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Five Winnovation Factors to Drive Innovation Excellence in Asia

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

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

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

Innovation Changes Our Lives

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

Innovation is Hard

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

Technology Moves Fast, Human Needs Change Slowly

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

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

Be Mindful of How Cultural Context Comes into Play

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

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

The 5 Winnovation Factors

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

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

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

High Concept

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

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

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

New Platform Development

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

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

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

Multiple Needgasms

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

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

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

80:20 Familiar:Strange

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

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

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

Human End-to-End

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

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

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

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The More Winnovation Factors, The Better Likelihood of Success

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

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

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

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

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

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Improve Your Digital Content Strategy: 3 Learnings for European Companies

Our new research shows firms benefit from tech that automates, personalizes and localizes content strategy.

Companies are well aware that quality content — engaging, personalized and distributed at scale — is an essential part of modern marketing. Whether it’s using light-hearted memes or in-depth reports, an agile content strategy builds relevance and brand awareness while also establishing companies as thought leaders in their industries.

Though businesses worldwide are developing increasingly sophisticated content strategies to generate leads, demand and revenue, our latest research – surveying 484 executives across the U.S. Europe and China – uncovered some powerful focus areas for companies, specifically in Europe, to hit those goals. Here, we outline the three digital content imperatives European companies should be actioning against now:

1. Optimize Your Organizational Structure

A slight majority — just over 50% — of all European companies in our research use a centralized creative team, which manages content across departments and geographies. That’s not surprising, since for many years, that’s been the go-to model.

In the past, there were good reasons to consolidate content production with a central creative team. This internal agency model allowed for better governance, more consistent quality and a quicker production time. As businesses became more digital, they moved away from creating awareness through brand-centric content and focused more on mid-funnel content, such as thought leadership or buying guides. These factors were instrumental in companies shifting content production away from external agencies.

But this model is only sustainable up to a point and as many companies transform for the digital age, conditions are rapidly changing. Badly judged centralization can constrain the ability to tailor content locally and add significant differentiated value. Our research showed that German companies are most likely to rely on a centralized approach, at 60 percent. That compares to 53% in the U.S. and 44% in China. The European companies we spoke to said that aligning multiple teams around a unified content strategy is their biggest challenge, at 27%, this compares to 23% in the U.S. and 15% in China.

A better way: Increasingly, more companies — and 32% of our global sample — have moved beyond centralization, setting up additional content-producing centers. Typically, they still have a central creative team, which sets much of the overall content strategy. This team creates and enforces editorial guidelines for quality and owns the visual and verbal identity for consistency. It can also hold the technology and provide training for data-based content creation and the measuring of content success.

The work with our clients in Europe has shown how helpful this organizational structure can be in meeting the unique content demands of different business units and geographies. It’s vital in European markets, which often face other regulatory guidelines.

2. Embrace Tech and Data to Create, Personalize and Measure Content

The biggest challenge for today’s content producers is to consistently produce personalized content at a large scale — and do it in a way that increases revenue. To do this, companies need more than the right content. They need to deliver it to the right person, at the right time and in the right channel – and that requires using more data and automation.

Yet companies in Europe are most likely to say that their solution is simply to hire more content creators, at 24%, compared to 18% in the U.S. and 13% in China. Producing content at scale isn’t something that can be solved by simply adding more employees.

“An agile content strategy builds relevance and brand awareness while also establishing companies as thought leaders in their industries.”

Only 11% of European respondents say they use AI to create and deliver personalized content at a large scale, based on AI-driven customer segments and analytics. That compares with 22% of those in the U.S. and 25% in China. (Germany presents the most extreme example of this at two percent, versus 10% in the U.K.)

And just 10% say they rely on AI-driven analysis of demographic, behavioral and psychographic data, enhanced with third-party data to create customer segments. That compares to 19% in the U.S. and 35% in China.

European companies are also noticeably more conservative about most uses of consumer data, citing more concerns about privacy than those in other regions. And for good reason, as data privacy legislation in Europe is more stringent than it is in the U.S. or China.

A better way: Our research shows that the best approach is investing in an innovative set of practices that make up an agile content system. These systems:

  • Use data to inform content creation
  • Produce content in modules for approval and recombination
  • Centralize and automate content storage
  • Upload a standard design system
  • Measure content effectiveness beyond awareness and engagement

European companies need to push harder to create clear guidelines on how data is used. What is acceptable, and why? What are the guidelines for content aimed at consumers versus B2B efforts? These conversations are increasingly important as companies face a cookie-less future.

3. Tune Campaigns for Different Regions

European countries have long understood that regional differences are significant and strategies that resonate in Portugal might be a total failure in Finland. But in a world of digitally-driven content and AI that can be finely tuned for each market, those differences are not what they used to be. And they can often become excuses for inconsistencies that limit the effectiveness of a content strategy.

These disparities can also be seen in channel effectiveness, with European countries less likely to say their audience engages with them on critical social-media channels. Just 37% of European companies say Facebook provides their highest engagement rate, compared to 55% of those in the U.S. Also, only 15% cite LinkedIn as their most effective, compared to 20% in the U.S. (Interestingly, more European companies say Instagram is their best source for engagement, at 31%, compared to 22% in the U.S.)

Companies in Europe are more likely to use reach as the primary metric of effectiveness than the more advanced engagement metrics used in the U.S. and China. But, companies in Germany (36%) and Spain (34%) are more likely to lock those metrics away in silos specific to individual channels.

A better way: In developing a company-wide digital content strategy, investigate differing standards and requirements in each geography. What changes can be made for greater consistencies within markets, especially regarding automation and success metrics?

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European companies are well-aware of the importance of content in their overall business strategy, but to stay relevant and keep up with fast-moving digital audiences, it’s no longer enough to produce quality content. Content must be personalized, engaging and delivered at scale.

Our research shows that European companies have essential steps to take against some important measures, but by optimizing organizational structure, leveraging tech and digital data to create personalized content for varying consumer and regional segments, they will reap the full benefits of an effective and strategic approach to digital content. Watch those leads come in, that demand increase and that revenue rocket.

Prophet can assess your content strategy and help find alignment across business units and geographies. For more on how to scale your content, drive efficiency and maximize growth, contact our Marketing & Sales practice today.

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A Model for Transformational Change Management in a Post-Pandemic World

Transformation calls for a level of organizational fitness that’s radically different. How ready are you?

The past year has shown the critical capacity organizations need to build for change. The COVID-19 crisis saw many organizations forced to adapt business models, embrace new ways of working and instill a more digital culture mindset. As we see the light at the end of the tunnel, the focus for organizations should be on developing a resilient approach to transformational change management that outlasts the pandemic and supports ongoing transformation. This means that companies need an enhanced approach to change management to ensure they have the agility to reinvent themselves more frequently in this disruptive age.

The Shortcomings of Outdated Change Management Models

It’s been 25 years since the advent of change management and organizations are facing the reality that change is more than a single event to be overcome. It’s now apparent that the incessant onslaught and acceleration of technological advancement requires a new perspective if organizations are to thrive in this environment. Even today, change models (e.g., Kotter, ADKAR) mostly posit some return to stasis and require their deployment in never-ending waves of programmatic change. There must be a better way.

A Modern Model for Transformational Change Management and Organizational Fitness

What is to be done? How might we build the organizational resilience required to not just “manage change” but rather to collectively engage with a positive mindset? And it’s not just technological shifts we need to prepare for, as we know that the forces of remote work, climate change, environmental sustainability, stakeholder capitalism and social justice movements will be impacting us for years. But there will inevitably be others. How might we navigate the many unpredictable forces the modern enterprise will need to face?

