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Is Your Healthcare Organization’s Content Strategy in Need of a Rapid Response Team?

Our research shows modular, agile content systems can increase engagement and build relevance.

In The 2021 State of Digital Content Report, Altimeter surveyed 375 top content executives at businesses around the world to understand the content challenges their organizations face. What did the research indicate? Companies are feeling the pressure to churn out high-quality, relevant digital content like never before.

While not all companies can keep up with the accelerated pace of content creation, Altimeter found that those that are successful in meeting this demand have implemented an “Agile Content System.”

What is an Agile Content System?

Though all industries failed to hit the mark perfectly on every capability of an Agile Content System, healthcare, specifically life sciences and pharmaceuticals that were surveyed, was found to be the biggest laggard. Due to legal limitations for data use and messaging, healthcare organizations need to manage strict oversight and time-consuming content reviews – making it increasingly difficult to personalize and approve content, decentralize content creation and measure the ROI of marketing investments.

“Real-time publishing is key to producing high-quality, digital content at scale.”

To put it into perspective, one pharmaceutical client told us that it would take their company over 80 days, with 40 handoffs and 12 people involved to get a single email approved. By contrast, a vacuum manufacturer switched from producing vacuum cleaners to ventilators in under a month as soon as COVID-19 hit!

But there is a prescription for improvement. Healthcare organizations can optimize their digital content strategy by leaning into three imperatives.

Imperative 1: Ensure Technology and Workflows Streamline Approval Processes

In an Agile Content Strategy, real-time publishing is key to producing high-quality, digital content at scale. However, this requires that the approval and compliance processes are structured in a way that optimizes fast, efficient publishing – as opposed to slowing it down.

With multiple reviews by multiple stakeholder groups – ethics boards, legal teams and subject matter experts – the entire end-to-end approval process can hold publishing timelines back. While healthcare companies cannot completely do away with these regulatory checks, they can:

  • Invest in better content approval software: Companies are increasingly investing in technology to improve the approval process, with 16% having reported using a dedicated compliance platform (Altimeter, 2021). Software, like Veeva Systems, that streamline the approval process and allow for quicker review, can help standardize and drive efficiency in the overall workflow.
  • Leverage a modular content creation approach: Creating smaller pieces of digital content (e.g., a paragraph of text) that can be sent for faster approval can help content teams accelerate their publishing speed. In addition, it allows bite-sized chunks of content to be combined in different ways based on consumer demographics, which improves audience targeting and personalization.
  • Clearly define content roles: With various content being created across the entire organization, it is important that roles are crystal clear in terms of who is owning what. For example, corporate marketing could own industry-wide content whereas business units could own their sector and/or regional themes, etc. When teams are aligned to their content roles and responsibilities, it makes it easier to create and approve content at a faster pace.

However, healthcare organizations cannot rely on improved technology or modular content alone. To address and improve the root cause of a slow approval process, the industry must move away from an archaic content team structure and toward a more autonomous, decentralized model.

Imperative 2: Restructure Content Teams for Greater Agility

Compared to other industries, healthcare organizations tend to centralize how to create and approve content. This process preserves the brand, ensures compliance and creates consistency across all touchpoints. But it also slows down content development and limits the potential impact content can have on strategic business objectives.

To move forward, healthcare organizations should consider restructuring their content teams to allow for greater agility while still meeting consistency needs. Here are two different strategies to consider based on where decentralization makes the most sense for the business:

  • For organizations that need to focus brand awareness (e.g., showcasing a new brand, launching a product), centralize the content strategy, but decentralize creation: Have a centralized entity develop a unified content strategy, and then allow for brand owners within the organization to execute it. This approach not only creates consistency but also allows for brand owners to create content at a speed that meets their business units’ needs.
  • For organizations that need to generate leads or revenue (e.g., moving into a new market), centralize the content creation, but decentralize strategy: Have a centralized entity continue to create content, but allow for leaders of various departments across the organization to drive the content strategy. This approach ensures that all content meets brand, legal and consistency requirements while empowering individual teams to own the strategy and ensure it ladders up to their established KPIs.

Imperative 3: Set Bolder, Clearer Goals That Go Beyond Brand

While other industries are finding ways to track how their content delivers on clear objectives (e.g., e-commerce conversion or account sales), the majority of healthcare companies (40%) chose brand awareness as their top content strategy goal (Altimeter, 2021).

Although some healthcare organizations have goals that are inherently difficult to track against content initiatives, like patient leads and health outcomes (looking at you, health systems), there are strategies your team can implement to make the most of your content:

  • Invest in more holistic measurement systems: Which overall business objectives could your content goals help advance? Having a clear answer to this question will help facilitate buy-in and investment, even if it’s simply what the content can achieve on its own. Remember that building a holistic measurement system won’t occur in a day. You’ll need to collect data and map out how metrics interact with one another. Then, you’ll be able to attribute the effects of content strategy actions to the business outcomes and outputs. As your organization develops the ability to track and measure more inputs, your measurement system will become more robust, and more useful to guide future content strategy decisions.
  • Create more intentional, measurable goals: If a holistic measurement system is out of reach, set clear, specific goals for content strategy. What does the organization want content to achieve at a strategic, not tactical, level? From a clear content strategy, teams are better prepared to create and measure KPIs that specifically deliver on the strategy. For example, if an organization decides that content should be used as a window into the organization and shows how the organization treats its employees and its policies toward suppliers/vendors, it’s the organization’s team can better measure how content is impacting perceptions of transparency and trust (via internal/external surveys, social listings, etc.).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Content isn’t easy, but with faster content creation systems, decentralized approval and broader content objectives, healthcare can take a leap towards greater agility and relevance. Today’s diagnosis isn’t good — but with the steps above, the prognosis is optimistic.

Ready to revamp your organization’s digital content strategy? Reach out to Prophet today.

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The Transformation of Southeast Asia: Innovation Wins over Digital-First Customers

Leaders from Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore weigh in on the region’s unique digital readiness.

With brick-and-mortar businesses halted, supply chains crashed down and trust towards existing brands and practices shaken, opportunities for digital businesses have emerged out of the pandemic. In Southeast Asia (SEA) particularly, we have seen tremendous growth of the digital economy as customers across the region rapidly shifted to online last year.

To better understand the trends that have transformed the digital landscape in SEA and the implications for brands to maintain their relevance, we interviewed four key marketing and digital experts across the region.

