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Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Senior Leaders on Opportunities and Challenges

Our seven-expert panel says that while there’s no single strategy, transformation must always deliver value.

The tech is ready, but people and talent are just as important. Digital is no longer the domain of just one team. User experiences must be personalized and offer clear benefits.

Those are among the major takeaways from Prophet’s most recent healthcare roundtable on digital transformation. We gather for these discussions several times a year so leaders from different subsectors and functions can compare notes and share insights. A big thank you to our participants:

We covered a lot in a little time, but here are the big takeaways – many of which align with the insights found in Prophet Healthcare’s research report.

Five Things to Keep in Mind as Your Healthcare Organization Digitally Transforms

1) There’s No One Right Transformation Strategy

Transformation approaches are as varied as the healthcare organizations trying to transform. If the question is whether to build, buy or borrow, the answer in healthcare is often all of the above.

Healthcare leaders called out that startup acquisitions can be attractive when they provide access to new thinking, talent and ways of working. But the acquiring company must take the right integration approach if it is to overcome cultural barriers and fully realize the value of its investment. One global healthcare leader carefully evaluates talent as part of its acquisition strategy and said that putting “acqui-hires” high-profile leadership positions can signal the organization’s commitment to its digital transformation. Such bold moves are a good way to move the needle on “digital thinking” at the largest organizations.

2) Flexible Solutions and Hybrid Models Suit Varying Needs

Tactical flexibility is necessary to navigate inevitable resistance points. For example, the overnight shift to remote working showed just how quickly organizations could “get digital.” Now it’s a matter of optimizing what works and scaling it. For example, mental health is a natural fit for virtual care, but not for all patients (e.g., those with roommates). Such realities necessitate business models that are both traditional and virtual, rather than either-or.

One healthcare sales leader confirmed that field representatives want to get back out on the road, but also recognized how digital made their lives easier and helped enhance personal relationships. What “location, location, location” was once to retail, “hybrid, hybrid, hybrid” will be to all parts of healthcare.

3) Digital Must Deliver Value

Participants pointed out common links among effective transformation strategies – how they deliver real value to users and solve real-world problems. One leader mentioned digital interactions that provide “a little something extra,” such as access to a community or tools to address common issues (e.g., guides to talking to an employer about a disease).

“Such realities necessitate business models that are both traditional and virtual, rather than either-or.”

Another stated that too much digital content is still brochureware when it should be engaging users with questions about specific needs. While digital transformation is strategically critical, success can – and should – be measured tactically and practically.  It’s not about taking non-digital things and making them digital.  It’s about making things better through the use of digital.

4) Transformation Takes More Than Tech

Healthcare organizations adopted technology at an unprecedented pace in 2020, generally a good thing for a historically slow-moving industry. There’s a risk, however, that some companies may under-invest in other vital people-related capabilities (e.g., user experience design, Agile methodologies, innovation approaches). In some cases, it may be necessary to dust off that tired ­– but still true – warning: “tech is not a silver bullet.”

Leaders want to avoid simply adding more devices. They are looking for tech that simplifies and streamlines. For instance, smart beds that automatically take patients’ vital signs could free nurses to focus on more meaningful tasks. In order to change a behavior, there has to be a clear benefit.

Indeed, behavioral change may be the biggest barrier to achieving scale, according to our group. Consider how it took a global pandemic to overcome caregiver resistance to virtual visits. The technology has been ready for years and patients wanted virtual care, but the power of habit – doing things the way they’d always been done – was too strong. Some leaders are wary that we’ll lapse back into these old patterns post-pandemic, though others are optimistic that medical schools now offer virtual care training for the next generation of physicians.

5) Optimizing The Value of Digital Means Thinking Digital

To build on the momentum of the last year, leaders are looking to optimize what works. For example, enhancing online sessions for new pharma research or treatment options and mandating that some appointments be virtual (e.g., check-ins for prescription renewal or with chronic disease patients). They also called out the necessity of balancing digital marketing and sales efforts with traditional tactics.

Leaders in our roundtable also spoke to the need for specific digital talent (e.g., individuals who can translate business needs into technology requirements). Everyone claims to be agile, but too many projects run into “sprint-stop, sprint-stop” patterns because one leader or stakeholder isn’t on board. Our roundtable participants showed empathy – as well as a few eye rolls and chuckles – about this common experience. Still, everyone agrees the journey to agile must continue and a ‘digital mindset’ from leaders is necessary to accelerate it.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

In terms of digital transformation, healthcare adapted quickly to the COVID-19 crisis. Leaders are pushing forward, despite significant barriers, fine-tuning and scaling their successful initiatives and exploring new capabilities. The next year may not bring as much change as the last year, but it will be critical to sustaining the positive change that’s occurred.

