WEBCAST

Webinar Replay: The 2021 State of Digital Transformation

Average companies start transformations to “catch up.” The most successful firms? They want innovation.

56 min

Omar Akhtar, Senior Analyst and Research Director at Altimeter, and Chan Suh, Chief Growth Officer at Prophet, present the biggest takeaways from Altimeter, a Prophet company’s flagship report, The State of Digital Transformation – which surveyed nearly 600 executives from the U.S., Europe and China. They discuss key trends in transformation, including where leading companies are expanding their digital capabilities, what investments they are making and common roadblocks they encounter along the way.

If you’d like to learn more about Prophet’s approach to digital transformation, get in touch today.

BLOG

Back to Brick and Mortar: 4 DTC Trends

The right experiences in physical stores help build community and brand loyalty.

If you walk around a trendy neighborhood in any big city these days, you’ll find it sprinkled with stores of DTC heavy-hitters – Parachute, Lunya, AllBirds and the like. Since these success stories made it through digital channels, why is turning to physical retail suddenly the new DTC trend?

Take DTC darling, Warby Parker, as an example. Warby Parker, the prescription glasses and sunglass retailer, came charging into the scene in 2010 and quickly disrupted the category with a digital-only strategy. However, it opened its first physical store in 2013.

One might think Warby’s stores could cannibalize its online sales – with higher overhead – but co-founder Dave Gilboa says that’s not true: “Once we open a store, we see a short-term slowdown in our e-commerce business in that market. But after nine or 12 months, we see e-commerce sales accelerate and grow faster than they had been before the store opened. We’ve seen that pattern in virtually every market.”

In September 2021, Warby Parker went public with a $3 billion valuation and pitched a growth strategy centered around stores (the brand currently has 145 in the U.S. and plans to open more).

How is Brick and Mortar Changing the DTC Ecosystem?

1. High Customer Acquisition Cost

One reason DTC companies go offline is because of rising digital customer acquisition costs (CAC). While acquiring customers through digital marketing was once a cost-effective model, as more retailers (including major brands with big budgets) have upped their digital marketing game, the price of digital advertising has skyrocketed. Over the last five years, CAC has risen by more than 60%, according to ProfitWell.

Believe it or not, even when opening physical stores in expensive and upscale locations like well-known New York City neighborhood SoHo, it’s often more cost-effective for DTC companies to gain customers through high foot traffic locations like these, rather than solely relying on digital marketing acquisition.

In part, this is because DTC companies aren’t opening big-box retail stores. To acquire customers, all they need is a well-designed, curated space. Many, including Casper, Bonobos and Framebridge, have even adopted an inventory-free showroom model.

2. Necessity of Omnichannel to Scale Growth

Many DTC brands reach a point when using an omnichannel strategy becomes necessary for growth. No DTC brand has achieved $1billion in annual revenue without stores. Customers shop through multiple channels, and brands need to meet them where they are. This becomes especially important when DTC companies approach the IPO stage. They need to show investors they can turn a profit, and that’s simply very hard to do exclusively through digital channels.

3. Brand Awareness

Physical footprints are a great way to increase brand awareness, which can boost sales through all channels. MeUndies, for example, partnered with Nordstrom to create a physical footprint. Additionally, some DTC brands, such as Naadam, report that while sales from the stores themselves may not be huge, they saw an increase in digital sales from customers in the markets where physical stores are located. In this way, stores essentially serve as strategically positioned advertisements in areas densely populated with target customers.

4. Using Experience to Build Community and Brand Loyalty

A physical store is also an opportunity to build community and increase brand loyalty. DTC brands can leverage deep customer knowledge acquired through their digital success to design engaging in-person experiences to complement other sales channels.

“Over the last five years, CAC has risen by more than 60%, according to ProfitWell.”

Yoga apparel brand, Alo Yoga, adapted to this DTC trend well. In 2007 the brand started selling ‘street fashion’ yoga apparel and opened its first store in Los Angeles in 2016. At its store location, in addition to browsing Alo’s activewear, customers can take workout classes, grab a coffee and even conduct a business meeting from one of its lounge areas – all in a beautifully designed space, centrally located to where they live, work and play. Alo has since opened a second flagship location in New York City, as well as with smaller locations in California, New York and Texas.

Since opening physical stores, Alo’s growth has accelerated, as demonstrated by:

  • Acquisition of yoga app Cody in 2018 which was rebranded to Alo Moves (on-demand classes)
  • Expansion into the beauty space in 2020 (The Glow System)
  • Inclusion on Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” list in 2021

While they don’t officially disclose revenue, Alo reported it to be around $200 million annually as of 2020.

Drive
Customer
Demand

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

While many DTC brands achieve initial success through a digital-only strategy, there often comes a point when they need to turn to physical retail to reach the next wave of growth.  The need for in-person experiences is still an important channel for brands and shows no signs of going away.

Want to learn more about partnering with Prophet on driving growth for your DTC brand? Contact us today.

CONNECT WITH US

REPORT

Executing on Customer-Centricity

Financial services execs tell us how they are transforming corporate culture, thinking bigger and acting bolder.

Download

How Financial Services Organizations Can Unlock Uncommon Growth

Non-traditional players – like fintechs, “super apps” and neobanks – have built their businesses around serving the whole customer. They use digital technology to open new sources of demand, and they find growth opportunities by constantly evaluating customer behaviors and designing solutions to fill the gaps.

Dealing with decades-old technology and product-centric org charts, traditional financial services organizations face higher barriers to achieving customer-centricity. To win and retain their customers, they’ll need to think and act like a disrupter by being hyper-focused on the 360-degree customer view.

Executing on Customer-Centricity is the latest research from Prophet’s Financial Services practice. It includes interviews with nearly 50 senior executives with customer-facing responsibilities across banking, insurance and financial services.  Our findings will help financial services organizations think bigger and act bolder, enabling them to achieve customer-centricity across the entire enterprise by transforming their cultures.

