In the Q&A below, Mauricio shares thoughts on the biggest challenges facing brands today, leadership lessons, and a look into his life outside the office. 

What are you most excited about as you take on your role on Vivaldi’s leadership team?  

Vivaldi has been an agile leader in growth strategy and innovation for over two decades, and ambidexterity is needed now more than ever. Organizations that are able to effectively tackle fast-paced digital strategies as part of the core business strategy, while pursuing other opportunities and rethinking its business model, will be the ones that thrive in this era of digital disruption. 

I am very excited to deepen our current service offerings, bring brand and business strategies to life, work with top notch talent across the globe, and launch new services, products and ventures that contribute to a more humanized world. 

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve taken from your previous endeavor as the founder and CEO of LIQUID,  a digital-centric innovation and transformation hub?

I truly believe that team building, capabilities, and organizational design are iterative and must evolve as the company evolves in terms of its value proposition and service offerings. As a company re-defines / defines its winning aspiration and where to play choices, we must learn to understand our team’s motivations and capabilities. Moreover, I am a strong believer of the T-shaped capability model, as an organization grows, talent needs to have both range and specialization. Range provides a common domain to better understand the process and what each person provides of value throughout, and specialization provides real technical capabilities that are needed when building products and services and launching them to the market. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing every company today? 

Defending and growing your core business while pursuing other growth opportunities in the adjacent and transformational spaces. Ambidextrous organizations will be the only ones that will survive the disruption. I believe this is something that every executive knows conceptually and theoretically, but the complexity lies in how to organize (purpose, structure, processes, talent, openness to collaborate with multi stakeholders in an ecosystem) a company in order to do both things right at the same time. Moreover, you don’t know who you actually compete with today and where disruption will come from; we have to evolve from understanding “industries” to understanding the “problems and opportunities” we face as humans. We all have to look and think beyond our core business to create options for the future, today. 

What are some industry trends and/or challenges that you’re paying attention to right now? 

• The biggest challenge I observe today for “traditional” companies is competing with new and upcoming startups (and venture capital money). Take a look at venture capital investment. It’s growing at tremendous rates. In LATAM, Nu Bank is an excellent example, reaching its IPO in +- 5 years and becoming the most valued bank in the region.
• Health/Wellness. We are what we eat, mental wellness, work/life balance, the transformation of the healthcare industry and the new products and services around wellness. It’s impressive how many habits have changed around the way we take care of ourselves, the pandemic has dramatically accelerated this.
• Remote Work is here to stay. Remote work is not the same thing as “home office”, organizations that master working remotely with global and diverse teams will truly develop a competitive advantage.
• Purpose Driven organizations; organizations that operate with an ample but specific winning aspiration will be more attractive to the best talent (especially new generations) in the world as well as give space for disruptive innovation to happen.
• Open Innovation and ecosystem building are key to discovering and amplifying growth domains. All companies and organizations must look beyond their own talent and capabilities and explore new ways to co-create new options for the future. If we believe we are the center of the universe and we can create everything we need to succeed on our own, we are doomed for failure.
• “New technologies” such as AI, machine learning are no longer “new”, these technologies are transforming how companies generate value, create high growth and scalable solutions. Not all companies can and should create disruptive technology, but all companies should understand how these can bring about new value to their current and future business models.

What are the most important questions that companies need to be asking themselves?

All companies must ask themselves: What is my winning aspiration? Why do I exist? What is my role in society? If we have a clear understanding of what our role in society is, what problems and opportunities we are willing to undertake, then it is much easier to attract the best talent around the globe, and explore new growth domains. 

What’s a book worth reading?

Redesigning Leadership by John Maeda. This short memoir brings forth insights on leadership and  vulnerability. The key takeaway: the more truthful you are to yourself and others, the easier it is for people to connect and follow your lead. Another book I really enjoyed was Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows and Diana Wright. Some of the biggest problems facing the world such as war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation are essentially system failures and cannot be solved by fixing one piece/problem in isolation of others. These concepts can also be used to design new businesses that cross industries. 

What’s a passion of yours outside of work? 

I am a soccer fan, I love playing and watching the games, I am a FC Barcelona fan as well as the Peruvian National Soccer Team. Fortunately, I have had the chance to attend the last 4 world cups and it was a dream come true when I watched Peru play in the Russia 2018 World Cup (vs Denmark, France and Australia). I enjoy all aspects of the game, but if i had to choose one, it would be the coach’s role and its mixture of both strategy and team building. 

The post On Thinking Beyond Your Core Business, with Vivaldi Partner Mauricio Andujar appeared first on Vivaldi.

Andujar will apply his extensive expertise in open innovation, digital products, services and ventures, to help Vivaldi’s clients build strong brands, drive exponential growth, transform the fortune of companies, and reimagine new business models. Andujar’s appointment signals the company’s commitment to continue undertaking more global engagements and the various challenges of a platform economy, while guiding clients as they shift their focus to the creation of new value in the future.

“Every company needs to reimagine how it creates value. I firmly believe that those that create a competitive edge through fostering shared value for brands, society, customers and even its competitors will grow and win, and those that extract more value than they create will cease to exist. There is a huge opportunity for companies to re-envision themselves in this new world,” says Erich Joachimsthaler, CEO and founder of Vivaldi. “We are thrilled to welcome Mauricio Andujar, who shares that vision and will focus his efforts on increasing Vivaldi’s value to clients and partners through deployment of new cutting-edge, digital solutions designed to exponentially increase scalability of business objectives and drive revenue.” 

For the past 12 years, Andujar served as co-founder and CEO of LIQUID, a global and digital-centric innovation and transformation hub. There, he orchestrated a team that provided end-to-end solutions such as service and product design, growth, venture building and open innovation to industry-leading companies. He also designed, launched, and scaled LIQUID’s Venture Studio, specializing in incubating and accelerating early-stage startups in Peru and throughout Latin America.

“I am very excited to join Vivaldi as it expands its current service offerings, bringing brand and business strategies to life. Working together with Vivaldi’s top-notch talent across the globe, I plan to help launch new services, products and ventures that contribute to a more humanized world,” states Andujar. “Vivaldi has been an agile leader in growth strategy and innovation for over two decades, and ambidexterity is needed now more than ever. Organizations that are able to effectively tackle fast-paced digital strategies as part of the core business strategy, while pursuing other opportunities and rethinking its business model, will be the ones that thrive in this era of digital disruption.”

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The holidays are an opportunity for people to make meaningful connections through interactions that really matter.

This year especially, the thought behind holiday interactions will be more important than ever. That’s why we want to share a few ideas on how you can deliver gifts that speak louder than words—creating moments that matter and sparking deeper connections.

1. Make something together.

Material goods can make great gifts, but don’t always last forever. If you can, try leveling-up your physical gift idea into an experience. