront of technology.

But when considering what matters to consumers, what does it really take to become a technology leader in this modern era?

In this year’s Prophet Brand Relevance Index®, we once again saw technology’s rising impact in building brands that are relentlessly relevant in consumers’ lives. Major tech companies like Apple, Spotify, Bose and Android have continued to dominate the top five and fast-rising tech brands also captured people’s heads and hearts in an unprecedented way.

While the fundamental principles that define a leading brand stay true, our findings emphasize that the way in which these principles are delivered needs to evolve in order for brands to stay at the technology forefront.

1. Ruthlessly Pragmatic: From Economics and Efficiency to Consistency and Dependability

For many, pre-pandemic living demanded efficiency, productivity and outcomes – and technologies enable that. Tech leaders compete on superior specs, technical ability and cost-effectiveness, especially in Asia. But, one of the likely lasting trends resulting from the pandemic is a shift towards a slower, simpler life. With consumers looking for quality over speed, superior performance is now increasingly defined by a dependable, reliable and consistent experience.

Dyson believes in the value of engineering perfection in daily chores, as opposed to “get it done quickly.” Its strong emphasis on prototyping and refinement to achieve the art of precision is evident across product categories. Consumers trust Dyson for how consistently dependable their products are – no matter if it’s a vacuum or a hairdryer. They can rely on Dyson to accomplish their tasks, without dreading any mishaps when using.

The shift: As we emerge from the pandemic the definition of pragmatism is no longer surface-level results. Brands must use technology in a way that delivers long-term, dependable performance.

2. Pervasively Innovative: From Bigger and Better to Designing with Care

Great technological leaps have been made in the past few decades. Tech brands have focused their innovation story on “bigger, thinner, faster, stronger” to claim leadership. But with a renewed focus on what really matters in life, consumers are more interested in how technology can enable and empower – rather than disrupt – their lives. Innovation is less about “best in the world”, and more about human-centered design that delivers incremental but consequential progress.

Samsung has always been a leader in the TV category. It used to focus on innovations such as OLED and its curve feature but its latest flagship, The Serif, presents a shift – it isn’t the most innovative choice when it comes to the specs (size, thinness, etc.) but it is able to chime into the ambiance of users’ life and become an integral part of their lifestyle.

“Many of today’s biggest companies have achieved success by being at the forefront of technology.”

Peloton also rises fast in the post-pandemic era. It focuses less on hardware advancement but on content creation, offering curated and fresh home exercising experiences that give the brand a unique edge as a user-centric innovator.

The shift: As technology is increasingly democratized, technology leadership can no longer be defined by groundbreaking patents as the only tickets to entry. Instead, innovation can be achieved by zeroing in on customer pain points and leveraging technology in meaningful ways to solve them.

3. Customer Obsessed: From Connected Devices to a Connected World

IoT and smart living aim to create a more seamless life but not all ecosystems today have consumers at their center – some were developed to expand portfolios and create switch barriers. As consumers mature and the future of Web 3.0 fundamentally changes how people connect, the role of technology also needs to move from connecting devices for an easier life to enabling human feelings and interactions, with people’s inner selves, their surroundings and the world at large.

As DJI expands its portfolio, its marriage with Hasselblad wasn’t only about building an ecosystem but also about helping creators experience it differently. Fusing Hasselblad technology onto the consumer drones allows creators to capture extraordinary color and granularity, heighten their senses and strengthen their connection with the world.

The shift: Technology is no longer an end in itself; true customer obsession means using technology as a means to enable and empower meaningful human connections.

4. Distinctively Inspired: From What I Like to What I Believe

The “early adopters” are critical for technology companies and therefore many brands focused on building “newness, imagination or adventure” to mirror their attitudes. But true advocates for a technology leader are people that follow the brand through generations of innovations and upgrades. More than ever, consumers are demanding brands that align with their core beliefs and values and connect them with like-minded individuals.

Where brands normally compete against each other on technicality and performance to win the hearts of consumers, Tesla leads with a core belief to accelerate a sustainable future. It has inspired a like-minded group to follow the brand since its inception. Their unwavering advocacy has become a major driver of Tesla’s exponential growth around the world.

Grab, Southeast Asia’s dominant player, originally in transportation and delivery services, has the mission of driving the region forward by creating economic empowerment for everyone. This belief guides the brand whenever it expands its business horizons. For example, its latest financial products include micro-loans and microinsurance to serve historically underbanked populations.

The shift: Technology is progressive and pervasive. Brands need to go beyond mirroring attitudes and personality expression and must instead lead with core beliefs and shared values that move people and society forward.

