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Five Moves to Become a Convergent Enterprise

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

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

1. Re-focus The Operating Model

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

2. Solve The Customer’s Actual Problem

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

3. Reskill The Organization From the Top-Down

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

4. Upgrade Your Go-to-Market Capabilities

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

5. Create Incentives for Innovation

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

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

Getting Started:

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

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

Four Steps To Get Started

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

Identify
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Pathways

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Quick Service Restaurant Executive (UK)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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Prophet Launches Extended Pro-Bono Consulting Program

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

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

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

Our First Pro-Bono Client

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

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

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

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

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

Elevating Brand Story and Impact

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

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

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

Rewarding Work For Prophet’s People:

Jarrett Fein

Jarrett Fein, San Francisco

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

Shina Leboo, Chicago

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

Ammar Mahesri, Chicago

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

Becca Thorpe, New York

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

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Brands

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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

Are you our next nonprofit client?

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

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The Eight Essentials of a Successful Marketing Plan

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

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

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

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

1. Reflection and Introspection

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

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

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

2. Strategy as Your Guiding North Star

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

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

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

3. Planning for Your Audience

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

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

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

4. A Framework for Planning

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

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

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

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

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

5. Hitting the Key Points and High Notes

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

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

6. Plan, but Don’t Over Plan

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

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

7. A Living, Breathing Plan

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

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

8. Have Dedicated Air Traffic Control

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

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

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

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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Pinduoduo’s Purpose-Led Agri-Tech Innovation: A Conversation with Xin Yi Lim

This tech company focuses on farmer productivity while reducing the environmental footprint of farming.

E-commerce continues to surge globally, in part accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in many ways, China leads the charge. While some Chinese companies, such as Alibaba and Meituan, have focused on building ecosystems and “super apps,” Pinduoduo’s approach differs. With origins in agriculture and social commerce, Pinduoduo has risen to the top through an innovative business model that is set on creating value for both the merchant and the consumer. In 2020, Pinduoduo was ranked third by GMV of China’s e-commerce platforms, with a total GMV of $242 billion USD.

Prophet’s Tom Zhang, a senior engagement manager, had the chance to sit down with Xin Yi Lim, Pinduoduo’s executive director of sustainability and agricultural impact, to discuss Pinduoduo’s investment in agri-tech, its view on the consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) model and the company’s ongoing purpose-led innovation initiatives.

Xin Yi Lim

Pinduoduo

Executive Director of Sustainability and Agricultural Impact

As Pinduoduo’s executive director of sustainability and agricultural impact, Xin Yi Lim is responsible for Pinduoduo’s international corporate strategy efforts and innovation in sustainability and agri-tech. Before joining Pinduoduo in late 2018, she worked for Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, in both its Singapore and New York offices as a technology and media analyst in the Public Equities division. Xin Yi holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oxford and a master’s degree from Harvard University.

Can you tell us a bit more about your background? What brought you to Pinduoduo, and what is your current role there?

I’ve spent most of my working life in investment, covering technology, the internet and media. As a financial analyst and an outsider, I was familiar with Chinese e-commerce but very much interested in learning more.

I joined Pinduoduo in late 2018. I’m part of the broader strategy and investment team, but my title is quite unusual – executive director of sustainability and agricultural impact. It’s very hard to find anybody else who has those two things in one title, which speaks to how Pinduoduo sees agriculture. For us, it’s where we can have a huge impact in the social sphere, via poverty alleviation and job creation, and in the environmental sphere as well.

What is Pinduoduo’s ambition behind its continued focus on agriculture, even as the company has expanded into numerous other categories?

In the beginning, there was Pinduoduo and there was also Pinhaohuo (拼好货), which was focused solely on agricultural goods. We merged the two in 2016, and as a result, agriculture remained deeply rooted in our DNA. Even as we grew into selling other categories of goods, agriculture stayed at the forefront as a sector where we could have a large-scale impact and accelerate change.

As a technology company, we’re constantly thinking about how we can disseminate agricultural technologies to improve farmer productivity while reducing the environmental footprint of farming. By leveraging these technologies, customers can get the same product, or perhaps even one that is more nutritious, while reducing the environmental impact. Broadly, that’s how Pinduoduo thinks about agriculture, technology and sustainability.