Read this report to gain deeper insights on:

  • The practice of customer-centricity – and how it pays off in share of wallet, higher loyalty, more referrals and stronger operational gains
  • The top five industry-specific challenges faced when it comes to achieving customer-centricity
  • The five actions legacy companies can take now to better orient themselves around their customers
  • A refreshed approach to transformation with culture as the keystone and Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model as the guide

Download the report below.

Revolutionize
Experiences

RELATED SERVICE

Download Executing on Customer-Centricity

*Fill in all required fields

Thank you for your interest in Prophet’s research!

DOWNLOAD NOW!

BLOG

Leaders & Language: How the Right Words Can Catalyze Change

Language connects. But with companies going digital, organizational communication has many new challenges.

Great leadership and great communication go hand in hand. Just look at the greats—from Martin Luther King Jr. to Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Leaders who respect language as a force for change have transformed cultures, systems and policies. 

But how exactly do impactful leaders approach language to initiate such meaningful change? And how can leaders communicate to guide their organizations to success?  

Right now, we find ourselves in a reality that’s both ripe for change and steeped in the minutiae of the moment — where every word can be recorded, shared, scrutinized and misconstrued. For that reason, thoughtful and intentional communication from leaders is more important than ever before.  

To Guide Meaningful Change, Leaders Must Communicate with Purpose  

Organizations are changing at a deeper, structural level in response to the storm of urgent external forces like systemic inequality, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health crisis and the shift to hybrid working – with many having to respond to a number of these factors all at once. The result? A huge emphasis on organizational culture and change at a rapid pace.   

But we can’t talk about organizational culture transformation without talking about language. Language is one of the most powerful tools for inspiring focused action and influencing culture.   

The Anatomy of Effective Language  

The role of language is to connect—and intentionality is essential to connect effectively. When Aristotle spoke about language in his theory of language and meaning, he defined three ways to effectively connect with another individual or team: to open their mind through reason (logos), to open their heart with emotion and vulnerability (pathos) and to find common ground through a shared truth or values (ethos). Through these elements of language, leaders can connect, persuade and build trust more effectively.    

Language is a system that defines and pervades all other organizational systems and it’s both fueled and forged by your culture. It only makes sense then, that when your organization evolves, language must evolve along with it.   

Approaching Language During Transformation   

With companies going digital, organizational communication has a host of new challenges. How do you pick up the vibe on a Zoom call? How do you make one-on-one calls feel as natural and spontaneous as passing a colleague in the hall? It’s hard work, which is why so many leaders are eager to bring people back to the workplace. While it’s tempting to cling to the systems that have kept our workplace cultures humming for decades, we have been jettisoned into a hybrid, hyper-speed era—one that demands more dynamic, adaptable cultures. Language acts as both the cultural catalyst and the glue holding an organizational culture together.   

At Prophet, we think of the organization as a macrocosm of an individual. Like an individual, an organization has DNA, a Mind, Body and Soul — and when we are looking to effect transformation, it has to be human-centered across all these elements. Why? Because businesses don’t change. Humans change and then they change the business.  

Let’s look more closely at these four areas and the role that language plays:   

  • DNA: How an organization defines their shared vision, values, purpose and ambition  
  • Mind: Enabling the workforce to adopt new skills and drive change   
  • Body: Language helps teams understand the systems needed to direct their transformation   
  • Soul: Motivating employees and other stakeholders to contribute to the change  

By thinking about language through the lens of Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model™, leaders can more effectively communicate throughout the transformation process.   

DNA | Defining the Change   

Language literally builds an organization’s DNA. That’s why crafting the DNA involves a careful thought-through, strategic, iterative process that captures data-driven insights and diverse perspectives from across the organization. The idea is to define and then express the new ethos in an authentic way.   

Recently, we worked with Thrivent, a major U.S. financial services organization, to transform its business and brand. Thrivent wanted to innovate its offerings and expand its reach to new markets while maintaining its loyal membership base and values.  

Defining the ambition with a team of data scientists, strategists and writers allowed for the team to take a more critical lens to the language used in the DNA of the organization. From this work, we defined a shared purpose that reflected Thrivent’s heritage and enabled everyone to align with the modern organization it was ready to become: Thrive with Purpose.  

We like to think of leaders as the carriers of this DNA, modeling shared values and purpose in both their words and actions, so we worked with Thrivent’s senior leaders and managers to create a launch video that introduced the new ambition and shared purpose to the whole organization. From there, we helped them roll out the new strategy, consulting on their communications and providing exact language — including a new brand voice and messaging — so managers and senior leaders could confidently share the new ambition and brand with their teams. Together, our work received the 2020 Transform award for tone of voice.  

Body | Directing the Change   

Embodying and directing any change requires a clear roadmap and reliable systems that give the DNA a place to materialize. We use language to set and measure clear goals and achieve them together (i.e., KPIs). Word choice in KPI development is critical because they must be clear, tangible, and directional.  

To develop these KPIs leaders should ensure they should:   

  1. Ladder up to one of two key business drivers  
  2. Be linked to the ambition and meaningful milestone on a roadmap  
  3. Be aligned at a business or functional level before translating into team or individual goals   
  4. Be shared and transparent  

Talent and performance development is a great example of this. A while back, we worked with a newly formed but significant global bio-pharmaceutical player with an ambition to create a more decisive, agile and performance-driven culture. To achieve this, the organization wanted to take a fresh approach to recognizing employee performance — including how it rewarded individuals and teams that truly made a difference.  

So, we set out to first clarify what “good” performance looked like. Then, we translated that new definition into a purpose-driven method of goal setting and performance conversations. We helped its team choose language more thoughtfully, which enabled managers to respond to this shifting performance criteria by having the right conversations.   

Mind | Enabling the Change   

To enable change, leaders must appeal to people through reason (logos) to help them adapt to the new set of values (ethos). If employees are clear on their roles and know exactly how to upskill to align with the ambition, you can establish capabilities built on trust and progress.   

For Thrivent, activating the new DNA proved challenging for their financial professionals because they run their own businesses around their personal philosophies. So, we found common ground, showing the connection between their values and the new brand purpose, promise and principles.   