At Prophet, we’ve chosen to view the enterprise as a macrocosm of the individual. We believe it is important to take a human-centered approach to transformation because no matter how digital an organization becomes it is important to recognize that it is still ultimately a human endeavor.

“How might we build the organizational resilience required to not just “manage change” but rather to collectively engage with a positive mindset?”

As we have reflected on the inadequacies of outdated models and methods for change management, we have begun to recognize that there is a new discipline emerging in our field of work: transformational change management. Transformational change management begins where change management leaves off. It recognizes as fundamental the fact that there is no single milestone to be achieved: there are many. The process of transformative change, therefore, is viewed as an ongoing journey, often with a higher altitude, strategic destination. As a result, the ability to absorb change has become a core cultural attribute for organizational growth.

Over the last five years, our transformation practices have begun to crystallize into specific behaviors, methods, tools, skills and models. And those, in turn, have yielded the insight that our human metaphor for the organization extends to address the issue of embracing continuous change as a way of life. Prophet’s Change Fitness Model is a way of describing five connected and ascending levels of capability for individuals, teams, leaders and organizations to thrive throughout ongoing transformation.

Level 1 is where we view the world with a fixed mindset and change is viewed as an obstacle to be overcome.

Level 2 is where things begin to be framed slightly more positively and change is a milestone to be achieved and celebrated. However, our worldview still tends to favor a return to a steady state afterward.

It is only at Level 3 that we begin to enter the world of transformational change and the traditional tools necessarily begin to fray. Change is now a journey, often one spanning several years, with many cross-functional, cross-organizational and enterprise milestones to be achieved and value to be measured. Level 3 is where our mindset, individually and collectively, must truly shift to one of growth and abundance. Change is exciting because it leads transformation into something better: a better business model, operating model, and often culture.

Level 3 is where Prophet often meets our most significant engagements. Client organizations recognize the need for changes to their DNA and as a result, all the organizational components of Body, Mind and Soul must evolve as well.  Our desire with these clients is to leave them better than we found them – at Level 4. And therefore, we seek to design and manage the program such that the pace of change tilts, bringing as many of the colleagues into a state of flow as possible. This means moving just enough pieces at once so that everyone is working at the height of their competence, but not to push efforts so fast that people feel burned out.

Ultimately, we believe organizations that learn to thrive on change and embrace a growth mindset eventually find their way to Level 5 – a state of play where transformation is a sport. It’s an opportunity to find yet more ways to excel, individually and collectively.

Now that we are seeing the world through the lens of the Change Fitness Model, we are more able to quickly diagnose needs with our prospective clients. A handful of probing questions – easily inferable from the chart below – quickly reveal where the organization stands today and suggest the kinds of work that could be helpful to build change muscle and resilience for the transformations to come.

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As you look at your organization today, consider the descriptions in each row. Which seems to most accurately describe you as a leader? Which best characterizes how your team stands currently? What about your organization as a whole?

As you look forward to the rest of 2021 and beyond, a few minutes of consideration will likely reveal some important opportunities where your organization should develop increased change fitness. What actions might serve you best?

If you want to learn more about how you might increase your organization’s change fitness and build long-term resilience, then contact our Organization & Culture practice today.

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Three Ways Financial Services Companies Can Help Advisors Win in the Meme-Stock Age

Who cares if it’s trendy? Meeting digitally-driven new investors in their favorite channels can help brands win fans.

Some people – including the co-founder of Reddit – say that the tsunami of new investors snapping up shares of GameStop, Clover Health and AMC amounts to a “bottom-up revolution.”

Maybe. We certainly agree that the meme-stock movement, the viral stock surge of GameStop, AMC, and others in the first part of 2021, means new and old types of consumers are looking for financial advice in new places.  The pandemic-induced shift to virtual interactions made consumers open to new channels for receiving advice. As we look beyond the pandemic, and advisors need to find ways to establish credibility and win trust.

These digitally-driven customers represent enormous growth possibilities if served in the right way. For companies and advisors, this requires agility in responding to market changes and commitment to cohesive omnichannel experiences, especially when it comes to onboarding clients.

Companies that don’t adapt fast enough or don’t support their financial advisors with the right tools are pushed out of consideration. A recent study of more than 250 financial planners finds that 77% of advisors have lost business because they did not have the right technology to interact with customers. In fact, these advisors reported losing an average of 20% of book value as a result.

Redefining Target Markets

First, it’s time to ditch the negative “Reddit bro” and “FinTok” stereotypes. Yes, there’s plenty of over-the-top gambling going on in social media and some genuinely terrible investing advice. However meme-stock investors aren’t just young kids investing pizza money. In fact, meme-stock investors represented a major slice of America. A Yahoo Finance-Harris Poll found that in January 2021 – the height of the GameStop saga – 28% of American adults had purchased shares of viral stock that month. Nearly half of those people invested more than $250 and almost 17% were more than 45 years old.

But even before that, we saw massive increases in the demand for digital financial advice. The pandemic served as a financial reset for many, and consumers began reaching out to advisors with greater urgency. One study found that 67% of people said the pandemic had been a wake-up call for them to examine their finances.

“A recent study of more than 250 financial planners finds that 77% of advisors have lost business because they did not have the right technology to interact with customers.”

Another study from  Nationwide Financial, which surveyed more than 2,000 people, found that by the first week in April of 2020, 24% said the pandemic had ­caused them to contact a financial adviser for the first time. It also reported that 80% of respondents felt they had lost control of their ability to manage their investments and finances.

Fast forward eight months to the GameStop frenzy. “How to invest in stocks” surged in Google search rankings, proving how quickly people moved from feeling helpless to digital derring-do. These people, who are adults, want answers, with 73% of viral-stock investors saying they have researched the U.S. financial system and 20% consulting a financial advisor before buying.

“Since then, some advisors and firms proactively publish content with a clear point-of-view on how to navigate meme-stock fluctuations. They adjust their content strategy to anticipate the flood of customer questions and to educate and prevent hasty decisions.

The best of both fintech and legacy companies are stepping up their tech investments. They understand the elevated consumer demands for frequency and channel of advisor interactions. Facet Wealth, for instance, makes its sign-up process straightforward. Once a prospect becomes a client, the dashboard makes it easy for them to engage with their finances from one place and schedule an appointment with their advisor.

It’s smart since 53% of millennials and 29% of baby boomers say they would switch advisors if they can’t use satisfactory technology.

Three Ways Financial Services Brands Can Gain Relevance in the Meme Stock Era

  1. Survey financial advisors to understand what support they need to proactively initiate conversations about topics like viral stock options and to explore different channels by which to interact with customers.
  2. Create a market sensing function to respond to market changes. And compile a centralized point-of-view on hot topics, offering a range of responses to support advisors.
  3. Incorporate a regular placeholder within the marketing content calendar for market commentary to proactively address market changes and reinforce brand credibility.

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Firms that win in the market use digital-first thinking to create agile experiences and proactive communications. They’re stepping away from dated ideas about who invests and why. These innovators are working to establish trust and meet customers where they are right now. They’re striving to support remote customer-advisor relationships that meet and exceed technology table stakes. In doing so, they’re building trust and relevance in the era of digital-first finance.

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Prophet’s Pro-Bono Journey With the LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Movement – A 20-Year Journey

Stories–understanding how legal issues impacted the everyday lives of people–turned the tide.