The Unique Digital Culture in SEA

SEA is a huge digital market with an Internet economy projected to reach $200 billion within the next four years [1]. While the region’s excitement for digital discovery and friendly start-up climate offers many of the unique regional strengths for businesses, leaders and marketing specialists need to consider local, cultural nuances and avoid taking a monolithic approach to best capture opportunities in the region.

Here are three important cultural traits and market trends for businesses to consider:

 1. A Digital-Ready Culture

SEA is one of the world’s fastest adopters of digital transformation. This is driven by a rising power of consumption, a strong start-up climate, cheap and accessible devices and a youthful, tech-loving population that has embraced e-commerce and social media. Currently, the region has incubated over seven thousand start-ups and 12 unicorns.

Marketing towards digital and non-digital customers alike will be a more fast-moving process than it is in more developed regions, as the local consumers do not need to get rid of old practices to embrace the new. This would also be a challenge for brand specialists as customers of the region will respond quicker, requiring swifter actions towards changes.

“We are observing a youthful segment in Thailand that is extremely open to digital tools and solutions like Fintech and digital banking that other people may have concerns about.”

– Ms. Jenn Villalobos

2. Street-Based Digital Economy

Throughout SEA, micro-businesses permeate every aspect of consumers’ lives as people rely on smaller mom-and-pop shops to purchase groceries, pay bills, make transfers and more. For instance, in Thailand, small convenience stores are the starting point of the country’s digital economy. TrueMoney, one of Thailand’s biggest payment providers, partnered with convenience stores allowing users to directly top up their TrueMoney wallets by purchasing recharge cards at the stores. The TrueMoney wallet can then be used to transfer money, shop online and buy goods from the convenience store via digital payments [2]. This example, alongside many others, shows that digital innovation should complement and fit into customers’ existing consumption habits as part of the unique local culture.

3. Burgeoning MSMEs That Require E-Business Support

The rapid growth of the SEA economy is led by the burgeoning MSMEs (Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises), which employ over 80% of the workforce. However, the intrinsic characteristics of MSMEs make it difficult for these companies to benefit fully from the e-commerce ecosystem. less than 20% of such enterprises were able to benefit from the trend [3], according to International Think Tank Chairman Professor Syed Munir Khasru. Greater training and support on infrastructure, equipment and technology proficiency is required for the MSMEs to participate in the digital boom.

“Leaders and marketing specialists need to consider local, cultural nuances and avoid taking a monolithic approach to best capture opportunities in the region.”

How Global Businesses Can Innovate to Win Better in SEA

At Prophet, we believe the most relevant brands always win when people can integrate them into their everyday lives. We believe there are four major pillars in the modern approach of creating and maintaining relevance. These pillars guide brands to stay relevant and constantly on the cutting edge.

Additionally, brands must also take a localized approach to digital innovation by having a deep understanding of consumer behaviors in each of the SEA markets. By becoming customer-obsessed, pervasively innovative, ruthlessly pragmatic, distinctively inspired and locally relevant,  brands are equipped to delight customers and continue to lead their categories.

Customer Obsessed: To deliver personalization successfully requires leveraging customer data and creating a value exchange where customers provide brands access to their data in return for additional value in their product, service or experience. This results in customers receiving experiences that are individually tailored to their specific needs at a specific moment in time, which allows brands to strengthen their relevance with their target audiences.

“We are stepping into a new era of personalization known as self-customization, where customers can choose what they want for themselves and to do this we need to create a meaningful data exchange with our customers – if we are able to achieve that then we will have achieved customer obsession.”

– Mr. Alvin Neo

How to Innovate: Refresh your existing segmentation by taking an insights-focused approach. This will help your business identify opportunities for new customer engagements and data exchange to create personalized offers that deliver greater value.

Pervasively Innovative: Brands that maintain leadership does not rest on their laurels. Even as industry leaders, they push the status quo, engage with customers in new and creative ways and find new solutions to address unmet needs. This also ties in with being customer-obsessed. Brands can use their innovation to cater to their customers’ needs.

“We are viewing innovation through the eyes of the customer rather than from the company’s standpoint. It’s a completely different perspective because we aim to truly realize our customer’s needs.”

– Ms. Pinky Yee

How to Innovate: Review enterprise-wide value chains to identify a new business model and revenue opportunities that are centered on digital-first offers.

Ruthlessly Pragmatic: As COVID-19 has shaken brand loyalty for many customers, brands need to make sure their products are available where and when customers need them, deliver consistent experiences and simply make life easier for their customers. At the same time, brands need to ensure their offerings address customers’ changing priorities given the challenges posed by the pandemic, such as creating contactless, digital experiences that meet customers’ heightened awareness of their own personal health and safety.

How to Innovate: Build new online presence and direct-to-customer, O2O models that are not only frictionless but also contactless to guarantee safer, healthier interactions with customers.

Distinctively Inspired: It is important in such trying times to let customers know powerful brands and companies are giving back to the community. To stay relevant, these brands make emotional connections, earn trust and often exist to fulfill a larger purpose.

During our interview with Pinky Yee, the former CMO at Domino’s Pizza, Pinky shared the interesting case of San Miguel, who turned its gin line into hand sanitizer and donated it to local hospitals in the Philippines. This campaign has received a lot of local traction as it showed its social commitment during a time when it was needed most.

How to Innovate: Deploy resources and assets towards use cases that align your brand purpose with opportunities to give back and to deepen existing relationships with your target audiences.

Locally Relevant: With more customers trying new brands and products, we are expecting many smaller brands to benefit from such loyalty shifts. A critical factor we find in how customers make their decisions when choosing a new brand is how locally relevant a brand is.

Speaking to our experts has helped us understand that amongst big foreign multinational corporations, localization is limited or still feels disconnected from local customers. This is a key understanding to succeeding in SEA where there are a lot of different countries and each with its own cultural nuances. Marketing with the right strategic channels in every geography is also important.

How to Innovate: Develop country-specific go-to-market plans and leverage local partnerships to create localized product and experience offers that strengthen credibility and relevance with customers

References:

[1] The e-Conomy SEA 2020, https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-economy-sea.appspot.com/assets/pdf/e-Conomy_SEA_2020_Report.pdf

[2] Deloitte “The Next Wave” Emerging digital life in South and SEA, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/deloitte-cn-tmt-inclusion-en-200924.pdf

[3] According to Professor Syed Munir Khasru in an opinion written for South China Morning Post, Jun 2021, https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3135868/key-aseans-post-pandemic-recovery-digital-transformation


FINAL THOUGHTS

To win in SEA, brands can pull different levers to deliver on brand relevance. At the same time, brands must also take a localized approach to digital and innovation by having a deep understanding of consumers’ digital behaviors in each unique SEA market.