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To be a leader in technology today means delivering consistent experiences, improving lives through purposeful innovations, enabling meaningful connections and driving societal progress.

As we emerge from the pandemic, we are reentering a world where technology has – and will – continue to play a dominant role in shaping our lives and our collective future. A shift to Web 3.0 will demand brands to pay more attention than ever to how they stay relevant as underlying technologies and consumer expectations continue to evolve.

Download the 2022 Brand Relevance Index® today for more insights on how companies can establish technology leadership to build a more relentlessly relevant brand.

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Meet the Prophet Board 

Learn about the esteemed behind-the-scenes advisors who play an active role in shaping Prophet’s business.

We are lucky to have a diverse set of leaders at Prophet who bring unparalleled expertise and experience to their roles – advancing our firm’s transformation and grooming rising stars in our community, all while showing up as thought partners and allies to clients and peers. Day in and day out we see them lead by example and help propel Prophet’s growth.  

There is also a set of esteemed behind-the-scenes advisors that play an active role in Prophet’s business trajectory, providing nuanced POVs to help us make big strategic decisions.  

Introducing… Prophet’s Board of Directors 

We asked members of the board about their experience working with the firm – and some of their favorite stories from having a seat at the board table.  

If I was a fly on the wall during a Prophet board meeting, what would I see and hear? 

David Aaker: “It should first be known that when you have a well-run and well-managed company at the top like Prophet, it says a lot about what the board will do and what their role is. It’s painful to be on a board that lacks good leadership. It’s a joy to be on a board of a company with a strong CEO and staff. Given we have that, the composition of the board is exceptional. Many have been on the board for a long time, with our newest members now having been on for a couple of years now. During Prophet board meetings you hear experts with relevant backgrounds that are reinforcing and providing input into the strategies that are leading the company in the right direction. The meetings are supportive and encouraging, using their experience and expertise to guide, lead and provide suggestions to the strategies that are being pursued or influencing new strategies to try. They are also encouraged to be critical, as its an open and respectful environment.”

Niels Nielsen: “It’s very similar to what you see and hear on client teams in the company: Sincere and sometimes heated discussions with a commitment to substantive outcomes. More questions and suggestions than statements. A tonality of no mercy, no malice. Some bantering and teasing. Lots of laughter and good humor.” 

Chan Suh: “If I were to take the question literally, I’d say a bunch of people crammed into a room – or sometimes Zoom – and, as the hours go by, you will see people wilt a little bit over time. The table gets messier and there’s usually plenty of sugar and calories. There’s always seriousness to the questions we are asking, but not about ourselves. There’s good humor, which is remarkable and makes the time together light-hearted and fun. While we spend a lot of time as a core board, we also spend plenty of hours talking and exchanging information with different leaders and peers. Any given board meeting there could be five to seven different teams of people coming in and out and participating in the discussion.” 

William Dean Donovan: “I always thought that the best consultants are experts at the art of supportive confrontation.  You would find a fair amount of that at one of our board meetings.  The Prophet team works hard to put high-quality ideas in front of the board and asks us to challenge their thinking to help make the best decision and create understanding among everyone on the team.” 

Michelle Bottomley: “You would see a great deal of camaraderie and genuine appreciation for the vision/strategy/work and strong results being delivered by the operating team with an appreciation for the respective strengths and perspectives around the table. You would hear a good combination of laughing and lightheartedness with robust discussion/debate on key strategic topics. Our board has a healthy blend of outside and insight board directors with diverse perspectives and professional experiences that complement each other and brings strength to the Prophet strategy.” 

What is one thing you’ve learned since serving on the Prophet board? What is one thing you’ve taught other members?  

Chiaki Nishino: “As a Board member who is also an operating executive at Prophet, managing the day-to-day of our business, it’s been valuable to deliberately put on an external shareholder lens on top of the client and employee lens I always have on. It helps me take a step back to evaluate Prophet from a long-term value creation perspective on a quarterly basis. Our board members come from very different backgrounds, so the questions asked in the board room are just as valuable as the discussions we have.” 

Niels Nielsen: “Out of the more than 35 boards, on which I serve/have served, Prophet is one of the few that have excelled in the sense that building a company is much more than growing its business. It makes me proud to be part of a company that is a consistently successful business, but which is successful because it is a company that grows its people; grows through its people, and consistently strives to do right.” 

David Aaker: “As a Board member who is also still putting out thought leadership into the market, I periodically I bring my books and IP to the meetings. Both to maximize reach and get thoughts and opinions on it. During the meetings, I share my expertise on the strategies we are discussing. In general, it’s a joy and fun to be around such interesting and capable people.”