In the spring of 2000, I was approached by a colleague and friend to consider doing some pro-bono work for a small nonprofit with a critical strategy project. I was caught off guard. Our company, relaunched as Prophet Brand in 1999, was in the middle of its first growth surge, powered by David Aaker’s global brand guru status and the Dot.com investment boom. As a young, fast-growing firm, we were having a hard time establishing our culture, growing our team, defining our methodologies and driving high-quality work for paying clients. I struggled to envision how we would be able to free up the time and resources to also do high-quality work for pro-bono clients. My mid-30’s CEO mindset sensed that this was a luxury we couldn’t afford. Luckily for me, this Prophet colleague – Cathy Halligan – didn’t give up. She was determined to help me see why doing this kind of work was consistent with our aspiration as a firm and my hopes as a leader.

The nonprofit organization had a passionate leadership team that enabled some of the only visible wins for its movement in the United States. But, it found itself at a crossroads. Its talented executive director, team and board needed to figure out how to capitalize on its strengths and build a story that would help power the organization and its resources to more transformational impact. As Cathy Halligan consistently argued, Prophet circa 2000 had exactly the right mix of expertise and perspective to help solve this problem. If we weren’t ready to generously apply our time and talents to helping change leaders answer their hardest brand and narrative questions, what were we here for?

Her persuasive words and spirit have stayed with me to this day. Cathy’s determined efforts led us to shape our first pro-bono project in the fall of 2000 with The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. It was the first of what’s become a series of Prophet pro-bono efforts to support a range of US organizations committed to advancing LGBTQ+ civil rights in the United States and globally.

Starting Our Work With LGBTQ+ Civil Rights

It may be hard to remember the state of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement at the turn of the century. Bill Clinton had signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1996, stating that marriage could only be between one man and one woman. At the state level, many anti-LGBTQ+ laws and ballot measures were getting passed left, right and center. Also, the AIDS crisis was still roiling the broader LGBTQ+ community. Times felt dark.

The single bright spot of progress was in the courts, where courageous citizens and their lawyers were bringing legal challenges to some of the most oppressive anti-LGBT laws. Lambda Legal and some of its allies were the driving forces behind this strategy. They would identify the most egregious laws that allowed for discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, education, etc., or that still criminalized consensual LGBTQ+ relationship behavior between consenting adults, find plaintiffs who would sue the government asserting that these laws were unconstitutional, and then provide the plaintiffs with all the legal support needed to execute the cases. Through this strategy, Lambda Legal helped win the first HIV/AIDS discrimination case in the 1980s, won a historical legal precedent holding schools accountable for harassment and violence against LGBTQ+ students in the 1990s and achieved broad progress on so many other legal battlefields.

But the organization was made up of lawyers using lawyer-speak in all their communications, was chronically under-funded and was not well-known or understood even within the LGBTQ+ community, let alone the broader public. Our job was to help them land on an aspirational purpose, brand strategy, narrative and roadmap that would help elevate its impact, enable transformative change, dramatically increase its donor base and elevate its reputation among the broader movement.

We unlocked a critical insight – most people didn’t understand how the outcomes of Lambda’s work would impact the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people, families and communities. We needed to help them turn their legal strategies into human stories told through the faces and voices of those directly affected. We needed to help them develop a storyline that up-leveled the context of their work – to help people understand how making progress through the courts was an essential building block to advance the movement’s broader civil rights agenda. The selected strategy created a second major plank for the organization – a commitment to investing in dialogue-shaping education, as well as precedent-setting litigation in the pursuit of social justice. The way in which it was embraced and executed fundamentally changed the character and trajectory of Lambda Legal, elevating its influence, dramatically increasing its fundraising prowess and growing its capacity and resources to drive transformative change.

Adding on to the Movement

Later that decade, we found another organization in the LGBTQ+ movement – Equality California –  a trailblazer with charismatic leadership and an excellent track record of advancing the most comprehensive set LGBTQ+ legal protections passed by elected officials and politicians anywhere in the United States. Prophet aligned itself to support Equality California when the organization and the movement were at an incredibly low point. Many were blaming the organization for losing the “No on Prop 8” anti-gay marriage California ballot initiative in the 2008 election, in effect ripping away hard-earned marriage rights and putting the legal status of 18,000 same-sex marriages from the previous 4 months in limbo.

Equality California had to learn to acknowledge the mistakes with grace and humility while finding a new way forward. We dug deep to unlock a new set of insights across an array of stakeholders and learned that there was an opportunity to reposition the organization as a champion for full equality for LGBTQ+ Californians, not just same-sex marriage. Getting legal rights was not enough if it didn’t lead to a pervasive change in the “lived” experiences of LGBTQ+ citizens across all dimensions of their lives. And that marriage, while important, was only one of the vital steps in this path to full “lived’ equality.

This kicked off what turned out to be a 10-year plus relationship with leadership at Equality California. Over the course of our partnership, we found many ways to support its leaders and its mission. For example, we helped provide detailed insights work to understand how to shift perceptions of potential allies and voters as LGBTQ+ civil rights were tested through ballot propositions. We also helped with donor growth strategies and volunteer mobilization campaigns.

In 2017 and 2018, we helped the next generation of leaders unlock a new purpose and story for Equality California after the marriage question had been settled. What should “full and lasting” equality look like? There were still dramatic disparities in the health and wellbeing of the community and continuous attacks on the gains that had been achieved. How could Equality California become a movement builder, intersectional and inclusive in nature, and fit for a new era of digital activism, grassroots energy and urgent necessity? We helped them answer these questions, and then retooled the brand along with its look and feel to reflect the new strategy. “Until the work is done” became the phrase that captured the spirit and the intention of this team.

Celebrating 20 Years of Giving Back

While these stories spotlight the bookends of 20 years’ worth of pro-bono energy and commitment to this movement, there have been many other organizations and themes that Prophet teams have touched along the way. We’ve rebranded a groundbreaking leader in its drive to create safe, respectful and healthy K-12 schools for LGBTQ+ students, helped to enrich stories for teams working to redefine LGBTQ+ images in the media and supported leaders tackling the tough issue of LGBTQ+ youth suicide rates and homelessness. No matter what the organization or the issues, committed Propheteers stepped up to the table with energy, expertise, humility and compassion to deconstruct thorny questions, unlock new insights and co-create positive strategies, programs, identities and narratives to move the work forward.

As we launch the next chapter of Prophet Impact, with three focus areas – equality, social mobility and sustainability – my hope is that we can build upon our journey within the LGBTQ+ movement, and the organizations and grassroots advocates who power it. Prophet has grown in scope and scale now, with a deeper set of capabilities to support bold organizations aspiring to drive transformative change. Our experience has taught us that it is only with sustained effort that we can hope to support these movements and organizations in our shared desire to drive enduring, meaningful change. And that we must be prepared to continue to invest, even in the face of demoralizing setbacks, fierce resistance and uneven progress.

I am grateful for Cathy Halligan’s persistence more than 20 years ago, and for all the energy that so many creative, strategic, committed teammates have put into this body of work over the years. So much effort and so much heart have been poured into our collaboration with these trailblazing organizations. Our talents elevate the impact of organizations and movements on the ground. We see firsthand the struggles and challenges these movements face in their efforts to drive systemic change. But rather than feel daunted by these realities, we bring even more determination and optimistic energy to the work at hand. We’re enriched and strengthened as professionals and humans through our shared work together – we get way more than we give.