As a platform, where can Pinduoduo have the biggest impact in the agricultural value chain?

The way agricultural products make their way to market – the distribution channel – has not yet been transformed as it has for other categories. We estimate only about 7% to 8% of the total dollar value of agricultural products transacted in a year is happening online.

That caught our attention because we know shifting online can unlock a lot of efficiencies in the supply chain. Through the Pinduoduo model, we are able to bring the produce directly from farmers to customers, cutting down on any unnecessary intermediaries in between. And by doing this, the farmer can earn more while the consumer can save more. It becomes a win-win for the producers and the consumers.

“As a technology company, we’re constantly thinking about how we can disseminate agricultural technologies to improve farmer productivity while reducing the environmental footprint of farming.”

The knock-on effect is also more prevalent now that the farmers are more plugged into the economy. This is because they have a direct sense of what their target consumers like. They can understand how consumers respond to certain pricing or packaging if there is stronger demand for large oranges versus small oranges or how demand changes throughout the year. We want to empower farmers so that they’re not just price-takers in the traditional distribution model, but instead, can be more actively involved in producing what consumers actually want. This is where we can add value and how we bring the C2M model to life.

Can you elaborate on how Pinduoduo incorporates the C2M model in its overall strategy?

In China, there is a very strong manufacturing base on the supply side. However, the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) often lack the expertise and insights to create distinctive brand identities and value propositions that connect with their consumers. Thus, we are coming up with new ways to enable domestic producers to leverage their own IP, understand consumer needs and create products and brands that resonate with the market.

Our New Brands Initiative, launched in late 2018, is one way we are bringing this to life. We have dedicated vertical specialists who work with manufacturers from each category, sharing emerging market and consumer trends with the goal of turning manufacturers from OEMs to Original Brand Manufacturers (OBMs). Based on these category trends as well as their own merchant data we provide via the platform, merchants are able to adjust their offerings accordingly and consider how to upgrade their marketing. That’s also where brand building begins. Brands can’t be everything to everyone, so by providing insights and narrowing the focus, C2M can help manufacturers develop their own value propositions and their own brands.

China has the benefit of having one of the highest levels of penetration of e-commerce. This speeds everything up, from product development to pricing to SKU assortment, by allowing manufacturers to get feedback in real-time.

Can you give a few examples of some of the initiatives Pinduoduo is undertaking in terms of innovation?

Pinduoduo is training a new generation of agri-entrepreneurs. In the past five years, we’ve trained one hundred thousand “new farmers,” a younger, more educated generation that is migrating back to their hometowns, and we’re committed to training one hundred thousand more. These are the ones who are managing the storefront, packaging, customer service and distribution and at the same time, they are also mobilizing the rest of their rural communities to join them in the digital economy. We bring business expertise via online and offline classes and then partner with institutions such as China Agricultural University to teach agricultural knowledge. Through these agri-entrepreneurs, we’re hoping to start improving the branding of agricultural goods in China, which is very undeveloped.

Our long-term goal is to bring in more upstream, purpose-led innovation. We’re in year two of hosting the Smart Agriculture Competition. We bring together global technology teams with backgrounds in AI, machine learning and plant science to compete against traditional, premium horticulture teams. We then put these teams in a smart greenhouse that they control remotely using IoT, monitoring the plants and making precise adjustments whenever needed. In last year’s competition, the AI teams produced three times as many strawberries and generated 76% higher ROI compared to the traditional teams. Not only was it very impressive to the farmers, but some of the technology experts also went on to work with the farmers after the competition. The Smart Agriculture Competition creates an opportunity to test the teams’ technologies on a bigger scale. At the same time, the farmers benefit from the efficiencies and see the real-world impact.

Pinduoduo has referred to itself as a “Costco+Disney” concept. Can you elaborate on what this means and how it guides Pinduoduo’s innovation and strategy?

The Costco+Disney concept ties in with Pinduoduo’s slogan: More Savings, More Fun (多实惠，多乐趣). The Costco part, “more savings,” comes from our early insight that we could get more value for money by aggregating demand. The Disney part, “more fun,” speaks to people’s desire for a social shopping experience.