For more, download our Transforming Healthcare: The State of Digital Marketing and Selling in Life Sciences report.

If you’re interested in participating in future healthcare roundtables, reach out to Paul.

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Three Ways Financial Services Companies Can Dial-Up Empathy

In the last 15 months, the world has vaulted years ahead in digital acceptance. As consumers gain tech experience, their standards get higher. They’ve developed the ability to tune out fake empathy and cringe at personalization efforts that are either lame or creepy.

Yet empathy counts more than it ever has before. During the pandemic, unemployment because of a harsh reality, many individuals lost or were separated from loved ones, several were forced to postpone milestone moments and no one was able to participate in the communities that made them feel the happiest and safe.  Brands and companies that build true connections are those that understand that context is everything. Personalization is only relevant and timely when it relates to what prospects and customers are going through at that moment.

Financial services companies have a clear advantage compared to other industries, with more data-driven insights that reveal specific struggles. While not every family’s finances have been impacted, 51% of consumers added to their credit card debt during the pandemic. Additionally, Pew Research reports 27% of consumers are worried about the cost of healthcare.

Catch Up With Missed Milestones

Financial services companies can improve personalization efforts by helping people catch up with milestones. The weddings, graduation ceremonies and retirement parties that were put on hold due to COVID-19 left emotional holes. Consumers are still coming to terms with the impact of that disruption. And as vaccination rates rise and cases drop, people are looking to reclaim those “lost” moments.

Weddings are a happy example. The Knot predicts this year will be the biggest wedding year ever, increasing by 20 to 25%. And many couples who got hitched during the pandemic will celebrate with a long-delayed bash.

Moving house – always a significant financial transition – has also taken on outsize proportions, with millions of millennials struggling to find affordable homes. They are trying to navigate a real-estate reality that’s markedly different, not just because of the pandemic. Housing prices are soaring, up 23.6% – a record increase. And after two decades of declining home construction, experts say America needs an additional 5.5 million units.

It’s a market more confusing than their parents ever faced­. Instead of buying dream houses or starter homes that make them feel financially comfortable, they’re often stuck. They need content that helps them make the best choices and financial partners that understand their frustrations and disappointments.

Consumers also need support for events that aren’t happening. The birthrate has been falling for some time, but experts believe COVID-19 caused a further 8.6% decline. Again, this loss is felt more keenly among millennial women.

But baby boomers and Gen Xers are taking some emotional lumps, too. About 40% of retirement savers say the pandemic has shaken their confidence in their financial plans, and 32% in their 50s plan to delay retirement as a result.

Even more disruptive? Nearly 2 million older Americans have been forced out of work into a retirement they aren’t quite ready for.

To handle these curveballs, people need new planning tools, focused content and a tone that recognizes new challenges. Even automated content needs to be more human, sensing what consumers crave at each touchpoint.

Understanding The Pandemic’s Lasting Economic Impacts on Women

The pandemic fundamentally altered life for many women in deep and profound ways. Not only did women lose more jobs than men, but one in four employed women have considered leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers, according to Lean In. The pandemic also pushed women to take on multiple roles including juggling more family responsibilities. Lean In says moms are 1.5 times more likely to be spending three or more hours a day on housework and childcare.

And while many companies just spouted generic “We’re here for you” messaging, some built genuine relationships. For instance, fintechs like Betterment and Ellevest are personalizing marketing and content messaging to emphasize what female customers can do for themselves in light of COVID career setbacks and how they can help other women directly impacted by the pandemic.

These enormous problems will shape family life for years to come. Companies that tailor valuable content, compassionate messaging and thoughtful timing can achieve relevance. Those that don’t risk getting dismissed or, worse, alienating a key customer base.

Three Ways Financial Services Companies Can Dial-Up Empathy

1) Give existing marketing messaging a compassion check-up.

How should personalization strategy change given the effects of the pandemic on life events? Which use-cases should take priority? How can marketing and content be more empathetic to new realities?

2) Identify changes in customer needs across the journey.

Using consumer interviews and behavioral insights, identify how customer needs have shifted because of the pandemic’s wide-sweeping effects and how that impacts their customer journey. How might products and services need to adapt to best meet these needs?

3) Develop personalized experiences around life events that are more likely to occur post-pandemic.

From the brand’s perspective, prioritize the most relevant life events that relate to the customer journey and develop personalized touchpoints for them.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

As the world continues to open back up, consumers’ financial needs are evolving. It’s time for financial services companies to think even more carefully about how those changing needs best align with their digital transformation priorities. It requires an empathic ear to hear how customer priorities are shifting and an agile mindset to adapt quickly. Life has changed in fundamental ways for so many, creating an opportunity to build brand relevance in this post-COVID-19 environment.