To learn more about how to build brand relevance in Southeast Asia, contact us today!

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4 Critical Steps for Organizational Transformation Success

To keep moving forward, stop time-wasting and micromanaging. Focus instead on new capabilities.

The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing multiple times and expecting a different result. And we’ve all read multiple research reports stating that up to 70% of transformation initiatives fail. But if so many of these change efforts don’t succeed, why are so many companies repeatedly using methods that produce such poor results?  

The traditional approach to major organizational change (e.g., driving a culture shift to increase customer-centricity or an enterprise digital transformation) was to create a broad strategy and a robust business case. This effort could take four to six months in a large organization. Once finally approved and budgeted, companies used lengthy approaches to define the details and a roadmap that would eat yet another six months. By this time, customer needs inevitably continued to evolve and more agile competitors were already winning in the market.  

Can you see what is wrong with this picture? How insane is it to make such a significant investment of time, effort and resources, only to be outpaced and fail to achieve your business’s goals? How might we better deliver true transformation and real business results in this era of constant disruption?  

1. Say Goodbye to Wasting Time and Hello to Unlocking Value

Prophet’s 2021 global research study “Fit for Change: Driving Growth and Transformation in the New Future of Work” demonstrates that setting a powerful and actionable future-looking ambition accelerates an organization’s success. It is also one of the biggest levers in Prophet’s Change Fitness Model, a modern model for transformational change management. This offers a framework to assess the varying levels of capabilities for individuals, teams, leaders and the organization as a whole. Most importantly, it is fundamental for organizations to set a clear, flexible roadmap. Conversely, backward-looking analysis is neither an accelerator nor a fundamental. Setting an ambition and roadmap can be done as quickly as four to six weeks.  

2. Get Off the Training Treadmill and Ride the Capability Escalator

​The average spend on workplace training per employee worldwide increased more than 20% from 2008 to 2019. The old way of upskilling talent was to invest a lot of money on training before starting the new work. Yet, that money is better spent wrapping your team with experienced professionals who can model the right mindsets, behaviors and transfer skills, creating opportunities to fuel upskilling through the foundation of trust. Importantly, this foundation of trust fosters the psychological safety needed for employees to experiment and adopt new ways of working – a skillset our global research study suggests is critical to successful change efforts. Trust in your experienced professionals, trust in your talent and trust in them, now

3. Master the Present and Create the Future  

Stop focusing on the current state. When you do that, you lose sight of the future. Instead, hold a destination session – what do you want people to say about your company 5-10 years from now? Too many transformations either solve today’s problems and therefore are a game of catch-up or, conversely, they only focus on problems 10 years out. A narrow focus only on the challenges of today suggests you’re not serious about transformative change. And a focus only on farther horizons might suggest the work is academic. Either misstep risks diminishing belief amongst colleagues that transformation is real or even possible. You must craft a compelling future-back strategy even as you address immediate challenges.  

4. Stop Helicopter Parenting – the Teams Will Be All Right

The old approach to creating new ways of working to foster a transformation was to either sequester a disruptive team of new hires, consultants and current high potential employees away from the main organization or wait and reorganize teams to support the roadmap you spent months building. 

“Self-organized teams decide how to meet deadlines, which results in faster delivery, increased agility, and higher employee satisfaction.”

The modern approach is to short circuit your current operating model and organizational challenges by utilizing agile methods in cross-functional pods and squads model – starting the work now with the resources you have now. These are self-organizing teams where members get to decide among themselves who does what and the team is empowered to remove their own barriers. Self-organized teams decide how to meet deadlines, which results in faster delivery, increased agility, and higher employee satisfaction. 


FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re hungry for transformation in action, we believe that the most important shift for success is the mindset. We must encourage our teams to feel comfortable with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), even when everything isn’t framed to perfection. It’s better to be committed to moving forward than be stuck in the old world of arduous, linear plans – especially when time is no longer on our side. It’s time to make experimentation our friend and commit to a new, agile path in service of your transformation destination. 

If you’re looking to fast-track and short circuit your transformation, reach out to our Organization and Culture experts today and hear how we are helping clients just like you.  

REPORT

Transforming Healthcare: The Forces That Redefine Work and Culture

It requires centering brands on a strategic purpose to create shared value and engaging brand experiences.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that all types of healthcare organizations—pharmaceuticals and biotechs, health insurers and hospital systems, device and equipment manufacturers—could change successfully, at scale and with great speed. Despite the formidable challenges, many organizations were effective in taking deliberate steps to upend historical ways of working and cultural norms.

This research dives into the industry’s change readiness and synthesizes perspectives on culture transformation from 70+ senior leaders across healthcare sectors.

Read this report to gain deeper insights on:

  • The external forces that are expected to create enduring changes in organizational cultures
  • Tips for how healthcare and life sciences organizations can prepare for future evolution by instilling adaptability and resilience in their people and teams
  • A recommended path forward that enables leaders to drive successful and lasting transformation

The analysis and recommendations captured in this dynamic report will help executives advance the lessons forward by building stronger cultures and teams while accelerating their transformation journeys.

Download the report below.

Download Transforming Healthcare: The Forces That Redefine Work and Culture

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Thank you for your interest in Prophet’s research!

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Shiseido’s Innovation Journey in China: A Conversation with Carol Zhou

This fast-growing beauty company shares insights about developing new ideas that can flourish.

In the past five years, a new generation of direct-to-consumer local disruptors has been booming in the consumer sector in China. These brands are growing at an unprecedented rate, and many have reached growth rates that are tens or even hundreds of times the industry average. They adapt and react fast to consumer trends, they’re more resourceful in leveraging platforms to explore new initiatives, and their increasing influence and marketing power are giving large international players a run for their money in the ever-fierce competition for the Chinese beauty consumers.

In the first half of 2021, Shiseido China achieved a remarkable 44% revenue growth. Shiseido’s online and offline sales both increased, in part, due to the brand’s ongoing efforts in capturing consumer trends and continued focus on brand value. Viewing China as an important source of innovation, Shiseido announced a special investment fund in August, Shiseido Beauty Innovations Fund, partnering with Boyu Capital. The investment will focus on emerging beauty and wellness brands, as well as investment opportunities in related upstream and downstream technology companies.