“No matter what the organization or the issues, committed Propheteers stepped up to the table with energy, expertise, humility and compassion to deconstruct thorny questions, unlock new insights and co-create positive strategies, programs, identities and narratives to move the work forward.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

Happy Pride. Happy 20th anniversary, Prophet Impact. Here’s to a new generation of leaders and the next 20 years of effort focused on helping to build a healthier, more compassionate and more just world.

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Hill House Home: A Model for DTC Brands

This start-up’s fast moves, quick changes and hot drops offer lessons for much bigger brands.

Hill House Home (HHH) and its internet-famous Nap Dress have an impressive news presence for just a six-person company founded in 2016. So, how did the founder Nell Diamond generate so much publicity? The company has followed the right strategy playbook to leverage organic content from a community of loyal customers to spark demand for the brand.

Context is Key

Some companies found accidental success during the pandemic, while others capitalized on the new opportunities. Hill House Home did both. Though the brand launched the Nap Dresses in 2019 and trademarked the name in January 2020, the cutesy name became a masterstroke of branding when the divisions between work and home were erased. Rather than relying on the good fortune of newfound popularity, the brand doubled down on the production of dresses and embraced its new reputation as an apparel, not linen company, and it worked. The five-year-old brand had 275% growth in 2020, with the Nap Dress category increasing 1120%. The lesson here is in order for brands to stay relentlessly relevant, they need to capitalize on the quickly changing world around us.

Unafraid to Refocus 

Hill House Home started with bed linens as its primary product offering, but the founder always had a bigger vision for the company beyond bed sheets. When the Nap Dress quickly outpaced other categories, Diamond wasn’t afraid to lean into the organic PR customers enabled and spurred even more product demand. Although Diamond is quick to point out that all categories experienced triple-digit growth during the pandemic, the Nap Dress category quickly outpaced all others. It was so popular, likely due to its ruched design, that flatters many body types and professional yet comfortable look, perfect for working from home. HHH allowed the customer voice to guide which products sat at the forefront of the brand. Other DTC companies can learn from HHH’s example and avoid becoming too attached to their product vision to accelerate growth in products that show the most potential.

Drop It Like It’s Hot 

The other half of the production equation that has worked well for HHH is selling products using the “drop” model — an industry practice that goes against the usual model of releasing products on a rigid calendar 4-6 times a year. The brand produces limited runs of its products and drops them at random times throughout the year. This creates buzz and excitement more reminiscent of a streetwear brand than a Victorian-style dress brand. Online, women talk about their Nap Dresses the same way sneakerheads do about the latest Air Jordans.

“The cutesy name became a masterstroke of branding when the divisions between work and home were erased.”

Diamond’s vision from the start was to create luxury products at a non-luxury price point, and her production timeline helps boost the brand’s luxury feel. Although the dresses are not made of luxury materials, simply pulling the strings of supply and demand creates an exclusive aura. Other DTC brands similarly can capitalize on the scarcity effect, making limited edition products that are automatically associated with exclusivity.

Content is King

Hill House Home knows that sharing beautiful marketing images and user-generated content naturally gets people talking. The brand maintains an active blog filled with stories from the founder and has more than 100k followers on Instagram. The company shares a mix of photos with of-the-moment influencers, UGC and non-product photos that come together so seamlessly that it becomes difficult to tell which photos were taken by the company and which by its fans. The best CEOs know that loyal customers are their best marketers, and that content and community can fuel each other, generating more and more excitement around the brand.

The brand vision is aspirational and authentic. HHH describes itself as a “lifestyle brand that brings beauty and joy to everyday rituals” which it delivers through high-quality accoutrements such as sheets and bathrobes. Although customers may not attend an outdoor picnic complete with china and tea sandwiches, as many photos suggest, a customer may realistically wear a Nap Dress on a walk outside with friends. All of this is a credit to Nell Diamond’s strong conviction in her own personal aesthetic. The product line and color offerings are tightly curated and adhere to the brand’s ultra-feminine image. It would have been easy to create a Nap Dress in every color and try to appeal to everybody, but Diamond stuck to one unified creative vision.

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Hill House Home is a model for any DTC brand looking to create the right mix of content, commerce, and community. Here are the four key takeaways for other DTC brands:

  • Content: Recruit customers to market your product for you and allow them to feel part of the brand by championing their content
  • Commerce: Adapt when necessary and let your customer guide you instead of trying to guide your customer
  • Community: Create buzz around product launches through innovative production models and the scarcity effect,
  • Purpose: No brand can be relentlessly relevant without having a strong sense of their own brand vision and purpose

Prophet helps companies establish a DTC business mindset and approach for customer-centric, performance-based growth activities, fostering direct consumer relationships to achieve the benefits that unfold. Prophet also helps digitally native companies reach next-level growth in brand and consumer engagement, with a focus on profitability and long-term sustainability.

Let’s chat how your brand can reach and engage potential customers directly to maximize growth.

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How Transformation Can Help Insurers Win With Rapidly Evolving Customers

Insurance brands must find new partners, focus on value-added services and transform their business model.

Insurance customers’ needs are rapidly changing, but the industry is not. With insurtech companies – like Hippo, Root and Lemonade – overwhelming the market, longstanding insurance leaders can’t shake organizational norms and industry standards, preventing them from connecting with digitally native consumers ahead of new disruptors.

We often hear our insurance clients ask us, “How can I best prepare for the future needs of our customers?”

Insurers are ready to mobilize their transformation efforts to become more customer-centric businesses, but they often implement new technologies or point solutions without a clearly defined digital strategy to guide their efforts. Without a holistic understanding of digital transformation (which goes well beyond technology implementation), insurance companies miss the mark with their customers. They struggle to find the true sweet spot between consumer privacy and personalization – while providing the right level of transparency and autonomy. Not to mention, customer expectations are changing each day making it extremely difficult for legacy insurers to keep up with their demands.

“Without a holistic understanding of digital transformation insurance companies miss the mark with their customers.”

Prophet’s new research report, The Insurance Customer of the Future, was written to highlight the most pertinent market trends set to impact the insurance industry in the next decade and explains how these trends are changing the relationship between customers and their insurance providers.

We centered the research around “Jamie,” an insurance customer living in 2030. By understanding and anticipating the generational trends and technological possibilities that will shape Jamie’s environment, insurers can make the right transformation moves to win Jamie’s – and her peers – business in the future.

But it won’t be easy to become the kind of insurance company Jamie wants to choose. While battling new entrants and advancements in technology, insurers need to keep their ever-evolving customers’ needs, values and expectations at the center of their transformation agenda.

Here’s how insurers need to transform their businesses over the next decade:

  1. Go beyond personalization
  2. Find partners to build holistic ecosystems
  3. Transform business models to serve next-generation customers
  4. Double down on capital-light, value-added services
  5. Reimagine the mind, body and soul of the organization

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Plain and simple: the insurance industry is ripe for disruption. Insurers will either be disrupted by insurtech or be the disruptors. By prioritizing these five core areas as a part of their transformation agendas, insurers will cater to their future customers and achieve the disruptive growth they crave. The report gives insurance leaders the research, insights and ‘action items’ needed to capture the future market and create a new standard for customer experience within the industry. Read the report today.

Are you looking for a partner to usher you along your customer-centric transformation journey? Prophet can help. Reach out to our financial services team today.

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Will Your Organization Be Left Behind as Consumer Healthcare Transforms?

Offer more value, and be willing to meet your customers in the messy middle.