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

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Four Traits of Top-Performing B2B Digital Sellers

Understand the mindset and strategies of the most successful brands. Hint: Teamwork makes all the difference.

In our 2020 State of Digital Selling global research report, we found that top-performing digital sellers have four traits in common: Teamwork, they excel at cross-functional alignment around both strategy and operations; Strategy, from long-term strategy to short-term plans, these sellers align across functions to deliver results; Mindset, Companies that embrace a shift in culture and skillsets earn a competitive advantage; and Customer Focus, top B2B digital sellers use data and cross-functional teaming to deliver what the customer needs. Use our infographic, 4 Traits of Top-Performing B2B Digital Sellers to start conversations in your organization to transform sales.

The Traits of Top Performers

Teamwork

Sounds easy, but the reality is many sales and marketing organizations don’t work well together. Our 2020 State of Digital Selling research found that only 31% of sales reps view marketing as essential to their success. There are also digital cultural barriers: marketing uses analytics and automation at a much higher rate than sales, who focus more on direct relationships with prospects and customers. As digitization of both the sales/marketing funnels and customer experiences increases, handoffs between the two teams become more problematic.

In our research, we found two key gaps between average performers and the top 10% of performers: collaborative customer insight sharing and planning long-term digital strategy. 67% of top performers strongly agree that their marketing, sales, and service teams work well together to provide sellers with real-time data intelligence on prospect activity (vs. only 36% among average performers). As prospects move through the funnel, these teams excel at real-time sharing of new insights, sharing a more complete picture of the customer.  This could be as simple as marketing informing sales that a key account clicked on an ad to target sales’ best next move, to as complicated as knowing a prospect downloaded a white paper, how far they read and which topics they spent the most time reading.

Top sales performers collaborate closely with marketing on long-term technology roadmaps that lay the foundation for shared digital transformation of both internal enablement technology, as well as customer experience. Among top performers, 76% collaborate to put in place a technology roadmap for how digital tools and data will integrate over time, compared to only 38% of average performers.

Strategy

A turning point in strategy collaboration started in 2007 with the introduction of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and Account-Based Sales (ABS).  Our research has found that B2B sellers who follow these strategies outperform their peers. Sixty-three percent of top performers use well-coordinated teams and unique sales planning with marketing, which persists through ongoing teamwork throughout the funnel (vs 43% of average performers).  We also found 47% of top performers focus on industry vertical, vs. only 27% among average performers.

ABM/ABS is a great starting point, but in this year’s research we’re seeing a trend towards more frequent planning, to the point of “always on” dynamic plans.

Mindset

Companies that embrace a shift in culture and skill sets earn a competitive advantage. A key shift in mindset is needed around trusting data and analytics that form the foundation of sales automation. Sales teams need to develop trust in sales automation and the data that fuels it.

In our research, 63% of top performers strongly agree that sellers embrace the adoption of sales enablement tools, are certified as part of training, and managers are held accountable for tool adoption, vs. only 33% of average performers. Fifty-five percent of top sellers use of tools, AI and data analytics consistently identify best next moves that move forward prospects to conversion (vs. 32% of average performers). There’s a clear gap in mindset among top performers vs. the average.

Customer Focus

Top sales organizations prioritized customer satisfaction above metrics such as sales quota achievement and recognize the link between customer satisfaction and quota. Recognizing and addressing the diversity of buying committees typical in B2B needs is a key success factor, as well as customizing sales approaches by industry vertical. Today’s B2B buyers expect sellers to understand their industry to the point that they become a trusted partner in their own success.

Top performers focus on existing customers over acquisition. For B2B sellers, that means understanding their customer’s industry as a trusted advisor, and that they remain in close contact with both marketing and especially service to guide their sales plan by using those teams’ data insights.  Our research data found this area represents the largest gap between top performers and the average: 73% of top performers say their sales process is defined around the customer journey and informed by rich data analytics (vs. 39% among the average); and 75% of top performers (vs 55% index) said improving customer satisfaction was their top priority.

What You Can Do

For these 4 areas that separate the top 10% of performers vs. the average, consider these tips (and learn more in-depth strategies in our 2020 State of Digital Selling research report):

Teamwork

  • Use Slack or another enterprise social network to better connect team members among sales, marketing and customer success. Use hashtags to share customer success stories; surprising data analytics; and connect to your CRM to share key account information.
  • Create shared digital dashboards with key metrics for each team to illuminate handoffs between teams that need attention and to better understand where your partner teams are focused.