Recently, Tom Zhang, senior engagement manager at Prophet, and Carol Zhou, Shiseido’s senior vice president of China Business Innovation & Investment, discussed the brand’s innovation journey in the China market, insights on the domestic beauty industry and her predictions for the Chinese beauty market.

Carol Zhou

Shiseido

Senior Vice President, China Business Innovation & Investment

Carol has served as head of Shiseido’s China Business Innovation & Investment since early 2019. With China’s diversified business ecosystem as a backdrop, Carol is committed to accelerating innovation and uncovering new business models to drive growth for Shiseido on a global scale, positioning the brand as a global leader in beauty innovation.

Before Shiseido, Carol has held numerous senior management positions in multinational companies including Unilever, L’Oreal, Amway, Burberry and Marriott International, where she has built brands across regions and business domains. Carol attended New York University’s Stern School of Business and holds an MBA degree from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

From your perspective, what are the key trends in China’s beauty industry in the next two to three years?

Currently, China’s beauty consumers are in a phase of exploration. As consumers become more sophisticated, they will be more knowledgeable in terms of ingredients and the science behind the brands. Increasingly, customers will no longer blindly believe in marketing stories but do their own research and look toward experts with real data. We will see more brands working with medical authorities, such as research institutions, doctors and scientists to lead the development of the industry and consumers from the perspective of scientific ingredients and formulas. I see a movement toward dermatologist brands and products/services.

Next, the trend of personalization will continue to develop. Although technology and regulations are temporarily limiting, and the product experience and user journey are not yet perfected, I believe that personalization is the future direction of skincare. Everyone is unique and our skincare should be too. Many brands are already customizing their products and services with this in mind, and I see tremendous development in the future. With advancements in digital and gene tech, the future for a personalized experience and product design is limitless.

Health and wellness, propelled by COVID-19, is becoming top of mind for consumers around the world. There will be further integration of topical skincare with the ingestible to provide a holistic beauty approach for consumers.

In the face of these opportunities, how can Shiseido lead innovation?

In the two and a half years since I joined Shiseido, the strategy has evolved. In the beginning, we aimed to broadly explore new trends and opportunity areas. Now, we are doing a detailed audit of Shiseido’s strengths, and identifying the intersection of market white spaces and organizational capabilities to better seize these opportunities.

Take the aesthetic medicine category as an example. Shiseido, as an industry leader, can play an important role in the development of this field. However, we will not focus on businesses that are clearly beyond our organizational core capabilities, such as injection-based medical devices. But we can explore how to integrate Shiseido into the overall aesthetic medicine ecosystem by innovating around the subcategory of postoperative recovery with products and/or services.

“Influential innovations come from improving upon existing consumer values, leading to improved experiences and ideas.”

Speaking of personalization, it is actually deeply rooted in Shiseido’s innovative DNA. More than 100 years ago in 1917, Shiseido launched the 7 Colors Powder, a face powder product that consumers could mix and match to achieve a refined look based on their unique complexions. We are also actively exploring personalized beauty devices and services. With the ongoing advancement of technology, we will continue to optimize the experience, providing specialized and convenient smart devices and genetic-level skin diagnoses in the future.

Nutricosmetics (beauty foods) is another area that we are focused on. Japan’s healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet are highly renowned around the world. Shiseido can dial up this advantage and share with Chinese consumers our innovation based on superfoods and functional ingredients.

The evolution of China’s digital ecosystem can be described as boundless. How do you view the opportunities and challenges faced by brands?

The digital ecosystem undoubtedly provides fuel for brand incubation and innovation, but it also brings about a crisis of “involution.” Many brands have a “cash-burning” marketing strategy, hiring influencers to promote the brand, giving away massive discounts. The focus is purely on marketing, while the product quality and true consumer value are secondary. The result is a bunch of products with similar benefits and features, almost the same ingredients and me-too packaging. The growth is often purely driven by new customer acquisition, and when the cash runs out, the consumers will not return either. This vicious cycle makes it more difficult for the brands to reach profitability and create any long-lasting value.

To truly gain a foothold in the market, brands must clearly define their unique value propositions – what is the “WHY.” This is the problem that many emerging brands face today.

What advice do you have for these brands?

I believe we need to return to the fundamentals and think about what is truly unique about the brand. Why do they exist? The value of a brand must go beyond purely marketing tactics.

Shiseido’s ability to have lasting success is in large part due to our dedication to creating the best quality products to meet consumer needs. This dedication to “craftsmanship” is why we don’t blindly follow market trends, but rather think critically about how we can further refine our products. Although we may not always be at the forefront of trends, we have found the right pace to create a timeless brand.

In leading international beauty giants to drive innovation in China, how do you balance “China speed” with global collaboration?

Based on my own experience in the global headquarters, regional headquarters and China business units of various brands, the tension between them is inevitable. An international brand must have consistency and a global strategy. Then the regions (China) will execute this global vision with local adaptation and interpretation that suit the local appeal. Oftentimes, local regions will complain that they need more local decision-making autonomy, while global headquarters want to maintain more control. The conflict, if managed well, can be healthy. Clear and constant communication allows local teams to coordinate with headquarters in a more streamlined manner while educating headquarters on local market situations. It also allows the teams to improve their critical thinking and decision-making abilities.

How do you promote a culture of innovation within Shiseido?

First, I need to start with my own team. I believe it is very important to create a more inclusive, open and flexible working environment and experience. In addition to more flexible working hours and locations, I strongly encourage the team to learn from outside their fields, to learn more about the world outside of their areas of expertise. Sometimes, finding a team is like finding a romantic partner – you need to seek mutual understanding and complementary attributes.

To me, innovation or any critical agenda needs to start at the top. Therefore, I need to make sure my management team understands and believes in the local innovation culture and mechanism as much as possible, in order to have a greater impact and more effectively promote innovation internally.

Lastly, based on your experience, what do you think are the most common “innovation pitfalls” that brands should avoid?

A common misunderstanding is that true innovation is always something breakthrough, from 0 to 1. But in fact, more influential innovations come from improving upon existing consumer values, leading to improved experiences and ideas. Always remind yourself what is the true consumer value and the “WHY” behind it.