Gian Fulgoni: “I’ve learned that the Prophet team is second to none in addressing the wide range of business issues that Prophet solves for its clients around the world. I’m confident in saying that because I’ve been able to experience first-hand as a board member and also on the client side.”   

Michael Dunn: “Management teams can sometimes see the board in an adversarial way, spending more time “packaging” information for board consumption than digging into the real issues the company is facing. But I really view it as a space for enrichment and exploration. That mindset has allowed us to really guide and steward the firm into a much more authentic place. We are so lucky to have such a strong group of collaborators with diverse experiences and expertise. I’ve learned that the more open and transparent the key questions we are wrestling with, the more we gain from our time together. If we are vulnerable about our challenges and shortcomings, we are able to get into the rigorous discussions that lead to better thinking and an increased probability that our solutions will be successful.”  

Chan Suh: “I’ve learned the different decision-making and execution. The board alternates: So sometimes the board sets direction and other times the board absorbs the direction that the firm has taken and helps to advance it. I’ve been on different boards for nonprofits and I’ve led my own board for an enterprise before. But as a board member at Prophet, I’ve learned more about how to balance the two. In terms of teaching, I’ve brought energy around trying and starting new things – and bringing them to either success or failure quickly. That’s always been a part of my DNA and I’ve certainly shared it with the board.” 

What excites you the most about Prophet’s transformation and growth trajectory?  

Gian Fulgoni: “It’s always exciting to be associated with a successful and fast-growing transformation of a business – I’ve been fortunate to see it happen both inside Prophet itself and on the client side. It’s also exciting to realize that digital transformations today not only mean transforming companies that weren’t digital but also transforming companies that were already digital, but which hadn’t kept up with the pace of change.”     

William Dean Donovan: “Prophet is at the intersection of analytics, design, brand and marketing strategy.  Those are threads that can create an enormous impact if woven together properly.  Prophet’s interdisciplinary approach stitches the pieces in a unique way.  That creates unique thinking and big impact.”   

Michelle Bottomley: “Prophet has built upon our strong foundation in research, insights and branding as a platform for business transformation to deliver practical solutions using modern tools to generate demand, brand engagement and brand delivery by employees. This combination of strong insights-based strategy with the ability to implement programs that drive differentiation and growth is something I wish I tapped into while a CMO myself. Secondly, I am enormously impressed with the talented leadership team — who are world-class pioneers in their respective areas – and our leader’s ability to stand up new practices that help clients succeed where they need Prophet to extend the brand most.” 

Chan Suh: “Transformation and growth is the ultimate destination of a marketing, brand, organizational, experience consulting. Externally, the world needs this in a way that we have now been able to formulate. I really feel like we’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of relevance and need. Internally, what excites me most is that it’s a big tent. And as long as we keep it a big tent, we will be able to welcome a lot of skill sets that we don’t yet have and we will be able to grow the expertise and stay ahead of the competition.” 

David Aaker: “It’s amazing that we’ve come this far as a firm and have worked with the caliber of clients we are and have driven the impact we have for our impressive roster of clients. The problem, of course, is to get credit for it in the market and to be known for it. We do so much beyond brand that the world doesn’t yet know. For now, we are our client’s biggest, best-kept secret and I see that changing soon.”

What Prophet value resonates with you the most?  

Chiaki Nishino: “Share Joy – we constantly discuss at the board how we partner not only with our clients but with each other as team members in a way that’s incredibly unique and authentic. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and take the time to connect as teammates and people. I strongly believe that our success comes from not only the capabilities we bring to bear for our clients, but the way in which our people team and relate with each other.”

Chan Suh: “Give and Grow is a value that we exercise, demonstrate and live every day. It is visible in how we work and how we operate the business. We are constantly trying to create one team by investing in the personal and professional growth of our people and our clients. We do so by being a coach, a sounding board or a cheering section. And while we all have unique needs and goals, we all have a shared understanding that we’re in this together—and by offering our time, empathy and brainpower to support the collective potential of our teams, clients and communities, we flourish together. We may work in different areas and have different skillsets or expertise, but we believe in something central that is greater than the sum of its little subgroups.”

Michael Dunn: “It’s a toss-up between Create with Courage & Open Minds. Our Create with Courage value focuses on the entrepreneurial spirit that is foundational to Prophet. When something could be better, we don’t settle—we lean in and create. We help clients push boundaries when they are tackling their biggest challenges in order to drive growth and impact. When we put our heart into our work while applying intellect, creativity and rigor to execute, we can push boundaries. I am quite fond of Open Minds because Propheteers are unmistakable—we’re upfront about who we are. We’re united, but different, which allows us and our clients to achieve more together. It’s in our nature to seek diverse voices and embrace all backgrounds and lived experiences. We feel that by showing up honestly and openly with each other and clients, we discover new paths for connection and creativity. It’s a culture we’ve built that we are incredibly proud of.”