Strategy

  • Form a joint sales and marketing digital transformation working group and steering committee to share baseline capabilities, objectives and to plan a shared digital transformation vision.
  • Ensure alignment between sales and marketing on industry vertical targets, buyer segments and customer journey(s).

Mindset

  • Create a “digital sales champion” program to recognize sellers that have successfully made the digital selling shift. Embed these champions in teams as advocates for digital, especially by sharing specific sales results tied to it.
  • Find opportunities for joint digital skills classes among sales and marketing staff to both build relationships and offer mindset shift guidance. Marketing has gone through this transition, and personal stories of success will help sales teams get ready.

Customer Focus

  • Benchmark your data, that is, assess whether you have the right customer and prospect data to understand and deliver to customers what they need.
  • Make shared customer success metrics (such as Net Promotor Scores) part of compensation incentives among marketing, sales and service. Have customer satisfaction lead sales team objectives.

Please share our infographic with your colleagues to start conversations that can improve your digital transformation of sales.

More Digital Selling Resources

INFOGRAPHIC

Digital Selling is a Healthy Investment for Healthcare Companies

With less access to doctors, digital selling is the only choice. That leads to smarter strategies.

WEBCAST

Webinar Replay: The Insurance Customer of the Future

We take an in-depth look at sweeping demographic and psychographic changes shaping the insurance landscape.

59 min

Prophet’s financial services team leaders moderate a discussion with executives from MetLife, Thrivent and Shift Technology on the way customer behaviors are shifting and these shifts are impacting their transformation priorities.

Watch to learn:

  • The key findings about insurance customer behavior shifts – and predictions for their shift over the next decade
  • The ways financial services organizations – from a global insurance provider to an AI-native InsureTech company – are helping build better experiences for their customers
  • The top priorities of senior leaders advancing transformation agendas of their own

Panelists:

  • Michelle Froah, SVP Global Marketing Strategy & Sciences, MetLife
  • Rohit Mull, Chief Marketing Officer, Thrivent
  • Benjamin Braunschvig, Global Head of Partnerships, Shift Technology

REPORT

High-Concept Thinking: 6 Ways To Create Striking Innovations

A high concept creates clarity about an idea, making sure it’s developed and delivered as originally intended.

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How To Find (and Keep) Your Competitive Edge in Innovation

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. ‘High-concept’ thinking is what’s separating successful innovators from the rest of the field. A high concept creates clarity about an innovative idea and ensures the idea is developed and delivered as originally intended.

In this report, our Experience & Innovation practice outlines how to take your innovation strategy to the next level with high-concept thinking.

Read this report to learn: 

  • The definition and key traits of high-concept thinking
  • How high-concept thinking can help re-center how your company thinks about innovation
  • The six critical ways high concepts are used for innovation
  • Examples of successful high concepts in practice

Download the full report below.

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Thank you for your interest in Prophet’s research!

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Mastering Business Complexity Through Experience-Led Solutions

Moving forward requires separating complex problems from those that are merely complicated.

The last decade has seen accelerated business change more than any time before. The maturity of connected technology, the scale of global growth and the breadth of new business models have delivered a wholly different set of opportunities for businesses to work through. Most large enterprise businesses are evolutions and conglomerations of 20th-century industries that efficiently solved complicated problems around scaled development, distribution, price and marketing. 

While these attributes may have conquered vertical integration and built resiliency at one time, today, they are no longer sufficient to address the business issues of our connected markets and empowered consumers. This is even more evident now in a post-pandemic world. Businesses in 2021 are being challenged by interdependent complex issues and new delivery models, which require an experience-led approach to problem-solving. 

The Critical Difference Between Complicated and Complex Business Problems  

Understanding the difference between a complicated and complex business problem is crucial. Before a problem can be managed effectively, it must be recognized for what it is. If you manage complex things as if they are merely complicated, you’re likely setting your company up for failure.  

So, what is the difference between a complicated 20th-century business problem and a complex 21st-century business problem?  

Complicated problems are hard but can be resolved through systematic reasoning and processes. With complicated problems, you often can identify the constituent parts, optimize each individually and deliver value across a solution. Clear, MECE and broadly applicable. Whether that was global supply chains, optimizing manufacturing or franchising service experiences, the goal has been to optimize elements in the process to improve the bottom line and create efficient scaled solutions.   

Complex problems, on the other hand, involve many unknowns and are created when different actors and systems interact in a way that can result in unexpected cause-effect scenarios. These can be as distinctive as looking to improve retail employee career support globally, building a green energy marketplace or delivering home health care for people with chronic conditions.  