We designed Pinduoduo to be very interactive. The app offers a social connection that helps users discover things more easily compared to the traditional e-commerce model, which is very individualistic. The “team purchase” model is a big part of the social element. Livestreaming serves as another interactive element, which helps build trust between consumers and merchants. It allows them to see how things are made, how it looks, which helps consumers feel closer to the producers, creating trust.

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We don’t want shopping to feel like a chore. We want it to be a fun part of your daily routine. Within the e-commerce industry, we’ve achieved one of the highest engagement rates in terms of monthly active users and daily active users. By emphasizing more savings and more fun, we’ve found a way for users to engage willingly and regularly.

Learn how your organization could drive innovation through a purpose-driven approach. Contact us today!

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The Importance of a Collaborative Product Design Process

Design may be a team sport, but most companies need guidelines to make collaboration more effective.

Fostering cross-department and client collaboration in projects are critical through the design process to keep teams motivated, clients engaged and to ensure the forward momentum of the project. Such an approach also reduces friction and contributes to the well-being of the team.

At Prophet, our one-team approach is encouraged in all engagements with start-ups through to big corporations. The conclusion we’ve been able to draw is that the design and innovation process gains real momentum and buy-in with the involvement of cross-functional collaboration. But every organization is different and creating that space to empower teams is a frequently faced challenge, along with accessing stakeholders for decision-making and bringing the wider team along on the journey.

“The design and innovation process gains real momentum and buy-in with the involvement of cross-functional collaboration.”

Read on as we break down what collaborative design is, the benefits and offer our tips to encourage collaboration and foster creativity.

What is Collaborative Design?

Collaborative design is the process of designing as a team. Great products and experiences aren’t created in a vacuum. A diversity of profiles is needed, from designers, analysts, researchers, and product managers, fusing their talents and expertise leads to the creation of something truly meaningful and something that genuinely connects business and user needs.

The Benefits of Product Design Collaboration

There are many reasons why great products need great collaboration, here’s some of them:

  • Shared goal or vision – all team members are kept well informed and on the same page throughout the process.
  • Creative and innovative solutions – gathering feedback and considering diverse perspectives from a variety of specialized skillsets enable next-level solutions.
  • It gives everyone a voice – collaboration is good for culture too. It helps to instill democracy within your creative process and signals that all voices matter.
  • Greater buy-in – if you create a process where everybody has greater agency in contributing input, it makes it harder for team members to disengage.
  • Saves time – continuous and open communication prevents misunderstandings and costly revisions so that the product can be brought to the development stage sooner.

A 6-Step Guide to Organize and Improve the Collaborative Design Process

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Our Top Tips to Get Started

1. Cross-Function Teaming

The team is everything, and the more disciplines involved, the more robust the ideation, feedback and iteration. Even better, create a cross-level team, a good idea can come from anywhere.

2. Problem First

Focus on the problem first and be flexible on how you get to the solution. Align with the team on the outcomes that you are trying to drive and let the team be flexible with the process.

3. A Flat Planet

Design is a team sport, and with that, the team should be empowered to move, design and dictate the course of the project. A hierarchical approach will slow sign-offs, meeting availabilities and permission to move forward. Empower the team, do great work.

4. Rhythm is Everything

Working together at a similar pace is key. Set a cadence that works for the project and the team’s wellbeing. Consider the teams’ lifestyles as they are as – if not more – important as the project plan itself.

5. Team Health

Carve out the space and time to run team retrospectives and have open conversations about team health.  At Prophet, our teams use a framework called SCARFS – standing for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness and Sustainability – to help guide those conversations. Every week, each team member rates how they feel on each factor on a scale between one and five. This is critical to understand the health of the project and the team. Often this moment of reflection will provide a deeper insight to refine the process for upcoming sprints.

6. A Vision of the Future

Have a brave vision of the future, challenge the team to look beyond the project and deeply question the future state and impact that the work will have.

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Collaborative design should be standard practice through the product creation process with a focus on solving a true user need. Done right, design collaboration empowers everyone involved with the mindset and process to come together and build a better product – even the best specialist can’t design great products alone, that’s why collaboration is so fundamental.