Then we gave their professionals the tools — scripts, talking points, and educational resources that gave them the language to bring the brand DNA to life in their daily work. We also recorded interviews with them where they shared their financial philosophy through the language of the new brand promise. This helped them co-create accessible, on-brand language to share with clients.   

Soul | Motivating the Change   

The most enduring and dangerous myth about leadership is that you must have all the answers — and if you don’t have them, pretend you do. A leader who can admit when they don’t have all the answers gains trust. And when combined with that trust, a leader who makes space for employees to be seen, heard and understood helps to take people on a change journey.   

For a culture to flourish through a transformation, it’s vital for leaders across an organization to reinforce shared values, celebrate wins and share learnings as often as possible. In the Human-Centered Transformation Model™, we call this Soul. By motivating small wins throughout the organization transformation journey, employees feel recognized for their efforts and connected to something bigger than themselves.   

In addition to a regular and genuine celebration of small successes and learning moments, the single most powerful way a leader can motivate change is by showing vulnerability.  

When the pandemic hit, Prophet was among many organizations that closed the offices. We prepared to close for two weeks and were instructed to work from home. Those two weeks stretched to nearly two years. During this time, our CEO Michael Dunn, along with the Exco team, created a Global Pulse call, a bi-weekly check-in that connects all the firm for 45 minutes to meditate, share stories, talk about recent events and be “together”. While the Global Pulse calls were a direct response to the missing connections we had in the office, they have created a ritual that has given us all a sense of unity as well as opportunities to make space for the difficult experiences we were and are all facing.  

Michael Dunn starts every Global Pulse call with a guided meditation—a simple and gracious use of language that, over time, introduced new behaviors and cultural norms to the firm. To experience a guided meditation on that scale with fellow colleagues spoke directly to hearts and minds, and for many, became a ritual we relied on.  

“The single most powerful way a leader can motivate change is by showing vulnerability.”

What is also subtly powerful about this ritual is the name: Global Pulse. Alone these words are impactful, but together even more so. The invitation to “check the pulse” of our global culture serves as a warm reminder that our culture is a living, evolving aspect of our co-existence — and it influences all we do. 

We spoke with Michael about his reflections on the Global Pulse and use of language over the past 18 months. He noted, “For the first few months, and even up until now, I feel so much pressure to get the tone and experience just right. But I started to see that using the mindfulness exercise to open the forum, which I do along with everyone else who participates, helped create space for me to feel more present, more connected, more curious and more vulnerable, which then rippled across the globe for everyone who was participating. It helped to elevate the experience for everyone as we invited teams to offer gratitude, spotlight work or have hard conversations about the world around us and Prophet’s way forward.”  

The Global Pulse gave the firm both the space and the language to connect and speak on behalf of our needs. Some pulse calls are filled with photo sharing and stories about working from home. Others are set aside for difficult conversations or empathizing with those who are grieving. We had agendas, but oftentimes we led with our hearts. Because sometimes intentional language doesn’t always require polish. It can simply be about admitting what you don’t know, what you dare to believe and what you need.   

Empower
Employees

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

Once we recognize that effective transformation is human-centered, then we must also consider how language — the most human thing we do — can best support that transformation. The obvious, most exciting moments for intentional language sit within the Soul element of our model. The motivational speeches and fresh storytelling we share to inspire. But language touches every corner of an organization, which presents endless opportunities to choose the right words for the right purpose. Leaders who see its holistic impact and consider the four elements of DNA, Mind, Body and Soul will turn language into a true force for change. What words will you choose today? 

Would you like to better understand how language can be a true force for change in your organization? Our expert team can help, get in touch today. 

CONNECT WITH US

BLOG

Facebook Goes Meta: But Will it Work?

This branding direction makes sense for tech companies, especially in clarifying their story for investors.

Within moments of Facebook’s announcement that it’s renaming itself Meta, the world swiftly reacted. The Twittersphere sniped the loudest, pointing out that the new name won’t change any of the company’s problems: It’s still one of the most controversial companies and in the crosshairs of regulators all over the world.

So, is rebranding a mistake? Far from it. As branding experts, we think it’s a smart, strategic decision. Meta is a bold new brand, one with ambitions far broader than its current social-media properties. And it makes it the first company to stake a claim in the much-coveted metaverse, something so large and nebulous that even many tech people still can’t define it.

The name certainly has its strengths. It’s short, simple, and clearly grounded in the frame of reference the business intends to exist within — and redefine. With only a day of storytelling behind it, we’re curious if there’s more to the Meta-metaphor beyond the metaverse. Is it a wink to the alternate reality that’s created through all social media? Is it a self-deprecating nod to Facebook’s size and scale? Is it a reference to the expression of irony or self-parody of “that’s so meta?

“Meta is a bold new brand, one with ambitions far broader than its current social-media properties.”

It’s a branding direction that makes a great deal of sense for tech companies, especially in clarifying their story for investors. (And it’s not surprising that Facebook shares rose following the announcement.) Just as Alphabet made it possible for the company to grow beyond Google, this new name will pave the way for Meta to broaden its brand portfolio.

We expect that Facebook will still be Facebook to its users. So will Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Each of those brands can–and should–have narrower definitions and fulfill every expectation users and customers have for them.

But other parts of the company will be rebranded. Oculus, its VR division, will become Meta.  And Facebook Portal, its smart display products, will become Meta Portal.

As Meta, the parent company becomes more expansive and is well-positioned to move into the future. And the new name comes just days after the company announced it would invest $10 billion in developing the metaverse, moving in directions far beyond its social-media roots.

“In the metaverse, you’ll be able to do almost anything you can imagine— get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the announcement. That includes “completely new experiences that don’t really fit how we think about computers or phones today.”

Reimagine
Brands

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s gutsy. And risky.

While there’s a lot to be said for the strategic decision to rebrand, the move is also audacious in terms of timing. Typically, companies make monumental announcements like this when there is a shift in their business model, and they often feel celebratory. Not in this case. The decision to make this change when the company is so publicly under scrutiny is a telling choice.