Dealing with such complex problems requires a more nuanced approach, including firsthand knowledge of how different incentives and constraints within a network of actors might adjust the experience for the people you are looking to deliver value for. This type of work cannot easily be strategized or architected from afar. Instead, it requires individuals to be active in the participation and immersion of the experience to identify the user needs, craft insightful hypotheses, test their ideas in the real world, thoughtfully measure outcomes and iterate.  

“Applying a 20th-century solution approach to a complex 21st-century problem will invariably fail to account for all the conditions, levers and expectations of the people involved.”

Recently we worked with a large retailer to help them understand the opportunity to create a B2B prosumer offering. Through interviews and testing, we realized that a major improvement to attracting and retaining customers in this new audience required better data-driven services for their front-line employees. Through rapid prototyping in coordination with their employees, we developed a new inventory interface, tested with real customers, and operationalized this in under 12 weeks to unlock a new experience and expand the share of wallet with a new audience. 

Business Problems Today Need a More Resilient, Experience-Led Approach to Solve Them 

Applying a 20th-century solution approach to a complex 21st-century problem will invariably fail to account for all the conditions, levers and expectations of the people involved. The focus should be less on knowing the answer and more on understanding the opportunity deeply. It is the best time to innovate. It is the worst time to stand still. 

Taking an experience-led approach to problem-solving helps businesses to:  

  • Achieve desired outcomes
  • Build business value by finding new ways to delight users with solutions that are fit for purpose
  • Capture better intelligence and awareness of the context in which users are interacting 
  • Solve for non-obvious needs that create greater value for the user

Ultimately, an experience-led approach to problem-solving helps you to deeply understand a complex environment and context in order to iterate a solution that delivers against multiple needs. Companies are better positioned to thoughtfully understand what needs people have and deliver more impactful experiences as a result. 

We worked with a large healthcare company to identify new product offerings for a very complex set of patients. In working with the customers and the client’s customer support team, we found that many services that were meaningful fell into categories like supporting the caregivers, coordinating third-party care services and restorative care for the families of patients. This insight led us to develop a more holistic product offering through partnerships instead of relying on the client to build or own all the capabilities and still monetize a product. 

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FINAL THOUGHTS

More Businesses Need to Become Outcome Obsessed 

You have probably heard the phrase of focusing on ‘outcomes over outputs’. However, focusing on what a great outcome looks and feels like for the user, helps us to think more broadly on all the contexts we can use to design experiences and products. In a world where better, cheaper and quicker is not enough, focusing on outcomes helps us to frame opportunities that are inspirational instead of simply tactical.  

This is a fundamental shift in focus for many. It brings with it a lot of baggage in questioning the norms and constraints that we have worked under for centuries – and that have underpinned the development of, what by all rights, is a successful society. We are no longer judged on only what we can deliver and if it was functional, but if it was impactful and delightful for the user. When we help companies create new business offerings, or reinvent their existing product capabilities, our goal is to make sure we are not just optimizing for complicated issues but developing muscles to compete in an increasingly complex environment. 

Prophet’s Experience & Innovation practice can help you to underpin a rigorous approach to business problem-solving. Get in touch here.  

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Michael Dunn – The Amazing Story of Prophet

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How the Digital Transformation of Sales Could Go Too Far

There are real and costly risks to an overly digitized sales process.

There have been hidden human costs in our drive towards efficiency and productivity using technology. As we approach the post-pandemic period, when businesses will decide which practices to continue and which to wind down, I foresee a rush to digitally transform B2B sales too quickly as harmful to human connections that build trust and long-lasting relationships.

The Cost of Efficiency

When I managed social media at a big bank in the early days of this technology disruption, I needed to understand and exploit its value for financial services. While looking back at the history of technology disruptions in banking, I found a pattern of automation in which to gain efficiencies the industry slowly chipped away at personal connections with their customers. Starting with telebanking, we at least had someone to talk to from home without driving to a branch, automation grew less personal.  ATMs gave customers quick access to basic banking functions, such as making a deposit or cash withdrawal. This culminated in smartphone apps, where many banking functions were accessible from the phone in our pocket.  Each step separated customers further from banks, slowly eroding personal relationships.  Luckily, as a “people-powered” digital platform, social media could address the trust gap.

It’s incredible how wide the gap between customers and businesses has grown.  Here’s an example, as told in Wells Fargo’s blog. After the 1906 San Francisco Great Earthquake and Fire, most of Wells Fargo’s ledgers were in a vault that survived the quake and fires but couldn’t be opened for weeks without exploding. To help the devastated city recover, the bank’s tellers relied on memory and personal relationships to get their customers the cash they needed to survive, let alone start to rebuild. These tellers knew their customers well and were able to disperse money based on their recollections of customer balances and creditworthiness. After recording these transactions in school children’s composition books, they found that these transactions were squared within a few dollars after the bank ledgers were finally retrieved weeks later.