It’s no surprise that the pandemic has changed the way consumers interact with healthcare. We see it in the proliferation of virtual care across the care continuum, from acute to chronic, episodic and now primary and preventive care. We see it in the embrace of new digital devices and programs designed to monitor chronic conditions at home. And we see it in the uptake of digital pharmacy services that promise ever-faster delivery times and simple, easier, prescription transfers. These shifting consumer need states are forcing companies to action.

Those that will win with consumers in the post-pandemic age are the ones that will accelerate innovation as they reimagine their business models – integrating and re-configuring assets around emergent consumer use cases.

Here are three healthcare business design imperatives for making markets and capturing post-pandemic value through big, bold and transformative moves:

1) Trade the value chain for value exchange

The old news? Payers, providers, pharmaceuticals and MedTech companies once controlled discrete pieces of the value chain. Today, they are operating as collaborators and competitors alongside one another – with non-healthcare entrants (financial services and technology companies) also looking for a piece of the pie.

The new news? “Who does what” doesn’t matter to consumers, instead they value the promise of an integrated approach to health. Whether you build, buy or partner, leaning into the discomfort of superseding the value chain can lead to transformative, new offers. Teladoc Health is a great example of a company that bet big on the idea that virtual primary care is here to stay. It built the Primary360 platform as an entryway to take advantage of its unique portfolio of assets from acute and episodic care (Teladoc Health) to chronic care (Livongo), behavioral health (BetterHelp), and more.

Alternatively, a company that took the partnership route is Cigna. They joined forces with Oscar Health to create an integrated, easily navigable approach to health plans for small businesses. By bringing together Cigna’s provider network and Oscar’s technology platform, they’ve created a relevant solution for the small business population that meets their needs.

2) Meet consumers in the messy middle

If transcending historical value chains is one way to play, another is to exploit the current outages in the value chain and become the middleware that bridges a care gap. Emerging care gaps could include areas like post-acute care, kidney care, pre-and post-Cancer treatment, and health conditions at the intersection of health and wellness (e.g. sleep, behavioral health).

Take recently acquired startup PatientPing, which focuses on the post-acute care space. Through its technology platform, the company can coordinate care by “pinging” healthcare providers when their patients are treated at other facilities. For instance, a provider could be notified in real-time when a patient is transferred from a nursing home to another outpatient setting. Now, with its acquisition by Appriss Health, close to 1 million healthcare professionals across all 50 states can be connected across care settings.

“Those that will win with consumers in the post-pandemic age are the ones that will accelerate innovation as they reimagine their business models.”

In another direction, Alula Health is a startup tackling the “messy middle” of the physical, emotional and financial changes involved with a cancer diagnosis and treatment process. Alula’s platform focuses on patients and their caregivers. They provide organizational tools such as spreadsheets and calendars to ease treatment coordination and a curated list of cancer-specific shopping items (e.g. post-surgery bras and robes with extra room for prostheses or drain management, “Travel to Treatment” bundles with pill organizers, sickness bags, sanitizing wipes, and face masks).

A final example is Talkspace, a platform aimed to make behavioral therapy more accessible. In a world where the dominant method of therapy was administered through expensive 1:1 sessions, Talkspace broke the prevailing mode of thinking and dispensed therapy through bite-sized, text-based interactions – a new modality for meeting the needs of those struggling with mental health challenges discreetly and without confining therapy to a set date/time. In doing so, they normalized therapy for a whole new, addressable market and have since expanded to partner with employers to offer its service as part of workplace benefits.

3) If it doesn’t have their name written on it, it’s not for them

The third hack for making markets through transformation is to address the unmet needs of unique consumer populations. Traditional provider-driven healthcare focuses on triage to identify a treatment path for every patient. But flipping this approach on its head allows for a deeper level of focus, prioritizing time, resources and expenses to solve the needs of one population group more effectively than a general solution.

Segment-specific opportunities are everywhere and can include:

  1. Those with a stigmatized condition
  2. An underserved population with unique needs
  3. An overly generalized population.

A good example of the first opportunity is Ro, self-styled as “the patient company”. Ro started by providing telemedicine and prescriptions for erectile dysfunction via its Roman brand, but gradually expanded to include other medical challenges like smoking cessation (via zero) and weight management (via Plenity). With the technology infrastructure, brand architecture and consumer base established, the company can pursue additional disease states with room for growth.

An example of the second segment-specific opportunity is Included Health, newly acquired by telemedicine provider Grand Rounds / Doctor on Demand. Included Health focuses on the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, who have all too often faced challenges finding culturally competent and affirming providers. The company works with employers to provide benefits to individuals that help them connect to physical care providers, mental care providers, community support and gender-affirming care.

The third-dimension type of play is to identify an overly generalized population – and the field of women’s health is a great example. While some companies have developed “female” healthcare brands, women have different needs by life stage. The spectrum of startups in today’s women’s health space demonstrates different focus areas such as reproductive/sexual health, pregnancy and postpartum, as well as menopause. Within each focus area, individual companies target specific challenges. For example within the category of reproductive/ sexual health, some companies focus on areas such as fertility (Modern Fertility, recently acquired by Ro), cycle tracking (Glow), birth control (Nurx) and more.

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The pandemic has created new and exciting consumer use cases. Uncommon growth will only be captured through transformative moves that reconfigure assets and ecosystems. To capture this growth, companies can deploy one or more of the three design imperatives.  Incrementalism is a direct path to low growth and missed opportunities,  and capturing uncommon growth will require high-conviction leaders, cultural resilience and organizational agility. To help companies forge a path to uncommon growth, Prophet approaches each organization as though it were an individual – with a unique DNA, Body, Mind, and Soul.

Contact us to learn more about our proprietary Human-Centered Transformation Model and how we can deliver uncommon growth for your business.

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19 Ways COVID-19 Is Shaping the Future of Innovation

It’s not all masks and sanitizers. The “coronocoaster” is spawning many valuable new ideas.

Necessity is the mother of innovation. And the ‘coronacoaster’ we’ve been riding has given birth to blue Skype thinking as businesses have stepped up and strapped in. As always, the winners have been the most innovative in responding to changing market dynamics and consumer needs – putting momentum behind ideas that create the most sales energy, scaling production when the time is right, demonstrating cultural resilience in sometimes plummeting conditions and showing agility through the loop-de-loops of competition. 

As we step off the ‘coronacoaster’ and onto (what we hope is) a new Roaring 2020s joyride, it’s critical that businesses innovate in ways that leverage how echoes of the pandemic will remain endemic in the future. The post-demic perspectives we’ve provided aren’t necessarily prophecies, but they are informed by recent Prophet thinking (and doing). Some are old trends that have been potentiated by the virus. Others are new to the scene as a result of the virus. 

So, pour yourself a stiff quarantini and let’s have a malaproper look at nineteen ways COVID-19 is shaping the future of innovation.

1. Birth of Distance 

Space has always been a luxury (especially in service categories), but social distancing has made it a necessity. Expect new environmental innovations that create psychological space as well as physical distance. Expect more in the way of exclusive boxes at events, private dining rooms in restaurants, etc. and other innovations so there is less ‘stranger danger’ from others in one’s immanent domain. 

2. Heal.thy 

There’s nothing like a global disease outbreak to get people to think more about ‘thy’ own health. Expect to see more innovation that plays to real or perceived health and healing from angles ranging from ancient homeopathic wisdom to lab-based neutraceuticals. Even naughty categories like alcoholic beverages are tapping into this trend through watered-down alt liquids and lower proof points that feel healthier to consumers.