If you need help on how to adopt or improve your design collaboration workflow or approach to product design, get in touch with our Innovation & Experience experts today.

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The Four Digital and Innovation Trends Unlocking New Growth Opportunities in Southeast Asia

From digital healthcare to social commerce, new internet users are ready to embrace technology.

Over 40 million people in Southeast Asia (SEA) went online for the first time during the pandemic, bringing active Internet users in the region to 400 million [1], according to Google’s e-Conomy SEA 2020 report. This represents a 60% increase from 2015, and a 70% internet penetration rate of the region’s 580 million population, as well as a $100 billion worth of Internet economy.

In the past year, we have seen many new norms and many changed customer habits. 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.

Four Trends Shaping the Future of Digital and Innovation

1. Growth of Digital Healthcare

The pandemic exposed the fragile public healthcare system and scarcity of healthcare professionals for patients in underserved and rural areas. To fill this care gap, many are turning to telemedicine, increasing its demand. Two examples of the surge of telemedicine are Indonesian start-ups Alodokter and Halodoc, which link patients with physicians for online health consultations all from the comfort of their homes. These start-ups and many others have shown robust growth as citizens in remote, rural areas are becoming more aware of their need for quality healthcare and as governments begin to recognize telemedicine start-ups as an official care resource for citizens.

Looking more broadly, we expect the continued growth of digital healthcare solutions as health and wellness remains a top priority for customers, impacting their choices around self-care and their expectations towards their interactions with brands.

“The pandemic made us rethink the real part of our business – helping people get their health checked and making sure they were claiming right. And so, we realized that we need to enable all of our sellers to proactively reach out to people digitally.”  

– Ms. Jenn Villalobos

2. The Rise of Contactless and Digital Payments

Contactless became a new norm during the height of the pandemic. As a result, new, contactless services have seen substantial growth and adoption by major brands across SEA. For example, local food delivery companies such as GrabFood have evolved their services to better address customer needs, by giving customers the flexibility to schedule contactless delivery in advance.

Alongside contactless services, digital payments are expanding as customers increasingly forgo cash to avoid physical contact. This trend was accelerated when brands increased their implementation of cashless payments for their services. This led to non-cash transactions growing rapidly across the region. For example, GCash by Mynt and PayMaya by PLDT expanded to enable digital contactless payments in public taxis in the Philippines. In Vietnam, the number of mobile payment transactions grew by nearly 200% during their lock-down period. Additionally, e-wallets such as ZaloPay, Momo, and Grab-backed Moca also experienced high rates of adoption during this period.

“People were looking for an opportunity to do banking very easily but they wanted to avoid physical interaction as much as possible, so we launched a new digital, mobile banking offering with a much better user experience and faster transaction speed than before and compared to other banks.” 

– Mr. Pahala Mansury

3. Shift Towards Social Commerce

As COVID-19 disrupts most supply chains and traditional retail channels, many SEA customers have experienced or adopted new retail channels to a varying degree. An area that largely benefited from this opportunity is social commerce. Social media has become a one-stop platform where customers can be influenced by a variety of content and subsequently shop directly or through chat rooms on Facebook, WhatsApp or Line. In fact, social commerce accounted for about 44% of SEA’s $100 billion Internet economy in 2020[2].

To serve this growing demand and overcome challenges from the pandemic, we are not only seeing major brands but also micro-businesses adopt and integrate social commerce into their business models. One example is Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority. They’re helping stalls in wet markets that are traditionally cash-only and have zero online presence online. This initiative has enabled customers to order their groceries from mom-and-pop shops remotely via Facebook and enjoy same-day delivery to their homes. We expect to see social commerce become an increasingly common practice among brands to grow their relevance and strengthen trust among customers.

“I would say social commerce is what makes a brand more relevant because it’s all about building community and trust. This is even more so in Southeast Asia.”

– Ms. Pinky Yee

4. Emergence of the New Experiential Customer

The pandemic has led to stay-at-home restrictions that forced customers to live their lives, including working, shopping, exercising and entertaining, all from home. Personalized digital experiences that seamlessly fit into the customer’s individual home routines have become increasingly important as they have fewer opportunities to interact with products and services physically. Even as stores re-open, we are seeing brands adjusting to the new normal at home by complementing their services.