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, many banks that were already established in social media had built trust and better weathered the brand damage that other institutions suffered throughout the industry. They’d built social capital with their customers, which was much needed in the aftermath of the crisis.  While financial services have modernized and scaled through efficiencies that have harmed human connection, the financial services blogs rebuilt trust through stories employees told of how they’d helped their customers succeed and reduced the fear that was palpable then by recounting how the bank had helped their customers survive previous economic catastrophes, thus swinging the pendulum back a bit towards trusted relationships.

As we rush towards the digital transformation of sales, let’s not let the pendulum swing too far. Consider the shift post-pandemic in manufacturing from “just in time” to “just in case” supply chains and our collective desire to emerge from isolation with live events and shopping. We’re wired and ready to connect.

The Right Use of Sales Technology

Sales and customer success teams maintain relationships that can only be built and preserved by people over time. This is particularly true when buying expensive enterprise business products or services.

While conducting research for this year’s upcoming digital selling report, I’ve found a number of approaches that dial back automation in favor of genuine relationship-building.

For example, video meetings exploded during the pandemic as a way to continue face time with customers and prospects while in shut-down.  As more sales reps used video calls, we then saw growth in personalized videos sent via email.  As a consumer, this change was palpable and impactful.  Getting less, “Hi Ed, I thought you might like…” in an annoying automated email, I instead started receiving videos clearly meant for me. In one case, I received a personalized insurance briefing based on a request I’d made, which used my own and my husband’s name, presenting insurance plans that might be best for us and ending with a simple call to action (which I took, I’m now a customer of this broker).

Personalized video messages are a great example of how tech can be used not only to scale but also to build trust in essential long-term relationships.

Maintaining Relationships Post-Pandemic

Sales and customer success team managers know which of their team members have relationships that have grown the bottom line.  These reps need to be supported by digital, but not necessarily by building deep digital skills. A salesperson is much better at reading a customer’s body language, gestures, and so on than any AI I know of.  A data analyst is better at connecting data points to draw valuable insights than most sales reps. We need both of these skills, and that won’t change with the digital transformation of sales in front of us.

“Personalized video messages are a great example of how tech can be used not only to scale but also to build trust in essential long-term relationships.”

To scale and meet the demands of digitally savvy customers, many brands I’ve spoken to have told me that their return on investment in customer experience is diminishing—perhaps a sign that consumers are on to overly automated engagement.  In response, they’re investing in more personable tactics.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

B2B businesses I’ve interviewed have built a virtuous circle by leveraging their customers’ digital reach to advocate for them once a trusted relationship is established.  One company I spoke to told me how during shut down, when most communication went digital, they discovered that they didn’t have the permissions needed to reach out on some digital platforms, like email. So, they built customer advisory boards to listen to feedback and build better products, which in turn were amplified by those customers in digital, such as sharing company content with colleagues. Valuable human connections with customers can build a businesses’ reach in digital.

The best digital transformation of selling strategy is one that invests in the digital domain but focuses on bettering the human domain. Tricky, but as the pandemic has demonstrated a realistic and achievable goal.

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Prophet Looks Back on a Month of Pride Celebrations

Taking a broader view at what it means to be gay at work, promoting authenticity all 12 months of the year.

During the past month, there was no shortage of memes and think pieces discussing the temporary nature of the celebration of pride, especially for corporate entities. When July 1 hit, the rainbows came down and most were none the wiser. Like all celebratory months or days that acknowledge otherwise underrepresented groups, there’s always a question about why we only do this for a part of the year. Why not celebrate year-round? We’re gay or lesbian or bi or transgender or an ally 365 days a year. The tokenization of minorities of all kinds has come to be an unfortunate hallmark of today’s corporate culture even as businesses invest in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and education.

Pride at Prophet has been in existence for a few years. Prior to the formation of any ERGs (employee resource groups) at Prophet, there was a general shared sense of wellbeing for LGBTQIA+ employees because of the composition of our leadership team, the firm’s clear investment in pro-bono work for relevant causes and the visible sense of recognition that comes with seeing others like you. As the firm grew, a clear need to better acknowledge different, diverse cohorts within the organization became clear, and over the last three years several different affinity groups have naturally— and intentionally —formed to make an impact at Prophet.

“A clear need to better acknowledge different, diverse cohorts within the organization became clear, and over the last three years several different affinity groups have naturally— and intentionally —formed to make an impact at Prophet.”