Cynics may interpret the decision to introduce its new name now as evasive. But it can also be seen as an indication of how deep its commitment to growth and expansion is–even if it seems like the company is poking the regulatory bear.

It’s almost as if Meta is saying, “You think we should be smaller and spin-off divisions? Nope. We’re planning on being bigger than you can imagine. ”

Facebook is betting that boldness will lead to bigger opportunities–but that also means bigger risks. If Meta raises the bar: What will it do next? Will the company be able to deliver on the new name? Can it live up to its ambition? And what are the repercussions if it can’t?

For additional insights on how to create a successful brand portfolio and naming strategy, talk to our team today.

CONNECT WITH US

WEBCAST

Is Asia Ready for the Future of Work?

Top-line results and corporate culture haven’t yet been the main driver of transformation in Asia. That’s changing.

57 min

Introducing a Human-Centered Model for Change

Pulling on insights from their latest global research study, “Fit for Change: Driving Growth & Transformation for the Future of Work,” the speakers propose a way forward for leaders of transformation to accommodate change while getting your organization fit for the future of work in Asia.

Thank you for your interest in our webinar. You can also download the presentation deck here. If you’d like to learn more about increasing your organization’s change fitness to support long-term growth and resilience then get in touch with us today.

BLOG

Unlock Growth with Digital Convergence

Businesses that embrace convergence use digital to work differently, solve problems and find growth.

Digital transformation is nothing new. Companies we talk to every day have been trudging along on digital transformation journeys for close to 20 years. Despite spending trillions to add newer, more sophisticated digital initiatives to their agendas (with more projected over the next five years), few have been able to grow the way they hoped. A recent survey from the Harvard Business Review reports that only 20% of executives believe their transformation efforts have been effective in any way.

It’s not that all the steps they’ve taken have been misguided. Far from it. Many companies have made significant strides to optimize their existing businesses by using new digital tools and operations, cutting costs and launching new products along the way. But, as business environments change and customers along with them, what we’re finding is that simply adding new tech capabilities, data sets or rich omnichannel experiences without changing the way the business works will limit your company’s growth potential.

Moving Past the “Add-On” Digital Transformation Approach

The evidence we’ve collected by observing clients and conducting field research shows that growth must be an intentional goal of transformation, and achieving it requires businesses to move beyond the “add-on” approach of digital transformation. The add-on approach is a consequence of being overly preoccupied with a typical metric of many digital transformations – digital maturity. Digital maturity is measured by the number of tactics used to optimize the existing business and misses the point: long-term growth.  Digital maturity alone will not unlock what Prophet calls “uncommon growth”– the type of growth that is purposeful, transformational and sustainable over time.

“Digital maturity alone will not unlock what Prophet calls ‘uncommon growth’– the type of growth that is purposeful, transformational and sustainable over time.”

To unlock growth with digital transformation, firms must build on digital maturity to achieve convergence. Convergence is the approach of orchestrating digital transformation efforts around a singular purpose that has been reimagined for today’s customers and employees. Businesses that embrace convergence don’t just add new digital capabilities to solve existing problems, they use existing digital capabilities to work differently, solve new problems and deliver growth.

The progress of individual workstreams, specific digital projects and initiatives, and the building of shiny new capabilities is a known challenge. The more intractable part is getting people in your business to embrace a renewed purpose with digital tools, infuse new rituals into the DNA of the company –and then structure the workstreams that serve customers and unlock growth.  Successful transformations necessitate holistic, if more complicated point of view.

Without converging on a customer-and employee-led purpose, digital transformations are doomed. A business’ purpose must be central to this transformation because it defines the role the business plays in customers’ lives, the meaning of the work that its employees do and the impact that it has on society. As environments change, the purpose of the business needs to be continually re-examined to ensure its continued relevance. Global digital acceleration, sparked by mobile and boosted by the pandemic, is rapidly changing the expectations and behaviors of customers and employees – now the purpose needs to change along with it.

Convergent enterprises are the companies that understand the power of ongoing transformation. They have adopted a mindset that allows them to look beyond the add-on approach to digital maturity and pursue initiatives converged on a renewed purpose that incorporates customer and employee capabilities.

As a first step towards digital convergence, organizations must embrace the challenge of defining a renewed purpose. It doesn’t mean losing your authentic brand and value proposition. Rather it demands reimagining the business through a new lens, integrating digital capabilities throughout, and scaling the outcomes. And that must be done with creativity, empathy and action, not panic or cynicism.

How Best Buy is Rewiring Itself to Go Beyond Retail for Growth

Let’s take Best Buy, a Prophet client, as an example. Over 10 years ago, Best Buy and other big-box retailers began their digital transformation journeys with a determined focus on omnichannel retailing and effective e-commerce. As it moved toward streamlined online experiences, so did all its competitors. Instead of just pressing the “more digital commerce” button, Best Buy leadership realized that to find uncommon growth, they would need to start with a renewed purpose and converge digital capabilities around it. Reinvention had to be based not on how consumers wanted to shop at Best Buy but on why they were there in the first place.

That meant questioning everything from brand purpose to organizational structure to customer experience. By re-centering itself around helping customers make all of their technology work together – not just sell them more stuff – they located an addressable problem that was way bigger than the market they originally sought to capture. They extended their subscription services, installation packages and extended warrantee offerings to the consumer while reimagining their square footage as experiential media opportunities for their manufacturer partners.

By expanding the borders of its value proposition and building a moat around proprietary digital tools, Best Buy continues to build a convergent enterprise limited only by its imagination and poised for sustainable growth. The results so far are astonishing. In its latest quarterly results, revenues have steadily increased 24% over the last five years.

Identify
Growth
Pathways

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

Increasingly, leaders are thinking more like Best Buy, recognizing that convergence means committing to a purpose that serves the whole customer, even if that means challenging strategic direction and corporate priorities. They know success is as dependent on human-centered elements, such as organization design, culture, leadership, and operating models, as it is on technology initiatives. In fact, 90% say COVID-19 has forced them to re-evaluate the human component of digital. We think that’s just the beginning.

Ready to learn how to become a convergent enterprise? Read this blog post.  