To learn more or be connected with one of Prophet’s leaders, reach out today.  

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We are grateful for the tremendous support from this all-star group of leaders – individuals who have led powerful careers and are committed to paying it forward. As our firm continues to grow, we thank the Board of Directors for pushing the direction of our firm and advising us throughout our transformation.  

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Elevating Wellbeing Can Inspire Change in Healthcare Organizations

Since the onset of the pandemic, mental health and burnout have become more common topics of conversation in the healthcare space and within the broader culture. The use of #MentalHealthAwareness in more than four million Tweets in 2021 alone, for example, shows just how common conversations about mental health have become.

Increased consciousness of behavioral health and wellbeing was one of the driving forces behind the Great Reshuffle, which significantly hit the healthcare industry. It’s estimated that almost 20 percent of healthcare workers quit during the pandemic. And because behavioral health is very much on the minds of workers, it’s an urgent topic for employers too, in healthcare and nearly every other industry.

Forward-looking organizations are leaning into the critical issue by seeking ways to facilitate more productive conversations and provide additional behavioral health support.

Why Employers Should Support the Health of Healthcare Workers

Today, wellbeing in the workplace has evolved to become more holistic, including both physical and behavioral health. As we highlight in our POV on employee wellbeing, Prophet believes a balance of flexibility and connection is key to promoting wellbeing among employees across industries; empathetic leadership and emotional support also play important roles. This can help workers feel free to bring their authentic selves to the workplace and have candid conversations about sensitive topics, including mental health.

“Employers can enable a sense of belonging, where workers see how their own values align with the organization.”

By talking about the health of healthcare workers and creating space for conversations on wellbeing broadly, organizations send the message that their people are not alone in navigating stress, anxiety and fatigue. In proactively helping healthcare workers live their best lives both on the job and outside of work, employers can enable a sense of belonging, where workers see how their own values align with the organization.

How to Prioritize and Boost Wellbeing Across Healthcare Organizations

Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model focuses on four elements key to organizational health and success: DNA, Mind, Body, and Soul. By changing the way wellbeing is talked about in the workplace, each element contributes to a healthier workday and more effective employee retention.

The ‘DNA’ is the Heart of Wellbeing

Wellbeing can – and should – be a part of an organization’s purpose and employee value proposition. Whether an organization has long provided behavioral health benefits or is just now considering doing so, supporting ongoing conversations around wellbeing can provide deep and authentic connections. This is especially important at a time when healthcare workers are prioritizing wellbeing in their workday and are more likely to move on if those expectations are not met.

The ‘Mind’ is How to Enable Wellbeing

Drive change across the healthcare workforce by actively promoting greater wellbeing. The organizational mind can be shaped by educating workers on the importance of behavioral health, providing useful resources, and building awareness of these offerings. Across industries, many companies are offering subscriptions to mental health platforms and meditation apps (e.g., Calm Business and Headspace for Work), which offer exercises and tips to stay focused and mindful throughout the day.

The ‘Body’ is How to Act on Change

To help healthcare workers feel equipped in prioritizing their wellbeing, organizations can change their operating model by putting in place processes and systems that support greater behavioral health and continuously measure their effectiveness. While workers navigate implementing wellbeing tools, organizations can encourage workers to share what is and is not working so that the types of resources being provided can simultaneously evolve.

The ‘Soul’ is How to Ignite Belief

These are the mindsets, behaviors, and rituals that continually demonstrate that wellbeing is an organizational priority. For instance, when leaders in the healthcare space open up and share their own stories on behavioral health and wellbeing, people get the message that it’s an important consideration. By furthering the dialogue on behavioral health and creating a sense of belonging, organizations will have happier, healthier workers.

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While healthcare organizations are limited in their ability to provide the flexibility (e.g., remote working) that some workers want, there is an opportunity in the healthcare space for organizations to support their employees’ behavioral health deeply and authentically.

As talk about behavioral health becomes the norm in the workplace, companies are seeking to build more genuine connections with their employees. Removing the stigma of talking about mental health is a great first step to creating lasting change. Robust behavioral health programs will become standard features of benefits for those organizations that want to stand out as “employers of choice.”

Get in touch with our Healthcare specialists and our Organization & Culture experts if you would like to learn more.

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