We’ve celebrated pride as an organization in different ways for many years, but given remote work life, Prophet decided to take a broader approach to Pride Month celebrations this year. With local office teams unable to come together physically, we curated a program of blog posts, panel discussions, virtual events and playlists that put a spotlight on a community that is as diverse as it is unique. But what the program mainly did was show that every part of our business, every region, every role, includes members of the “community.”  More than 10% of our firm’s employees directly contributed to this month’s content, highlighting the broad depth of experiences embedded within our company and presenting opportunities for allies to engage, learn, support and uplift LGBTQIA+ community members in various forums.

Panel Discussion: ‘Queer in Consulting’

One of the most impactful events was a panel discussion that featured firm leaders and hit on topics including what it’s like to be “queer” in consulting. It featured U.S. and European managers and partners and spanned across our corporate, strategy, design, digital and delivery teams. The conversation reflected on the unique but shared experiences of panelists while highlighting the diversity of their experiences. Overall, the sentiment conveyed by our panelists was the idea of being extremely lucky — lucky for having professionally grown up in industries in which it wasn’t necessarily hard or at least a not big deal to be gay, and lucky for having found a workplace that always encourages its employees to bring their full, true and complete selves to their job.

Many of our attendees found it eye-opening to hear panelists discuss experiences like having to come out again and again to new teams and clients. One of our panelists spoke about being “in and out” as he transitioned through different companies and roles until he got to the point in his professional and personal development where code-switching was no longer an option. From day one of joining Prophet, he belonged in a culture where he felt truly embraced, if not celebrated. Another panelist talked about the “boys club” environment of the ad world that had surrounded him for most of his career. This made him prioritize finding a workplace that fostered a more diverse environment and eventually led him to become a Propheteer.

A third panelist recalled a statement he had to make during his interview process. In the interview, the panelist explained that he wouldn’t be successful if the firm expected him to change who he fundamentally is and how he expresses himself. For many of us, it’s taken a lifetime to build up the strength and confidence to be our best selves at work. Uncomfortable questions are asked by clients, colleagues make assumptions, we sometimes find ourselves in situations where we feel we don’t belong.  Creating a comfortable environment for everyone no matter how they identify is something we are committed to as a firm.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Our programming this year was focused on raising the profile of the impact and broad-ranging reality of the “gay” experience in the workplace and beyond to help celebrate the fact that the diversity of our perspectives makes our business and community stronger.

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Five Winnovation Factors to Drive Innovation Excellence in Asia

Look for new ideas that are high concept, more familiar than strange, and end-to-end human.

As we step off the Coronacoaster and onto (what we hope is) a new Roaring 2020s joyride, it’s critical that businesses innovate in ways that leverage how echoes of the pandemic will remain endemic in the future.

As always, the winners have been the most innovative in responding to changing market dynamics and consumer needs – putting momentum behind ideas that create the most sales energy, scaling production when the time is right, demonstrating cultural resilience in sometimes plummeting conditions and showing agility through the loop-de-loops of competition.

Innovation Changes Our Lives

The history of humankind is the history of innovation. Where would we be without fire? Or the light bulb, now the universal icon of innovation? Or the internet? We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but it would be nice to spin out the next Uber. Or perhaps, an upgrade from the past – like switching from paper money to credit cards to QR code payments.

Innovation is Hard

There are oodles of stats on the subject, and the numbers aren’t pretty – about 90% of innovations fail soon after launch. But when you take a closer look, it seems many of these failures suffer from self-inflicted wounds. Far too often, failed innovations are simply failing to answer enough basic questions: What is it? Who is it for? When is it for? Where is it for? How is it different? Why should I buy it?

Technology Moves Fast, Human Needs Change Slowly

As we think about better ways to innovate, we need to be careful to avoid the speed trap between the evolution of human needs and a revolution of solutions.

Innovators need to be out in front of the public, or else they aren’t innovating. But innovators also need to create an intelligible bridging story if the innovations they’re pimping are way out there.

Be Mindful of How Cultural Context Comes into Play

Across cultures, whether or not innovative ideas translate is also being put to the test. In Asia, for instance, we have seen countless big ideas that have been massively successful in the west, such as Amazon, Uber or Groupon, fail miserably, getting replaced and outpaced by local competitors after struggling to adapt to the local culture and consumers. In contrast, Starbucks, Walmart, and Airbnb have reimagined themselves vigorously and relentlessly.

“Winnovation factors work even better when accompanied by the other innovation frameworks, exercises and approaches we have up our (rolled up) sleeves.”

The 5 Winnovation Factors

Prophet works with enlightened innovators of all shapes and sizes across a spectrum of categories and markets. We’ve distilled what we’ve learned from our work (and what we’ve observed to work in the marketplace) into five winnovation factors.