Prophet is a convergence accelerator and purpose-led transformation consultancy that will help you reimagine your firm, integrate and scale digital investments, and drive real, defensible growth. We believe that to accelerate convergence we take your existing assets – such as data, brand, culture, business models – reimagine them for today’s customers and employees and look for new ways to integrate capabilities and talent with a reimagined sense of purpose. Then, we drive towards scale.

Get in touch today if you’d like to learn how to bring digital convergence moves to grow your organization.

CONNECT WITH US

BLOG

Five Moves to Become a Convergent Enterprise

Make sure your business purpose is still relevant, and assess the change readiness of your organization.

Digital transformations that unlock uncommon growth are special. They require more than just adding on new digital capabilities or deploying new experiences, or even fielding new business models. Rather, organizations must work hard to converge these efforts around a singular purpose that is relevant to how customers live and work today – and find ways to satisfy their unmet needs.

1. Re-focus The Operating Model

Everything from talent, organization design, processes, interactions and tools should support the customer or employee experience that the company is trying to achieve. This means converging KPIs and measuring success in a way that ties the organization together in a shared commitment to customer outcomes.

2. Solve The Customer’s Actual Problem

Both internal and external-facing initiatives must embrace the evolved capabilities and new behaviors that customers and employees have today. The needs that your business was originally designed to address are likely being re-shaped by new capabilities that your customers are using. By pursuing new businesses at the intersection of what customers want and what they can already do with digital, firms will be able to address unmet needs in underexplored growth territories.

3. Reskill The Organization From the Top-Down

Investment in training for everyone from executive leadership to support staff will drive an enterprise-wide understanding of the software, tech and agile processes on which the business is built. Successful transformations are led by CEOs and executed teams who can connect strategy to implementation; orchestrate between new processes, new data and digital tools; and create impact.

4. Upgrade Your Go-to-Market Capabilities

Treat data as a renewable resource. Leverage marketing and sales functions to get closer to the customer and use always-on insights to enable a loyalty engine that not only drives preferences and new value props but also helps organizations anticipate shifts in demand.

5. Create Incentives for Innovation

Developing incentives for innovation throughout the company means rewarding test-and-learn, experimentation and calculated risk while tweaking funding models and time horizons to ensure that worthy investments are given a fair chance to succeed. No more short-termism or single-horizon thinking.

“Organizations must work hard to converge these efforts around a singular purpose that is relevant to how customers live and work today – and find ways to satisfy their needs.”

Getting Started:

Becoming a convergent enterprise is not quick or easy. We don’t expect every business will attempt it all at once. But, regardless of where you are in your transformation journey, we believe that every company has the ability to achieve convergence. The only requirement is a commitment to renewing purpose, shifting mindsets and aligning your priorities and pursuits. That starts with introspection.

Renewing your company’s purpose is not unique to digital transformation but because the digital environment has fundamentally transformed the way we live, it is a prerequisite for driving successful convergence.

Four Steps To Get Started

  1. Assess the relevance of the business purpose to today’s customers, employees and stakeholders. 
    Begin by asking how context, competition and new capabilities have impacted your purpose. Has any part of it become outdated?
  2. Map your existing digital transformation activities to convergent moves.
    Identify the gaps between the initiatives you’ve already invested in and those you should be investing in, to balance the portfolio of moves that are right for your organization.
  3. Measure the change readiness of your organization. 
    Understand how proposed shifts in priorities will impact decision-making and ways of working – establish a team to help lead the transition.
  4. Develop the convergence agenda to connect the convergent moves to an updated purpose.
    Use your renewed sense of purpose to prioritize the orchestration of effort.

Identify
Growth
Pathways

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

In the face of digital acceleration, customer and organizational needs keep changing. New technology regularly reconfigures both supply and demand – we know it as ‘disruption.’ Successful organizations, recognizing this need for constant reimagination and integration of new capabilities, engage in ongoing digital transformation. We call it convergence. And it’s the next phase of your transformation journey.

Prophet is a convergence accelerator and a purpose-led transformation consultancy that will help you reimagine your firm, integrate and scale digital investments, and drive real, defensible growth. We believe that to accelerate convergence we take your existing assets – such as data, brand, culture, business models – reimagine them for today’s customers and employees and look for new ways to integrate capabilities and talent with a reimagined sense of purpose. Then, we drive towards scale.

Get in touch today if you’d like to learn how to bring convergence moves to grow your organization.

CONNECT WITH US

BLOG

From Well-being to Well-doing: 5 Steps to Fuel the Resilience of Your Workforce

By encouraging teams to be human and empathetic, companies can reduce turnover and increase productivity.

Employees now expect far more from their employers than just a paycheck. Today’s reality is that peeking behind the velvet curtain of an organization is as easy as logging on to Glassdoor, so those looking to attract and retain the best talent are having to think really carefully about their approach to employee well-being. A shiny manifesto on the company website certainly isn’t going to cut it any longer. 

In our recent report, Fit for Change: Driving Growth and Transformation in the Future of Work, our Organization and Culture practice unpacked the primary forces shaping cultural change and the message was clear: employee well-being and mental health are the top drivers and, in addition to this, 71% of the companies we surveyed stated that well-being will increase in importance over the next three years.  

“Employee well-being right now is a given and I don’t think that will stop on the day we vaccinate everyone.”

– Quick Service Restaurant Executive (UK)

This isn’t new. In 1943, Maslow noted that before people can be their best, they need to have their physiological and safety needs met. The pandemic put a spotlight not only on physical safety but mental safety too. The virus created a universal health risk, creating new standards such as social distancing and face coverings, while also exposing the less frequently discussed challenges of isolation and depression. This impact has been especially felt by minorities and women – groups that have already been challenged by traditional ways of working and broader socio-economic issues.

Organizations had to pivot to meet safety needs swiftly – most taking on, at minimum, the physical safety concerns of their people. The recent announcement from the Biden administration to enforce the OSHA policy of protecting employees from ‘grave danger’ has raised the safety standard and also calls into question the role of government and business on individuals’ care.  