FINAL THOUGHTS

By analyzing and auditing its strengths and weaknesses, companies can better explore new trends and opportunity areas. The goal is to find potential intersections of market white spaces and organizational capabilities.

To learn more about how to create meaningful innovation and experiences for your organization, contact us now.

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Three Ways to Personalize Customer Experience – Lessons From Successful Streaming Brands

With richer algorithms, find microaudiences. Then woo them with compelling content.

Although personalization has become a key way for brands to build meaningful connections with consumers across categories ranging from shampoo (Prose, Function of) to vitamins (Ritual, Care/of) to entertainment (Netflix, HBO Max), personalization has been ingrained in the DNA of streaming services like Spotify and YouTube since their inception. In the 2021 Prophet Brand Relevance Index ® (BRI), we identified a key difference between leaders and laggards in the music industry: how effective brands are at personalization.

Data from the BRI showed that customers feel more emotionally connected to the streaming brands that offer deep, personalized experiences. While customers enjoy Pandora’s personalized playlists, Spotify is the clear winner with 99% of users saying the brand connects with them emotionally. Spotify, which consumers ranked as the twelfth most relevant brand in this year’s study, creates its emotional connection with consumers through its rich personalization algorithm. It also ranks significantly higher than Pandora in terms of engagement in new and creative ways (with 90% of customers surveyed agreeing to this statement, versus Pandora’s 63%). Spotify continues to double down on this competitive advantage as it invests heavily in more personalized playlists, podcasts and more.

“Customers feel more emotionally connected to the streaming brands that offer deep, personalized experiences.”

Additionally, Spotify enjoys strong consumer perceptions by making its personalization capabilities clear through tongue-in-cheek ad campaigns, as well as a continued focus on strategic product innovations. In its latest “surprise and delight” personalization move, Spotify launched its “Only You” feature, which leverages listener data to show amusing trends in users’ listening habits. In contrast, Pandora hasn’t rolled out any major personalization updates since 2019. It’s no surprise then, that 88% of consumers believe Spotify “is always finding new ways to meet my needs” whereas only 24% of consumers felt the same way about Pandora.

How Can Brands Deliver More Personalized Experiences?

  1. To become relentlessly relevant, you need know your audience. Create audience archetypes that go deep into what your customer loves and is inspired by, not just their age and geography. Find out what your customers are doing on your platform as well as off-platform. Why is your customer using streaming services? Why do they skip certain songs? You can’t get to the beauty of personalization until you know who your customers are, and just as importantly, who you haven’t acquired as a customer yet.
  2. Create content specifically for those micro-audiences. As there’s more competition for consumer attention, from video games to podcasts, content needs to be laser-focused on the needs of the customer. In working with leading streaming companies, Prophet has helped identify micro-audiences and the type of content that will appeal most to them to create lasting brand loyalty.
  3. Create richer algorithms that suggest more content in line with what customers want. Even a leader in streaming like Spotify is losing customers’ attention because of newer players like TikTok, and its widely recognized algorithm. As more people discover music off-platform, Spotify will need to continue to innovate to garner consumer interest in an environment of increased competition.

With 89% of those surveyed saying they ‘can’t live without it’, Spotify continues to stand out in an increasingly competitive space by doubling down on its personalization assets, serving as a strong example for any entertainment brand looking to find new customers in 2021 and beyond.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Streaming services that view personalization as a benefit and not a requirement will fall behind industry players that consider it a priority. Personalization helps brands attract and retain customers by offering innovative ways to surprise and delight them. Brands that have stellar personalization tactics are more likely to attract customers and become more relentlessly relevant.

Prophet is working with leading streaming companies across the industry on brand strategy, growth strategy and performance marketing. Interested in finding out more? Contact us today.

WEBCAST

The Future of Work is Here

Cultural transformations come from understanding that organizations, like people, have a mind, body and soul.

59 min

Get Your Organization Fit for the Future of Work

Pulling on insights from their latest global research study, “Fit for Change: Driving Growth & Transformation for the Future of Work,” the speakers set out a way forward for leaders of transformation by sharing the primary areas to invest now to build the critical capacity to accommodate change while getting your organization fit for the future of work.

Thank you for your interest in our webinar. 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.

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How To Respond to New Customer Expectations Around Data and Experience

People feel vulnerable. Build trust by finding new ways to show them you’re protecting their data.

The most lasting change of the pandemic is likely the “digital load shift,” as people rapidly adopted new tech habits that experts once thought would take years to establish.

These behaviors have radically changed the way people experience the world. They’re buying houses they’ve never physically stepped inside, working with people they’ve never met in real life and investing in stocks recommended by their social-media community.

Even as COVID-19 vaccination rates, this digital load shift is here to stay, and with it are increasing privacy concerns and higher expectations for what a “good” experience feels like. Better-informed consumers are demanding more from the devices, networks and brands they use. For financial-services companies during their own digital transformations, this presents a valuable opportunity to re-assess priorities across their own digital roadmaps.

A Growing Sense of Vulnerability

It’s not entirely accurate to link consumers’ growing wariness to the pandemic. Certainly, the 2018 Facebook/Cambridge Analytics scandal rattled trust in Big Tech. And the mistrust doesn’t stop there. “The Social Dilemma,” a Netflix documentary detailing the ways companies like Google and Facebook manipulate consumers, was one of the most popular releases last year Google, at least for the moment, has an edge in the battle for trust, with 66% of people saying they generally trust it, versus just 38% for Facebook).

As companies try and move past the pandemic, they must address these suspicions. If businesses want people to share data, they need to offer more in return, including greater customer control over the data, transparency in how it is used, and greater value for data exchanged.

It’s not likely people will cut back on their digital life. American adults now spend 16-plus hours per day with digital media, up 25% from pre-pandemic levels. But they’re smarter, with 54% saying COVID-19 has made them more aware of the personal data they share.

While they are alert to high-profile breaches, 50% say they are still willing to share – as long as they get a fair value in return. The majority – 56% – want more control and better information about how that information will be used. Google Pay, for example, has released a control center for users to control their data for personalization, payments profile and transactions and activities.

Linking Digital Experiences

Winning with these skeptical consumers will become more difficult as the load shift from analog to digital channels accelerates.

“They’ll increasingly expect experiences that link and mutually enforce each other across all other channels.”