The fab five should NOT be thought of as a super-strict checklist, but instead, be thought of as guidance towards creating winning innovations. They work individually and collectively to raise an organization’s innovation game to a higher probability of success. They do it all from informing answers to basic buyer questions to inspiring disruptive ideas that surf pop-culture tsunamis.

  •  High Concept
  •  New Platform Development
  •  Multiple Needgasms
  •  80:20 Familiar:Strange
  •  Human End-to-End

High Concept

Innovation should be rooted in an intuitive High Concept that helps people understand what innovation is all about…in an engaging way. High Concepts are often expressed through name and/or design elements.

Facebook (2004) turned the page to a new chapter of social media, with its concept of becoming a “Book of Your Life.” WeChat (2011), prior to reaching super-app status, first gained traction as a messaging platform connecting people. Its Chinese name, 微信, also reflects its concept clearly – “micro message.”

The High Concept definition says it all: A simple and often striking idea or premise, as of a story or film, that lends itself to easy promotion and marketing. What could be better than striking ideas and easy marketing? High-concept thinking is a powerful concept for innovation.

New Platform Development

Changing the NPD game from new product development to new platform development means treating innovation as a living system that spans (and spawns) multiple products and/or services.

Oreo (1912) kept its cookie dynasty from crumbling over the years by flexing a dynamic platform system that innovates with a defined set of variables – ranging from the dimensions of the outer sandwich to the amount and flavor of the cream filling. Pop Mart (2010) thought inside the box to turn a simple toy into endless opportunities for surprise, by selling its trademark dolls in “blind boxes” and collaborating with artists and brands to constantly create new collectibles.

Whenever you innovate something new to the world, treat it as a platform that can be leveraged in a variety of ways for future growth from the get-go.

Multiple Needgasms

Many contemporary innovations are one-upping their unique selling proposition ancestors. Increasingly, new innovations are purpose-built to (over) deliver against multiple needs to elicit mind-blowing experiences from the jump.

Beverage company Genki Forest (元气森林) (2016) quenches Chinese consumers’ thirst for healthy drinks that still taste delicious. Their sparkling water boasts 0 sugar, 0 fat, and 0 calories, comes in a wide range of flavors and is topped off with sleekly designed packaging.

‘Multi’ is the new ‘uni’…‘and’ is the new ‘or’.

80:20 Familiar:Strange

Most consumers want a twist on the known in their innovations. If something is too familiar, there isn’t much reason to buy it. If something is too strange, mass consumers will reject it as something only good for freaks.

Take the salted egg yolk, a traditional staple across many Asian cuisines. In recent years, the flavor has hatched a number of new products that consumers are crazy about, from IRVINS Salted Egg Potato Chips (2015) to McDonald’s Salted Egg Yolk Loaded Fries (2019).

The innovation advice on the 80:20 factor should feel strangely familiar. If an innovation is highly familiar, add some strangeness. If an innovation is strange, make it feel more familiar.

Human End-to-End

Innovations are no longer thought about simply as isolated goods. Instead, they’re increasingly thought of as end-to-end systems in time and space. The best of these systems recognizes the human front and center in the ‘end to end.’

Apple (1976) pips most lifestyle tech companies to the post with a well-designed alpha and omega innovation experience play. There’s an appealing unboxing ritual when you buy a new product, and the company will often take your old product off your hands (literally) and apply its value against the price of this year’s model. One of China’s leading electric car manufacturers, NIO (2015), powers its community through its NIO Life sub-brand. The online platform enables car owners to chat with one another, sign up for exclusive events, and use NIO credits to buy everything from suitcases to cereal, shifting the car ownership experience to one that is all-encompassing and owner-centric.

When it comes to the end-to-end in your innovation…just do it.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The More Winnovation Factors, The Better Likelihood of Success

There you have it, now you know the winnovation factors. So, it’s time to start using them. Remember, they aren’t Pokemon (1998) – you haven’t ‘gotta catch ‘em all.’ But in general, the more winnovation factors you have in innovation the more likely it is to be successful.

Prophet applies winnovation factors across a wide range of categories, including products, services and new business models. They’re proven to make a difference in incremental product improvements and breakthrough category disruptions. They make a difference in innovation that lives in the physical world and innovation that lives in the digital world…and in innovation that lives in the hybrid phygital world.

The winnovation factors work. And the winnovation factors work even better when accompanied by the other innovation frameworks, exercises and approaches we have up our (rolled up) sleeves.

Want to learn more about how to increase your organization’s innovation capacity? Click to download ‘Innovation in a Post Pandemic World: The Critical Traits of a Truly Enlightened Company’

If you’re looking for an innovation partner to raise your game, we’d love to talk. Get in touch today!

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