What is clear, however, is that employees – and the world – are paying attention to companies that fail to care for their people. For example, Amazon has a history of creating challenging environments for its employees, however, the pandemic made that oversight even more severe. A damning exposé from the New York Times featured several major missteps, including failing to disclose the number of cases occurring at warehouses, causing many individuals to be unaware of just how at risk they were. One New York warehouse had at least 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 between March 2020 and March 2021. When it came to Amazon’s duty of care to its employees, not even the minimum needs were being met.   

However, the risks of not protecting your people extend beyond the obvious moral responsibility. New research by SilverCloud Health found that 46% of its survey respondents chose to quit or considered quitting a job due to mental health needs, a stat that will only serve to accelerate the ’Great Resignation’ if companies don’t create holistic wellness game plans.  

Being a leading employer committed to your employees’ wellbeing has significant benefits:   

  • Reduced turnover: According to Mercer’s 2017 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plan, employers who create cultures of health see 11% lower turnover than employers who did little to prioritize employee well-being.  
  • Improving performance: Employees with high well-being are almost twice as likely to be engaged and enjoy their work.

So, what can you do to make sure you’re building a resilient organization, leading with the wellbeing of your people?   

  • Listen between the lines: These are unparalleled times and the impact of new ways of working are surfacing new issues. By now, organizations have hopefully addressed the physical safety needs of their people, but leaders should be paying attention to the broader set of well-being needs. According to the same research by SilverCloud, when U.S. employees say they are okay, 84% don’t always mean it and 37% mean it less than half the time. Employees can be reluctant to share if they fear retaliation or don’t believe anything will come from being honest. Leaders need to be trained to listen without consequences to build a culture of trust, especially within HR where employees can be skeptical of their motivations. Also, organizations need to create more safe spaces and forums for employees to share their challenges in and out of work and build in additional mechanisms to recognize where employees need help, even if they’re not directly saying it.
    “You have to balance introversion and extroversion in a remote environment. Find ways to reach out to people to make sure they are okay without asking too much of them. Open up happy hours and let people join if they want or don’t want to. And if managers know people struggle with mental health, reach out to them.” – a GVP of Strategy & Operations
  • Be human first, then a leader: To create an environment where people feel safe to express what they need and take advantage of resources, employees should see those behaviors modeled from the top. Leaders should be transparent and vulnerable – sharing the resources they use and how they are feeling. At the same time, be empathetic, recognizing that some will have very different challenges than others within their organizations. There are some organizations that are going above and beyond by not just creating more supportive leaders, but also creating roles for leaders to focus on organizational wellness. Deloitte, for example, just appointed its first Chief Wellness Officer.
    “It’s about empathizing with associates and what they’re dealing with. Empathizing with the fact that different people may be having different experiences and recognizing how real that is.” – Medical Products Executive 
  • Build a stronger organizational “Body” to build healthier human bodies: The Body, or an organization’s systems, is core to providing the support needed by employees, especially in terms of benefits and programs. Meaningful change must happen at multiple levels across your organization. At the corporate level, there should be ongoing innovations to address broader well-being. According to a recent report, The Future of Benefits, by Care.com, 57% of senior leaders said that care benefits are being considered a higher priority by organizations to better support their employees in both work and life. Also, 63% of respondents said they plan to increase their company’s already existing childcare benefits. Employer-sponsored benefits can also be supplemented by new solutions from companies like Peloton and Noom.
  • Work in a way that works best for you: Benefits from the top are critical, but true change will happen locally within teams. Our research report has found that a key fundamental to change requires businesses to push decision rights downward and this is true when creating a culture of well-being. Teams should be given the flexibility to build well-being solutions into their day-to-day, implementing ‘meeting-free blocks’, full team days off and whatever else is needed.
    “Employees need to feel empowered and responsible for managing their work and the flex time. We are getting people to understand that they’re going to have more flexibility, focus on getting the work done and allowing teams to feel like teams.” – EVP of Stewardship, Global CPG Brand
  • If you change nothing, nothing will change: Your employees’ well-being is constantly evolving and so too should your efforts to meet them. Consider external factors like time of year or the state of your hybrid work. What employees need in summer will vary from winter, so respond and support accordingly. And don’t be afraid to try and pilot new programs to demonstrate your continued investment in your people. Prophet’s Change Fitness model, shows the most resilient organizations embrace experimentation – rather than simply creating new programs to overcome challenges. So, organizations should focus on evolving in partnership to continue getting the best from their people. 

Empower
Employees

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

The war for talent has never been hotter and employees should be prioritizing the health and well-being of themselves and their families. Human-centered organizations put people at the center of their business – creating a system of ‘well-doing’, not just well-being. And in doing so, they create a culture where people can focus on higher-order issues to stay resilient when needed most.  

If you’d like to build a more resilient organization that prioritizes employee well-being, our Organization & Culture experts can help, get in touch today. 

CONNECT WITH US

REPORT

The 2021 State of Digital Transformation

Companies with successful transformations prioritize data management, innovation and customer experience.

Download

In this year’s State of Digital Transformation report, our goal is to identify the key differences between the businesses who succeeded at digital transformation, and those who were still struggling. We surveyed 587 executives from the US, Europe and China, across a range of industries to highlight not only their current digital capabilities but the key investments and choices they made that got them to where they are. By separating the responses of high performers and average performers, we identified the key characteristics of companies that successfully met their transformation goals.

This report serves as a benchmark for what digital maturity looks like in 2021 and charts a path forward for businesses that are looking to thrive in the next wave of digital transformation initiatives.

Key findings include:

  • Growth and innovation were the top transformation goals for top performers, while average performers cited modernization and efficiency as their top goals.
  • The majority of companies used a holistic, or coordinated simultaneous transformation approach to transform the organization, rather than transforming departments in isolation, or sequentially.
  • COVID-19 reduced budgets and resources for transformation, but it did not slow transformation programs. In fact for high performers, it accelerated transformation efforts.
  • Companies with successful transformations were much more likely to prioritize data management, innovation, customer experience and employee experience initiatives, compared to average companies.
  • Transformations led by the CEO are more successful than those led by other positions
  • Digitally mature companies are looking to invest in leveraging data, optimizing customer and employee experiences, and building external partnerships and networks to prepare for the next phase of transformation.