3. @Home 

People have been increasing the amount of time they’ve been spending in their homes for some time now (Faith Popcorn coined the term ‘cocooning’ 40 years ago), but the pandemic has created a step-change in making more bodies homebodies. People want to continue to feel at home (especially in times of crisis), so expect to see more demand for home comfort innovations in the coming decade – creating a sense of ‘home sweet home’ instead of a feeling of house arrest. 

4. Mask.aura 

Masks were the fashion accessory of 2020 – and mascara was the beauty product of the year because eyes are visible above the mask. Think about other innovations that help consumers look (and feel) their best in times of potential lockdowns and coverups. What innovations can help consumers manage their self-presentation aura? 

5. Ment.all 

The stresses and strains of being locked up during lockdown are making all types of people more mindful of their mental health. We expect more neurons to fire in this direction as the decade progresses. Innovations that help people manage their day-to-day mental health and/or take their peak performance to a limitless level are a no-brainer. People are going mental for apps, like Happify, to train their brains for positivity. 

6. Mod.u.larity 

Companies and consumers alike need an innovative way to deal with public policy capriciousness. Modularity is part of an ever-adapting answer. Goods and services that serve us well should have the option of being switched on and off and/or sized up and down on-demand. Driving less today? Your insurance bill stays in first gear. More people in your business tomorrow? Your cleaning service rolls in harder and heavier. 

7. Pan.skilling 

The pandemic has required companies and consumers to upskill and reskill in a panoply of ways. The next generation of innovators will be pan-skilled in a way that flexes with agility. We expect new forms of learning innovation to help organizations and individuals to develop these pan-skills. 

8. Part.icipation 

Many companies have experienced mixed results with highly collaborative innovation approaches. We are consistently seeing more effective results by focusing collaborative participation on the most important parts of an innovation process instead of dragging everyone through the end-to-end journey. Think about it as a ‘minimum viable participation’ model to accompany ‘minimum viable product’ design thinking. 

9. Phygital 

Phygital fuses the best of the physical world with the best of the digital world. More advanced phygital experiences are increasingly being demanded as a result of our enhanced sophistication with the digital world under lockdown. The best phygital innovations deliver the 3Is — immediacy, immersion and interaction. The PS5 is becoming more phygital through the augmented haptics it delivers while a gamer is immersed in a digital world. The Nike flagship store in NYC is a phygital temple designed to navigate with your phone – If you like something you see on a mannequin, just scan it and someone runs it over it to you. When it comes to phygital innovation, just do it. 

10. Pivotry 

To ensure a steady stream of dollars in a fluxed-up decade, businesses need to pivot on a dime. Be prepared to rapidly innovate into spaces that are close (enough) to your core competencies and are reachable with a sensible stretch. The way dine-in pivoted to take-out, fast fashion pivoted to masks and ‘essential retailers’ started selling dubious essentials that consumers couldn’t get (offline) elsewhere. 

“It’s critical that businesses innovate in ways that leverage how echoes of the pandemic will remain endemic in the future.”

11. Pop-Ups 

Prime urban real estate is increasingly un or under-occupied. Nature abhors a vacuum and landlords abhor an empty property. We expect more and more innovative business models (and office space for businesses) to be strutting down pop-up catwalks designed with quickie contracts for ephemeral experiences and short-term shops. Here today, there tomorrow. 

12. Purposeful 

Many people woke up during the pandemic and continue to respond well to products and services that demonstrate a full commitment to a purpose – from beauty brands that are more than skin deep to socialpreneurs transforming the meaning of BOGOF to ‘buy one, GIVE one free’. Consider how your innovations can cause a stir with consumers via genuine links with a positive cause. 

13. Screen Standout 

With more shopping moving from the real world to the virtual world and word of mouth becoming the word of thumb, screen stand out is becoming more important than shelf standout. Innovations need to be designed with colors, shapes and materials that look fab on the small screen. Hero beauty shots should eliminate the shopper marketing clutter seen on many packs these days (it isn’t legible on small screens anyway) leaving only ‘extraordinary elements’ and ‘incisive information’ on screen-optimized designs. 

14. Sir.valence 

Big Brother is increasingly accepted if he helps ensure everyone is complying for the collective good. Surveillance and compliance innovation is expected to be built into a host of people processing systems that provide ‘certain.fication certificates’ of a clean bill of health. This will mean a smoother flow of human capital around the world (or around the neighborhood). But Taylorist employers will be counting keystrokes as WFH becomes less of a WTF. 

15. Social.learning 

People are social animals and social networking marched on with a tech-tonic shift during the pandemic. To be successful in the future, all innovations need to learn how to take full advantage of social platforms. Ensure your innovations are leveraging the latest in social seduction and consummation technology to always be within thumbs reach of desire. 

16. Surthrivalism 

Survivalists must be feeling a bit smug about their readiness for the pandemic. Expect more innovation to help people go beyond surviving to thriving in case of further untoward world events. Our 21st Century Archie Bunkers may not all be building bunkers, but many will take smaller steps to honor the Boy Scout motto of ‘Be Prepared’. 

17. Suss.tainability 

Many inquisitive minds have spent their lockdown sussing out Netflix ecomentaries like Cowspiracy and have become even savvier about the importance of living sustainable lifestyles. Innovation in the coming decade needs a sustainability angle – from how it makes a material difference with the materials it uses (or doesn’t use) to the 411 on its value chain that doesn’t raise a 911 alarm. 

18. Touch.less 

People have become conditioned to taking a hands-off approach to their interactions with the outside world. This is because every touch means an opportunity to pick something up (or pass something on). Innovation should consider how to minimize the literal ‘touch-points’ in the user experience (especially for products that are shared or taken outside the home). 

19. Tr.eats 

The self-treat strategy to mood management has worked wonders during the pandemic. Many people have harnessed the new age wisdom of ‘do something nice for yourself every day’ and many of these mood (re)setting treats have been eats. New innovations that inexpensively help people give themselves a treat every day are expected to continue to go down a treat for the foreseeable future. 

Interested in increasing your innovation capacity?

Prophet’s Experience & Innovation practice can help you to underpin a superior approach to innovation to help you realize your ambitions, get in touch here. 

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From “phygital” to “surthrivalism,” the pandemic continues to unleash powerful–and business-changing–new perspectives. Develop a strategy to find those with the most potential for your brands.

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Three Signs You Need a Customer-Centric Transformation

These common blindspots get in the way of breakthrough insights.

The CEO of a large financial-services organization recognized that their customers were defecting to fintech disruptors, ranging from SoFi to Acorns to Robinhood. The customer base was shrinking and revenue growth was stagnant. But while everyone constantly talked about customer-centricity, the executive team didn’t realize how unfocused they had become. This became clear when they couldn’t explain why some customers were leaving and which customers should be their future source of growth.

“How can we find our way back to growth when we don’t even know who our customer is,” the CEO asked.

The company realized it needed to undergo a transformation.

Most Companies Aren’t as Consumer-Centric as They Think

The pressure for reinvention feels more urgent than ever as organizations look to find their way past the turbulence of the pandemic. Customer behavior has shifted radically and with it, so have customer expectations. Markets are resizing. Supply chains are disrupted. Digital commerce is growing rapidly. Customer experiences are the new product.

Despite these changes, companies, theoretically, are 100% committed to customer-centricity. Unfortunately, all that noise has caused many to relax their true commitment to customers — even if they can’t quite see it. (Of course, some have never been customer-centric, despite years of lip service.)