Consumer preferences and behavior have leapfrogged by years and 75% of consumers say they’ll continue using the digital channels they’ve started to use during the pandemic. This spans across age groups and channels. About 44% of consumers say the pandemic has led them to use their banking apps more. Some 71% of consumers aged 55 and older prefer an internet chat/video insurance claim process to replace the traditional in-office approach. Two-thirds of consumers prefer to book and reschedule appointments online rather than over the phone.

Forward-looking firms know these changes are here to stay and are actively solving for the new future state, rather than trying to play catch up to the 2019 status quo. About 86% of financial services executives plan to increase their AI-related investments through 2025. One-third of banks plan to increase spending on digital channels over the next year.

Emerging as a category leader takes exceptional strategic innovation and a digital roadmap that can adapt to unforeseen market changes.

Capital One, for example, uses cloud and artificial intelligence to connect customer experience across all touchpoints. Prospect and customer feedback is gathered across channels and stages of the journey and is synthesized using natural language processing to optimize the experience. As the first U.S. bank to operate completely on the cloud, Capital One uses cloud data systems to maintain a unified customer view across all channels.

As financial services companies transition from analog to digital experiences, they must follow consumer preferences closely to innovate more quickly. It’s more than having the right technology to deliver those experiences – it’s cohesively linking those experiences across channels.

Three Ways to Strengthen Digital Trust and Reinforce Omnichannel Experiences

1) Create an “opt-in” strategy

Include methods for asking for “opt-in,” centralizing how prospects and customers can manage their data within the ecosystem.

2) Perform qualitative research to understand the importance of data control in experiences.

Audit prospect and customer touchpoints that request data. Is it clear how data will be used? Is the value exchange meaningful and easy to understand?

3) Define existing and new opportunities for points of convergence.

To develop mutually reinforcing and cohesive multichannel experiences, companies must prioritize opportunities. Which experiences are most desirable to our customers? Are they viable for our industry? Are they feasible for our business? Leaders must adapt their transformation roadmaps to make sure both experience design and technology builds toward this convergence.


FINAL THOUGHTS

As people journey into increasing levels of digital sophistication, striving to protect their privacy and financial data isn’t enough. Financial services companies will have to continually demonstrate how they are adopting new technology to serve customers better. Developing a distinctive, durable quid-pro-quo for this data exchange is the next frontier for financial services. To achieve uncommon growth, these companies can’t just keep up with the latest in technology. They’ll have to lead.

To learn more about the latest market and consumer trends impacting your business – reach out to Prophet.

WEBCAST

Webinar Replay: Innovation as a Future Growth Driver for Singapore

The pandemic is changing the role of innovation. SGInnovate’s CEO explains how that plays out in Singapore.

58 min

Innovation is the cornerstone of business growth today. Figuring out the right formula results in big ideas and opens the door to new business opportunities. In this webinar, our expert speakers, Jacqueline Alexis Thng, Partner of Prophet, and Dr. Lim Jui, CEO of SGInnovate, discuss how innovation is driving future growth in Singapore.

Watch to learn:

  • How SGInnovate is driving innovation and investing in Deep Tech (newly researched, frontier technologies) in Singapore
  • The essentials of open innovation, including its benefits and best practices
  • The impact of coronavirus and the future of innovation

To learn more about how to create winning innovations that grab customers’ attention at once, download our latest whitepaper High-Concept Thinking: 6 Ways To Create Striking Innovations.

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The Art of Strategic Storytelling: Behind the Scenes of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s “Race for the Vaccine”

This compelling narrative offers lessons for businesses everywhere.

The biggest challenge for today’s businesses is to consistently produce personalized content at a large scale, deliver it at breakneck speed, and credibly have an impact on revenue. The businesses that are successful in this endeavor have invested in an innovative set of capabilities that make up an “Agile Content System”.

Imagine you had a front-row seat to the world’s foremost scientific teams as they worked to develop a life-saving vaccine. The filmmaking team behind CNN’s “Race for the Vaccine“ recently did just that, and Prophet’s healthcare team sat down with a few of them in conversation.

“To be a strategic storyteller, acknowledge that every interaction is an opportunity to build the relationships that could lead to the next great story.”

Produced by the Global Health Reporting Center and narrated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, “Race for the Vaccine” tells the story of the Oxford University, the NIH, Pfizer, University of Queensland and China’s CDC teams that undertook the heroic task of developing a COVID-19 vaccine as the virus swept the globe. Co-Director Caleb Hallerman and Editors Brain Truglio and Shayon Maitra joined the healthcare consulting team to share their experience making the documentary and how their efforts were designed to build confidence in the scientific processes that underpinned the vaccine development.

Whether in journalism or business, well-crafted narratives can engage audiences in an authentic and persuasive way – what Prophet’s founder emeritus David Aaker likes to call “signature stories.” Here are our takeaways from the conversation – which provide lessons for anyone who tells stories in a business context.

Lessons from Filmmakers: How to Tell Stories in the Business World

1. Know Your Beat: The Power of Relationships

Relationships unlock access to great content. In the case of “Race for the Vaccine,” relationships allowed the documentary to tell a truly global story. Because of former projects and collaborations, Caleb and the Global Health Reporting Center were able to get access to research institutes including China CDC. As Caleb pointed out, “the most important relationships you have are the ones you have before the story breaks…to make those connections before you’re in the midst of a crisis.”

To be a strategic storyteller, acknowledge that every interaction is an opportunity to build the relationships that could lead to the next great story. In doing so, you’ll build credibility and trust not only through direct interactions but also by virtue of second-degree connections to other people, expertise and opportunities. Also, the broader that network is, the greater the opportunity to bring a diversity of perspective and experience to strategic recommendations and communications.

2. Find the Right Source: Characters Who Make the Story

People want to connect with other people. And to create a powerful story you need characters that keep audiences interested and invested in the story you’re telling.  As Brian Truglio pointed out, “Character is really what drives the story…the most important thing is that you have interesting people who bring energy to the topic, and who can explain it. If you don’t have that…it’s not going to stick with people.” In “Race for the Vaccine,” this meant finding the scientists who could guide audiences on this complicated scientific journey such as Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett (NIH) and Dr. Keith Chappell (University of Queensland-Australia).

As business transformation leaders, it’s equally important to identify the central characters in any team you lead. What are individuals on your team passionate about? Where do their strengths lie? And where do the two come together to influence the business to adopt a strategic decision? Identifying what makes for a strong character at your organization can help rally it to change by clearly communicating its benefits to the market and modeling the behaviors that will lead to its success.