Download the full report below to learn more.

Identify
Growth
Pathways

RELATED SERVICE

Download The 2021 State of Digital Transformation

*Fill in all required fields

Thank you for your interest in Altimeter’s research!

DOWNLOAD NOW!

BLOG

Prophet Launches Extended Pro-Bono Consulting Program

Using a new agile-sprint approach, our pro-bono team helped this nonprofit in Kenya formalize its brand.

We’re shaking things up at Prophet Impact! This year we are using a new rotation model to offer uninterrupted support and build stronger relationships with our non-profit partners. Though pro-bono work with organizations that speak to our heart continues to fuel our passion to make the world a better place, we’re doing it differently.

We’ve dedicated a team of Propheteers that’s sole responsibility is to dive into the pro-bono work for non-profits, including the sourcing of organizations as well as the projects themselves for a month or more at a time. By fully immersing themselves in the project, the Prophet Impact team finds solutions that are on target and transformative, helping worthy nonprofits achieve next-level growth, just like our corporate clients.

Our First Pro-Bono Client

KenSAP, an educational organization based in Kenya, became the first to benefit from this pod-based transformation, thanks to Shina Leboo, a senior associate based out of Chicago. The nonprofit guides gifted students, many from remote rural areas, to distinguished U.S. colleges by helping them navigate the complexities of the U.S. immigration system, college entrance exams and university applications.

Shina, an alumna of the program and on KenSAP’s board of directors, knew the organization could benefit from Prophet’s insights and strategy work, specifically when it came to storytelling and communications. It needed a formalized brand and a standardized story.

“The deliverables were exactly what we needed and came with a level of detail we wouldn’t have reached on our own.”

With Prophet’s expertise in developing brands and brand stories, KenSAP was a natural fit for the first pod-based approach. “Pitching KenSAP for Prophet Impact was a quick conversation, and I didn’t feel like I had to struggle at all to explain it,” Shina says. “It made me realize what a good decision I’d made in joining Prophet. In some companies, you need to be around for years before you can speak that openly.”

Jill Steele, partner and leader of Prophet Impact, says Shina’s intense connection to the organization kicked off the program strongly. “She had so much passion for KenSAP – both as a participant and a board member – and that’s what makes the difference,” Jill said.“There are many great nonprofits we could work with. But by selecting those that are not only aligned with Prophet’s social impact focus areas but also deeply meaningful to our people, we can create solutions that have maximum impact.”

Elevating Brand Story and Impact

Free from other client duties, the team dug right in with a four-week, agile sprint to develop the brand story and corresponding tactical communication tools. Building on interviews with stakeholders — students, alumni and donors – the work showcases what makes KenSAP unique and important. Instead of focusing simply on programs and activities, it elevated the brand story, emphasizing aspirations and impact.

Most importantly, the frameworks were designed to easily adapt across audiences and channels and effortlessly executed by the organization’s small staff, which is often pulled in different directions. The marketing roadmap provided a foundation for communicating with universities, employers and donors and functioned well on its website, in digital communications and in the organization’s annual report.

The result was a major win for KenSAP. “The Prophet team listened, not overwhelming us and understanding that we’re a small organization,” says Alan Davidson, Executive Director of KenSAP.

Rewarding Work For Prophet’s People:

Jarrett Fein

Jarrett Fein, San Francisco

“Of course, we always believe we are doing good work for our clients. But at the end of this engagement, it was so gratifying to hear the client say, ‘You can’t imagine how much this is going to help us.’ That confirmed everything – not just the solutions we provided but also to validate this immersive, fast-paced approach we designed worked.”

Shina Leboo, Chicago

“My role on this project was advisory, but even from that vantage point, it solidified my perception that Prophet fully intends to do as much as possible with each pro-bono project. It was also fascinating to see where the work led. Because the group was 100% devoted to the project, it was easier for KenSAP to achieve a much higher confidence level. ”

Ammar Mahesri, Chicago

“I was moved by how focused KenSAP is on achieving its mission and serving its communities, despite being burdened with the administrative hurdles that nonprofits face. And I’m most proud of how quickly we were able to do it, delivering a complete solution to a complex problem. Because of this work, more young people are going to get the education they deserve.”

Becca Thorpe, New York

“Navigating cultural differences can be a lot, and I’m so impressed that these students are able to balance it all on top of a heavy academic load. On the project, I loved the way the team jumped right in and I felt like it paid off. ”

Identify
Growth
Pathways

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

Prophet is committed to moving society forward, focusing on equality, social mobility and sustainability. This year alone, we will donate more than four thousand hours of pro and low-bono work to help organizations achieve these goals. Learn more about Prophet Impact.

Are you our next nonprofit client?

If you think we might be a fit, reach out today!

CONNECT WITH US

BLOG

The Eight Essentials of a Successful Marketing Plan

The best plans aren’t overplanned. They’re living, breathing documents.

This is most certainly our favorite time of year. The heat of summer is over, the kids are back in school and we are graced with the beautiful, bright crisp fall days driving optimism for next year’s outlook.

It is, therefore, that time of year for business planning, forcing us to self-reflect and understand what worked, what did not work, and how we can continually grow and improve ourselves, our teams, and our work to help unlock uncommon growth.

We’ve composed the essentials that are common across successful marketing plans, as well as a few ideas for making the planning process run a bit smoother.

1. Reflection and Introspection

You might think to start your planning with a bit of retrospective from last year. Try and involve as much of the team as you can and also include wider business partners such as product, finance and sales. Run a classic agile retrospective with the three questions:

  1. What worked well last year?
  2. What didn’t go as well last year?
  3. What could we do differently next year?

You can then work with your leaders to filter through and incorporate your findings into the year ahead. Some organizations may even work with a summary of this as the front section of the plan and use it as a chance to share success.

2. Strategy as Your Guiding North Star

We get asked a lot “Is this our marketing strategy or our plan?” The answer is usually both, however, the distinction is important; you cannot have a good marketing plan without a strategy.