In our transformation work, we’ve come to understand the root of this lack of focus. Companies missing customer-centricity often struggle with at least some of these internal barriers:

Failing To Connect the Dots

Customer-centricity requires a deep and connected view of the customer, supporting real-time, integrated customer insights. This constantly refreshed stream of data is a tool that all functions should use, and should be buttressed by meaningful, qualitative research including deep listening and active interrogation. The data helps spot the critical shifts in customer behaviors. Tools like ethnography are critical to getting at the why behind the trends in the data. Both ingredients are critical to customer-centric growth.

“Customer-centricity requires a deep and connected view of the customer, supporting real-time, integrated customer insights.”

Too often, companies invest in one-off research studies without thinking through how the insights can be operationalized, distributed, and refreshed over time. Or, they over-rely on data collection as the sole source of customer truth without delving into the why behind the behaviors they are seeing. Without the combination of data and insights, companies can easily lose their way.

Finally, different business units typically “own” these insights, which means they aren’t shared or connected across the organization. The result is that sales, marketing, product and service teams each see a different side of the customer, and no one is connecting the dots or able to see the bigger picture.

True customer-centricity flows from an ongoing and distributed source of new insights — this includes a combination of survey and perceptual data along with database and behavioral insights. Staying on top of what consumers want today and in the future will be crucial to identify the right products, services and experiences that lend themselves towards new opportunities for growth.

Unwillingness To Put Yourself Out of Business

Companies that pay lip service to customer-centricity build products and experiences to fit existing capabilities or business models and then optimize margins based on testing. They think about what they want and what’s good for their margins. They look at existing resources and say, “What can we build with what we have?”

Customer-centric organizations approach innovation and experience design differently. They are unencumbered by how things are done now. Instead, think about how to best meet customer needs today and in the future.

This is inherently risky. Nike’s 2017 decision to sell directly with consumers meant ditching large wholesale customers. To some, that seemed reckless.  Within a year of adopting a direct-to-consumer model, their revenue grew by nearly 6%, and Nike continues to be one of the world’s most fast-moving, beloved brands.

Fear of Going All-in

Companies that aren’t all-in on customer-centricity might think that engagement is a metric only the marketing team needs to focus on, or that managing Net Promoter Scores is a role for the servicing department. They may be willing to overhaul some areas or happy to tweak the existing business model. But complete reinvention? That’s often off the table.

However, there is no such thing as a partial transformation. Genuinely customer-centric organizations know that to accelerate growth, it takes alignment through the entire company. Whether in sales or HR, supply chain or R&D, these organizations set shared transformation goals around the relationships they seek to create with their customers, and they hold everyone to account. Hiring, compensation and operating models are linked to these customer relationship goals in ways that reinforce the right behaviors and business decisions.

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Customer-centric transformation strategies are powerful for companies to gain relevance and win a place in people’s hearts. When organizations put this objective arbiter – the customer – at the center of all decisions, it provides the clarity needed to unlock growth. Of course, these transformation agendas take digital and enterprise objectives into account. But by committing to a customer-centric path–and the promise to follow those customers anywhere, companies become increasingly more relevant. They become indispensable to the lives of their customers and they find uncommon growth.

That’s what we’ve achieved for our financial services client: A complete customer-centric transformation – a coordinated multi-year effort to impact every aspect of the business. Working with the CEO, chief growth officer and leadership team, Prophet helped design and operationalize this transformation agenda, prioritizing key markets and target customers, and reimagining products, services, and experiences to make customers’ lives easier. Within a year, new business revenue rose 8%, and new leads increased 20 times over.

Contact us to learn more about customer-centric transformation and what steps your organization needs to take to achieve uncommon growth.

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Ask These 3 Questions to Evolve Your Digital Transformation

Even companies far along in the change journey need these basic reality checks.

Digital transformation doesn’t mean what it used to. In fact, the term, as it’s been used to describe so many corporate efforts over the last 20-plus years, means something different today: Building digital businesses. And that goal is very much alive.

Today, when companies talk about digital transformation, it’s because they want to find new ways to use technology to serve customers better. They hope to build business engines that continually reinvent themselves. They understand “transformation” isn’t an endpoint but a state of constant evolution.

Businesses also know that the need is urgent. Research from Altimeter, a Prophet company, finds that 92% of leaders believe their current business model won’t remain viable if digitization continues at current rates. However, many companies are conflicted about how to transform.

It doesn’t help that digital transformation conjures images of expensive failures. According to a 2019 study, companies like General Electric, Ford, Procter & Gamble and others have sunk up to $1.3 trillion in digital transformation efforts, and about 70%–roughly $900 billion–was wasted.

But the consequence of not pursuing digital transformation is worse. Almost every recent notable bankruptcy–from Toys R Us to Hertz to Frontier Communications–is linked to failure to transform.

Typically, efforts fail because those in charge keep insisting that digital transformation is rooted in technology. That’s where people get it wrong: digital transformation is based on people and enabled by technology. More specifically, initiatives collapse because leaders don’t approach their strategy with the right mindset. In the race to find easy wins and weak consensus, they focus on tech-driven tools and tactics rather than what these tools are in service of.  They also skip the three most important conversations required for successful transformation:

What Are Our Goals?

For the many companies that lurch from one quarter to the next, articulating a bold vision is difficult. And even for those skilled in adaptive business strategies, following customers in wholly new directions is daunting.

But it’s essential. Transformation can only succeed when leadership sets a clear, measurable vision for how digital will transform the business. Further, executives must do more than simply state their transformation agenda. They must champion the initiative and hold everyone accountable for their part in creating the necessary capabilities, products and services to bring that vision to life. Transformation cannot happen in silos. It must reach across the entire business and be embedded in all functions for real change to happen.

This is inherently risky. Nike’s 2017 decision to use digital muscle to connect directly with consumers meant ditching large wholesale customers. To some, that seemed reckless. But it paid off: its share price has nearly tripled since, and Nike continues to be one of the most fast-moving, beloved brands in the world.

Goals should be specific, and they must acknowledge the need to move at two speeds, with short-term optimization and long-term iterative capability building.

“Digital transformation is based on people and enabled by technology.”

Electrolux, for example, knew consumers wanted every aspect of their home to be connected. It not only included the appliances they use but the way they shop for them. So, the company set goals to make digital integral to every phase of the customer journey. This required a dedicated cross-functional executive team, including marketing, product, sales, IT and critical markets.

These solutions are, of course, tech-enabled. By developing marketing mix guidelines that optimized spending by brand, product and channel, Electrolux improved its operating margins by nearly 20% in just one year.  But these changes grew from a deep understanding of people’s preferences and the explicit goal of transforming a manufacturing business into a consumer marketing-driven company. Like Nike, Electrolux has become a more people-focused enterprise that’s turned it into a relevance-seeking machine, always in motion and constantly evolving.

How Do We Find the Capabilities To Get There?

A new digital business requires new capabilities. Companies must confront the question of how they will obtain these new skills. Will they build them? Buy them? Partner with another company?

Consumers think of Starbucks as a coffee shop. However, Starbucks has long known that it can only fulfill its purpose if it puts the right technology in the hands of both customers and baristas. Consistent investment in loyalty and payment systems has paid off in a digital universe that now powers 50% of U.S. sales. with a quarter of sales from mobile devices. For Starbucks, building that proprietary technology was the right path. Tech has even become a revenue source on its own, with the company now licensing systems to international franchisees.

Acquisition is another route, sometimes chosen by some of the most innovative companies. That includes Apple, which recently bought Mobeewave, a payments company based on nearfield communication, rather than build its own. Even digital natives need help given the pace of change in customer expectations.