3. Go Beyond the Headline: Context Matters

It probably won’t come as a surprise that one of the challenges the filmmakers faced was capturing moments with the scientists in their labs. In early edits, one the biggest problems they identified was the lack of footage showing scientists in lab coats. It ran contrary to Brian and Shayon’s mantra for editing documentaries, “Show, don’t tell,” and required additional shoots and thoughtful editing to ensure that there was the right context to establish the credibility of these scientists. If the filmmakers had only had images of Dr. Corbett or Dr. Barney S. Graham at home, it may have limited viewers’ confidence in the safety and scientific rigor behind the vaccine research.

This experience highlights just how much context matters in strategic storytelling. In any business transformation, understanding the starting point – and how that starting point impacts any solution proposed to a business challenge – is critical to how a story is shaped to business leaders and executives. The synergy between story, strategy and action is the basis for credibility and trust, and the foundation for business success.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Telling the story of the development of the COVID-19 vaccine is (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime achievement for the filmmaking team behind “Race for the Vaccine,” but it doesn’t mean that the story is over. As governments continue the vaccine rollout, they are faced with overcoming the fear and biases that prevent people from getting vaccinated.

In this blog, David Aaker argues that storytelling, with the right frame of reference, is one of the best ways to connect emotionally, attract attention, distract from counterarguing and ultimately change the hearts and minds of those who may be vaccine-hesitant or resistant. Whether you’re a documentary filmmaker, a consultant or just a friend and neighbor, the stories we tell have the power to shape the world around us.

Thank you again to Caleb, Brian, and Shayon for speaking to our team. You can learn more about the Global Health Reporting Center’s mission to create in-depth health journalism here.

If you’re interested in working with Prophet’s healthcare growth strategists – or are interested to learn more about opportunities to engage our network of industry experts – reach out today.

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The Cure for Stalled Transformation? Your Brand

This valuable asset can be the most effective catalyst for change.

It’s no secret that many companies struggle with transformation. A recent survey from the Harvard Business Review reports that only 20% of executives believe their efforts are working. While there are complex reasons behind these expensive flameouts, an often-overlooked factor is brand. Leaving brand out of the transformation equation can be a crucial mistake when implementing a business transformation.

Thanks to Prophet’s ongoing research into brand relevance, we’ve seen what happens when businesses get it right. Companies as diverse as Costco, Peloton, LEGO and Apple use the strength of their brand not just to sell more products but as catalysts for change. Brand continually fuels revolutionary growth in every function of the organization.

Brand–is often a company’s most valuable asset – it can drive transformative growth. And when companies fail to weave brand into the entire transformation strategy, they make costly mistakes.

For brand to play a genuinely transformative role, it requires a fusion of an integrated brand and business strategy. Brand becomes accountable for growth and investment both inside and outside of the brand function. Brand strategy doesn’t just follow business decisions, it guides them at the highest levels of the organization. In these companies – the ones most beloved by their customers – brand always has a seat at the table.

Four Requirements for Brand-Powered Transformations

A brand-driven transformation is the intentional use of brand strategy to ignite tremendous change. To reach that level, companies need to make four critical shifts.

Brands must become purpose-led, rather than product-or offer-driven

Organizations must consider the impact they want to have on the world – not just shareholders, but customers, colleagues and the broader community. Companies based on a strategic brand purpose create shared value and resonate with key stakeholders. They know why they exist and the difference they are trying to make in the world. Most importantly, they know how to deliver on those promises.

Thrivent, a financial services company, recently redefined its purpose to become much more than a business that sells insurance policies or investments. Based on the conviction that humanity thrives when people make the most of what they’re given, its brand now stands for helping customers achieve financial clarity. Thrivent believes that money is a tool, not a goal that enables people to fill their lives with meaning and gratitude. And that’s led to massive changes in how the brand shows up for customers, especially in digital offerings.

Thrivent’s shift has opened the aperture of how it can engage customers, propelling growth that isn’t available to the hundreds of competitors that simply sell annuities or mutual funds.

Brand teams must become experiential leaders, not just a communication-oriented function

Messaging to customers alone isn’t enough. To build relevance, companies need to engage audiences through cohesive experiences, including the seamlessness of how a brand integrates products, services, communications and its culture. The most relevant brands create experience innovations that deliver on their positioning, ensuring impact with both employees and consumers. They can flex and change while still standing up for their purpose, promise and principles.

T-Mobile continues to be a favorite example. Customers hated everything about the cell phone industry, and T-Mobile knew it. The weakest player in a growing category, it needed a radical strategy. Working with Prophet, it transformed from an also-ran to the Un-Carrier, helping consumers break free of contracts and credit checks, adding the freedom of unlimited talk, text and data

“Brand strategy doesn’t just follow business decisions, it guides them at the highest levels of the organization.”

T-Mobile became the wireless carrier that didn’t act like one. With then-CEO John Legere as its highly visible trash-talking cheerleader, consumers flocked to its brash branding and the simplicity, fairness and value it provided. Well-orchestrated “rolling thunder” of activation efforts added 1.1 million new customers in the first quarter of the relaunch.

The brand must ignite the passion of employees to embrace and drive change

Businesses built just for customers, with little consideration for employees, struggle. Strong enterprises fuel growth from the inside through culture, capabilities and engagement. They work from the brand’s DNA, constantly articulating the “why” of the transformation to rally colleagues.

When Plantronics, the audio pioneer, acquired Polycom, with its secure video, voice and content solutions, for $2 billion, it needed a new identity to demonstrate its combined might–not just to investors but apprehensive employees. The new brand needed to reflect each legacy company’s heritage, aspirations and passion, while signaling a unified, modern technology product suite. The Poly brand needed a look and feel that conveyed ease-of-use and accessibility with input from top leadership, including teams from mergers and acquisitions, communications and finance.

While the merger came from outside forces, the reinvention – a global communications company that powers meaningful human connection and collaboration – came from within. It gave every employee a mantra to help build this new technology brand, already generating record sales.

Brands must develop cross-functional, full-funnel activation strategy, not just serve as an internal creative team

Instead of simply approving, protecting and managing the brand, it’s time to lay a brand foundation for the entire customer journey. The most relevant companies create signature brand moments in the most fertile opportunity areas.