Your strategy needs to set your north star. It should be completely aligned to the business strategy and the key pillars for the year (we tend to call them big moves).

Your marketing strategy should therefore layout what marketing needs to do in order to support those moves next year. The plan articulates how you are going to get there, including the specific tactics you will deploy. Underlying the plan will be resources (who) and capability alignment (enablers) to show how you execute the plan. Lastly, you need to provide a budget, identify headcount needs and have a measurement approach. With some organizations, we also find it helpful to do scenario planning—i.e., what we will do anticipating market shifts or if we fall short— or surpass — expectations.

3. Planning for Your Audience

It’s important to anchor your plan in both customers and prospects, on two levels:

  1. Firstly, be clear to address how the businesses’ customers/markets are changing. Identify where specific changes in behavior or needs may impact how your organization thinks about the marketing tactics for the year ahead.
  2. Secondly, understand what key audiences/segments, both within customers and with prospects, will be the focus for the year. These needs must map to your corporate strategy and mission.

This work should help sequence activities based on where the priorities lie, and where the greatest opportunities are to achieve the organization’s marketing goals.

4. A Framework for Planning

One of the things that can slow down marketing planning as well as the integration of the plan with other teams (particularly sales) is language. We tend to find that teams use a multitude of terms for both defining the process and measures of success. There are two areas that are useful to align upon early in the planning process.

Within the process, be super clear on what you mean by the strategy and the plan, and how it all hangs together. The following is an example of how this might appear. Your business will have your own terminology, so it’s important to design a structure that will fit your internal language.

The second part is aligning to the sales funnel. How the different stages of the funnel are defined is critical to driving successful marketing performance.

If you are in the world of B2B marketing, the sales funnel becomes increasingly complex as you plan to align on leads and how they are defined. Make sure to define the process between marketing sales, and when sales accept a lead as qualified.

The planning cycle is a good time to review these with your sales team and see if the handover needs improvement for the coming year.

5. Hitting the Key Points and High Notes

Be pithy. Your marketing plan does not need to be a 250 slide PowerPoint deck; we all know what happens with those! However, it does need to include the following critical components to assure a comprehensive marketing plan is clear, tailored, and impactful.

  1. Plan Summary: Overview of the key objectives, metrics/numbers, and tactics for the year, and the key learning from last year
  2. Business Goals/Strategy: The objectives of the business for next year
  3. Customer Needs: How are we addressing the needs of customers and prospects
  4. Challenge: How marketing will be supporting the business goals
  5. Market: Direct and indirect competitive positioning, moves and SWOT
  6. Actions: 3 – 5 big moves/activities for the year – should be aspirational, inspirational
  7. How/Tactics: Details on how these will work (might break down by areas)
    • Segments and audiences
    • Customer marketing insights
    • Media planning
    • Messaging and content
    • Product marketing
    • Sales enablement
    • Pricing and value
  8. Measurement: How will we measure success through the year
  9.  Our people: Roles, responsibilities, skills, learning
  10. Interactions: How will the team interact and work within other functions
  11. Enablers: What capabilities/vendors/partners do we need to support its success
  12. Consolidated Plan: Detailed Q1 or 90 day – high level subsequent
  13. Budget Allocation

6. Plan, but Don’t Over Plan

We all know things don’t go to plan, and that’s okay! Markets change, competitors don’t stay static, and certainly, customers and prospects don’t always do what we think they will do. It’s what keeps life interesting.

Agility wins when it comes to developing a strong marketing plan. It’s key to plan by quarter, but with varying degrees of detail and anticipate shifts and adjustments along the way. We suggest having a very detailed plan to execute your first quarter, and then focusing on higher-level key objectives and tactics for the subsequent quarters. This will allow you to still plan for resourcing, budget and capacity while remaining flexible to inevitable changes along the way.

7. A Living, Breathing Plan

The easiest way to stay true and on track with goal setting is to break down the goals into smaller, actionable goals and achievements. The same resonates when creating a comprehensive marketing plan for the year. Create a structure for the plan that allows you to run mini-plans. Investing in mini planning in the upfront will further allow for progress, flexibility and little wins to motivate and drive your team’s success.

Create a quarterly and monthly version of your plan. We advocate for a quarterly plan that includes a two-week cycle and starts mid-way through the quarter to outline detailed planning for the next quarter. In addition, it is smart to plan for a monthly review process – just a day or two, during which teams share progress against the plan, and propose any short-term tactical changes necessary. This will help keep your teams on track, avoid over-planning and remain agile while focused on achieving your overall goals.

8. Have Dedicated Air Traffic Control

You should assign one member of your team (or possibly a 2-3-person team) to run the process end-to-end, manage meetings, facilitate working sessions, problem solve and produce the outputs. It can be hard to free up internal resources, especially when a plan needs someone to play multiple project management and cross-functional roles, and many use this as a side of the desk role. However, you ideally want someone as a full-time resource for the strategy and plan. An outside partner can be helpful here and you should resist using your current advertising agency partner to facilitate as this may drive conflict of interest. Day-to-day external partners may, however, be valuable contributors.

Typically, most of these are best in working sessions 2.5 – 3 hours long. The number of these sessions is dependent on the size and complexity of your teams, as well as how much work has already been completed in advance.

“You cannot have a good marketing plan without a strategy.”

Drive
Customer
Demand

RELATED SERVICE

FINAL THOUGHTS

Land a plan that will stick. It’s easy to write a plan that sits on the shelf and is ignored. Success is, of course, delivering the numbers and helping your organization grow. A successful marketing plan is one that everyone is aligned to, helps your people work more effectively, and still provides enough room to innovate, be creative and respond to whatever comes your way during the year.

Our Marketing & Sales practice can help you create the ideal marketing plan for your organization. Reach out today!

CONNECT WITH US

Your network connection is offline.

caret-downcloseexternal-iconfacebook-logohamburgerinstagramlinkedinpauseplaythreads-icontwitterwechat-qrcodesina-weibowechatxing