All three approaches may make sense, depending on an organization’s near-term goals and long-term ambitions. Deciding among these options requires a candid assessment of current organizational capabilities and what it will take to achieve them.

What Do Our People Need To Take Us There?

Organizational change is always tough and managing for digital transformation is even harder. If companies want people to work and think differently to transform the business, they can’t expect them to do it on demand. Behavior and mindset are emergent. Organizations need to enable the workforce with the right skills to create value, whether through upskilling or temporary support.

This requires evolved governance and tools that make it easy for them to do the right thing for the new strategy, and in the right way. Incentives must be realigned to give people space for experimentation, so they can navigate the ambiguity that comes along with almost all transformation strategies.

To do this right, most companies will require a complex revaluation of their capabilities, governance systems, talent mix and employee value proposition. They need new recruiting, retention and incentive practices as they prepare for the future and must enlist a diversity of talent that is new to them. They need short-term innovators and long-range thinkers, fast movers and patient tinkerers. Transformation requires a cultural revolution, hiring new types of people and skillsets, and then leading them differently.

At Prophet, we talk about the “body, mind and soul” of an organization; and that to digitally transform, a business needs to address all these elements. In Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model, an organization first determines what it wants its DNA to be – its purpose, its brand proposition and its strategic plan to win. Next, it goes to work on the “mind” (its talent, capabilities, and skills), the “body” (governance, process and tools) and the “soul” (its values, behaviors and rituals).

All are necessary for the digital transformation to have its full impact.

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The risks inherent in digital transformation are real. But those risks must be weighed against the consequences of not pursuing digital transformation at all. Those include countless lost opportunities, and ultimately, extinction. Increasingly, people want to buy products and services in multiple channels, on their own schedule. And employees want to work with companies gaining in relevance. They’ll give up on digital laggards.

It takes bravery to convince corporate boards that it’s time to reinvent a company’s operating model. (After all, it isn’t supposed to be easy.) But by defining a digital vision, adding the required capabilities and building a future-ready workforce, companies can become responsive, adaptive and genuinely digital businesses.

Talk to us about how might we can help your organization digitally transform using Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model.

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Business Transformation for Growth: Three Rules you Can’t Ignore

How customer-first thinking, sharpened digital strategy and renewed purpose drive high-impact change.

Companies are aggressively pursuing business transformation to drive top and bottom-line growth and establish a more effective business model for the future. The pressure for reinvention feels increasingly urgent as organizations look to find their way past the turbulence of the pandemic. Markets are fluid, technology is shifting and people are demanding more digital solutions than ever before.

Companies that settle for incremental progress simply won’t be able to keep up with fast-moving customers.  Companies that embrace this new landscape, however, can achieve uncommon growth – purposeful, profitable, transformative and sustainable. With agile and adaptive approaches to transformation, they can uncover new sources of revenue and relevance in record time.

“When a company’s purpose is clear, that North Star illuminates everything they do. It informs an approach that bridges corporate purpose with its promise to customers.”

Business transformation for growth isn’t easy and companies, especially ones burdened by unsuccessful transformation efforts, are justifiably reluctant to try again. Another common barrier is knowing where to focus and how to start. Too often, leadership gets derailed by decisions about technology. However, all transformation efforts – even ones undertaken as digital transformation – aren’t about tech. They’re based on people.

Taking a human-centered approach to transformation, and working with a variety of organizations in multiple industries, has shown us that no matter what the goals are, companies must follow these three rules of transformation to achieve sustainable growth.

Three Ways To Approach Business Transformation

1. The Customer Is Everything

Companies have been giving customer-centricity lip service for years, but they often fail to appreciate its transformative potential. When organizations put this objective arbiter – the customer – at the center of all decisions, it provides clarity and focus.

This requires an organizational obsession with customers and potential customers. What makes these people happy? What ruins their day? What can your organization do to help their lives run more smoothly? What makes them trust you? What inspires them?

As this customer focus permeates an organization, it gets easier to stop thinking about just selling products and shifts the focus to serving holistic customer needs.

Using this lens, companies can analyze demand opportunities and create a customer value matrix, complete with specific, measurable, time-bound goals. This allows them to identify, prioritize and activate initiatives that deliver on this strategy.

Customer-centric companies don’t spend much time fixing potholes in a customer journey. They don’t have to. Instead, they’re looking for ways to leapfrog expectations. And they also become more adept at changing course, quickly abandoning areas that no longer serve customers.

2. Be a Digital-First Company. But This Time, Do It Right.

All transformation is digital, and companies have known that for decades. But even as businesses invest trillions in digital transformation, they still fail more than they succeed. In our view, that’s because they fall into the trap of thinking technology is the answer. It’s become clear, that tech alone isn’t the answer. The goal is to become a digitally built business, which requires people who use digital-first thinking.

Digital transformation can only succeed when it focuses on people. To be effective, they must transform value drivers that impact others, including both external experiences and internal ways of working.

Companies can begin by setting an overall digital vision that resonates with both customers and employees. That vision requires a clear understanding of which areas will drive the most business and value, complete with specific, measurable objectives validated by key results.

Of course, the technology involved is a critical element, but the bigger issue is about the people in an organization. Do they have the right skills? Are they led and incentivized in a way that allows them to be digital-first? How are they recruited and retained? How does the culture flex and evolve to position the organization for growth in this digital-first world?

With clarified digital goals, companies can begin to iteratively deliver new products, services and experiences. They can regularly re-evaluate strategy and tactics based on key results and customer input.

3. Build an Agile, Purpose-Driven Organization

Companies that know what they stand for are inherently better at customer obsession and building businesses digitally. When a company’s purpose is clear, that North Star illuminates everything they do. It informs an approach that bridges corporate purpose with its promise to customers. This commitment to the customer, with investments aligned to support it, is the growth lever. It creates greater relevance and impact in the market.

This past year has demonstrated just how critical it is to have a clear and authentic purpose. It must resonate with every stakeholder group – not just investors and employees but also customers and members of all its communities.

Today’s consumers, especially millennials and Gen Z, want to do business with companies that make the world a better place. They want to see companies commit to sustainability, diversity and fairness. And they’re demanding increasing transparency. Consumers can forgive brands that make and admit their mistakes. but as soon as they catch a company putting profits ahead of purpose, they’ll move on.

Achieving this agility and commitment to purpose often requires sweeping changes in a company’s culture, capabilities and organization.

Prophet believes human-centered transformations– purpose-driven, customer-focused and digital-first – are the best path to uncommon growth. We talk about the “mind, body and soul” of an organization; and that to transform, a business needs to address all these elements.

For instance, a large financial services company came to us with declining revenue as customers turned to newer fintech entrants. Our business transformation agenda helped guide the CEO, chief growth officer and leadership team to a new company purpose, making life easier for key customer segments. This digital-first strategy vastly improved its agility, so it could quickly pivot to meet people’s needs. Within a year, it increased new business revenue by 8% and drove a 20-fold increase in new leads.

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To help companies make this leap, our model approaches organizations as a macrocosm of the individual: having a collective DNA, Body, Mind and Soul. This model overcomes cultural roadblocks, making it easier for companies to manage the complex changes required.

As each aspect of the business is swept into the transformation strategy, companies don’t just improve. They evolve. They increase relevance and reputation. And they achieve uncommon growth.

Contact us to learn how Prophet’s global, multi-disciplinary teams bring bold ideas and rigor that deliver growth through our breakthrough human-centered transformation model.

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