Nike’s ongoing success in supporting the Black Lives Matter movement continues to be a powerful example. While Nike had long led the way among purpose-driven brands, it did the unthinkable in 2018, launching a full-scale marketing campaign starring Colin Kaepernick, perhaps the most polarizing figure in all of sports.

To some, the “Dream Crazy” campaign sounded just plain crazy, sparking boycotts and bonfires of Nike gear. But quickly, it built new brand strength. Moving beyond the campaign, it empowered its many Black athletes – as well as its passionate, young consumer base – to speak out for racial justice. The company’s stock hit new highs, and engagement broke records as it gained market share. It built unparalleled relevance.

It’s this kind of transformation that can only come from brand teams working closely with top leadership. “You can’t be afraid of offending people,” Phil Knight, Nike’s chairman emeritus, told Fast Company. “You can’t try and go down the middle of the road. You have to take a stand on something, which is ultimately I think why the Kaepernick ad worked.”


FINAL THOUGHTS

A brand-driven transformation goes beyond brand modernization or activation. A brand-led vision spans marketing, customer experience, product innovation, sales and distribution and much more. It embraces culture and technology as it directs cross-functional change. It’s the kind of substantive direction that allows companies to transform while staying true to what they stand for. And it leads to new customers, more revenue and uncommon growth. If your transformation is stalling out, make sure to recalibrate your brand at the center to drive your own success.

Get in touch to learn more about we help our clients achieve uncommon growth through brand-driven transformation.

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A Consultant’s Guide to Summer Reading 2021

Our colleagues share 21 books they can’t put down right now.

Every year we ask our Propheteets to share their top reads. From murder mystery and romance to personal memoirs and solid business reads, this year, our book worms have compiled quite the list. So, whether you’re someone looking for a story to immerse yourself in during your first time back commute, your rescheduled COVID-19 vacation flight or just your poolside summer hangout – there is surely a book ready for you to check out.

Our Consultant-Curated Summer Reading List:

Novels:

“Apeirogon”

by Colum McCann

McCann shines a new light on the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis. See how this unlikely friendship of two fathers develops into a partnership where both use their grief as a weapon for peace.

“Five Little Indians”

by Michelle Goode

This compassionate and insightful novel shares the struggles and conquests of five Candian Indian residential school survivors. Goode offers a story that’s not only timely but well-plotted with truly authentic characters.

“Klara and the Sun”

by Kazuo Ishiguro

What does it mean to love? Ishiguro’s novel probes the nature of human existence and the definition of love with a hint of sci-fi and zero sappiness.

“The Golem and the Jinni”

by Helene Wecker

Wrecker’s debut novel is a marvelous read about an unlikely connection between two supernatural creatures in turn-of-the-century, immigrant New York.

 

Real Life Reads:

“Born a Crime”

by Trevor Noah

This compelling, coming-of-age story takes the reader on several twists and turns. From being forced to hid in his home to on the run, you never know what Noah’s next challenge will be.

“Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water”

by Marc Reisner

Set in the American West, this story showcases the relentless quest for the ultimate resource – water. Read how the earliest settlers were lured by the promise of paradise, and the cruel tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians seeking city growth.

“Lights Out: Pride, Delusion and the Fall of General Electric”

by Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann

This is the authentic history of General Electric’s epic decline from one of the most iconic corporations in America. The story is also told by the two Wall Street Journal reporters who covered its fall.

“The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World”

by Virginia Postrel

Postrel gives a fascinating perspective on the story of textiles. Explore the growing need and how these materials have driven technology, business, politics and culture.

“The Lost City of the Monkey God”

by Douglas Preston

A tense yet refreshing read bout the real-life adventures, this #1 Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller is a timely commentary on colonialism, disease and our interconnected world.

“The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History”

by Elizabeth Kolbert

Kolbert unveils the mass extinction unfolding before our very eyes. This Pulitzer Prize winning book blends intellectual, natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the future of our world.

 

Reality Check:

“American Dirt”

by Jeanine Cummins

This intense and emotional novel is a deeply personal story about the perils of Latin American migrants. Follow the great ordeal of a Mexican woman who must leave her life behind as she and her son escape to the United States as undocumented immigrants.

“Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency”

by Olivia Laing

There is a common misconception that art cannot change anything. Laing argues it can in her collection of essays explaining the importance of art and culture in times of crisis.

“Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning”

by Cathy Park Hong

In this New York Times bestseller, poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in the United States.

Beach Reads:

“Soft Apocalypse”

by Will McIntosh

What happens when resources become scares, and society starts to crumble? A new normal arises and one must adjust to a vastly different society. Join a tribe of middle-class Americans as they struggle to survive this new and dangerous world.

“The Guest List”

by Lucy Foley

Everyone plans for the perfect wedding, but no one expects the celebration to turn deadly. Find out how this wedding challenges the phrase “For better or worse” dee to its core.

“The Humans”

by Matt Haig

This contemporary novel follows an alien visitor as it discovers the true meaning of life and humanity through a dead human’s body.

Business Builders:

“Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products”

by Nir Eyal

Based on years of behavioral design research, Eyal explains how to create and market products that people can’t put down. Someone can think using your product is cool, but it is even better when they get into the habit of using it.

“How to Win Friends and Influence People”

by Dale Carnegie

Despite being written in the 1930s, Carnegie’s book offers strategies on how to deal with people and build solid relationship that can be applied today.

“Humor, Seriously: Why Human is a Secret in Business and Life”

by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas

In corporate culture, one of the biggest misconceptions is that we must act seriously to be taken seriously. Aaker and Bagdonas share the power behind humor in everyday life and the business world.

“Making the Healthcare Shift: The Transformation to Consumer-Centricity”

by Scott M. Davis and Jeff Gourdji

Davis and Gourdji share a practical guide for healthcare leaders across the globe who have the fortitude to transform their organizations to both compete and win in the age of healthcare consumerism.

“Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet”

by Tim Hwang

Follow Hwang as he discusses how digital advertising is on the cusp of collapsing in a way similar to the housing crisis in 2008.

To learn more about our culture and people, visit the Life at Prophet page

 

“Whether you’re someone looking for a story to immerse yourself in during your first time back commute, your rescheduled COVID-19 vacation flight or just your poolside summer hangout – there is surely a book ready for you to check out.”


FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s not just us. The pandemic has been good for book sales, as people report reading more–from fiction to memoir to how-to. Sales of print books rose 8.9% this year. Read on, friends.

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