For example, Indonesian ride-hailing brand GoJek accelerated the launch of GoPlay, a streaming entertainment service that offers locally personalized content such as Gossip Girl Indonesia. The growing pool of customers demanding personalized experiences at home has pushed brands to reinvent their offerings. Luxury, healthcare, food and beverage and educational experiences, for instance, are increasingly integrated into the stay-at-home lifestyle.

“As the outdoors are declining in terms of relevance, brands need to continuously think about how they can generate content that is relevant and entertaining to that family, to that side of the home lifestyle as they spend more hours at home.”

– Mr. Pahala Mansury

How to Unlock New Value to Win in SEA

The above trends create a wealth of opportunities for brands to innovate and unlock value. During times of disruption, brands need to adopt a digital transformation and innovation agenda that is both human-centric and digitally powered to align employees, customers and communities around a shared purpose and vision. While most companies turn to technology-driven optimization, technology alone does not drive the wheel of transformation, but rather, we must use technology to enable changes across all areas of the business from customer experience to marketing and sales to organizational culture in order to unlock uncommon growth.

“Instilling innovation from inside out allows companies to adapt quickly to evolving customer needs and get ahead of other competitors.”

– Mr. Alvin Neo

  • Customer experience transformation must begin from a human perspective, focusing not just on users but also business operators responsible for maintaining and improving the experience. Singapore Airlines leveraged artificial intelligence (AI), customer data and blockchain technology to deliver more personalized end-to-end experiences across its channels. As a result, Singapore Airlines was able to consistently outperform key competitor, Emirates, with the highest customer satisfaction (87%) [3]
  • Businesses need to reinvent marketing and sales by embracing customer-data strategies and omnichannel approaches to grow market share and increase loyalty and customer value. In Thailand, the iconic tricycle-riding ice cream vendor, Wall’s Man, was elevated into a new-world phenomenon by creating a new, mobile-activated service and interactive messaging with GPS tracking. Customers order ice cream by simply sending a sticker to Wall’s Man’s chatbot online. The customer data collected through its services allows Wall’s Man to manage his inventory better while providing insights through customer profiling. Despite the economic turmoil and entrance of new players, sales increased by 4% within the first two months of activation. Currently, one of three Thai Line users has joined Wall’s Man Line account, allowing a whole new generation to experience the joy of delivered ice cream [4].
  • It is also crucial for companies to approach the transformational agenda from the inside out by advancing cultures that excite top talent and continuously fuel innovation. The culture of innovation is instilled within Tokopedia, an Indonesian technology company specializing in e-commerce. Tokopedia has built a winning learning and development (L&D) ecosystem that is digital, accessible and gamified. Tokopedia’s effort in L&D was recognized by winning the “Best Companies to Work for in Asia” Award in 2020 [5]. Success in L&D has also been translated into business, with Tokopedia sustaining its position as a trailblazer in Indonesia and its CEO, William Tanuwijaya, won the Innovation Leadership Achievement Award in Indonesia from The Asian Banker in 2021.

References:

[1] According to the e-Conomy SEA 2020 research done by Google Inc., Temasek Holdings Pre. and Bain & Co., 2020 https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-economy-sea.appspot.com/assets/pdf/e-Conomy_SEA_2020_Report.pdf

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

[3] According to Roy Morgan, Jan 2020, https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8253-csa-results-november-2019-international-airline-satisfaction-202001192349

[4] According to The State of Digital Transformation in SEA

[5] According to Nanang Chalid Blog Post, Dec 2020, https://www.nanangchalid.com/post/start-with-why-a-winning-l-d-story

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The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated and transformed the digital landscape in SEA, presenting opportunities for uncommon growth in this diverse, fast-growing and digitally developed region. The key to unlocking more value is approaching innovation not just by applying new digital technologies, but more importantly, innovating from the inside out across all dimensions of the organization.

To learn more about how to unlock uncommon growth in your organization, contact us today.

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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.).

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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

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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. 

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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.  

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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.

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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.

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Brands

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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.

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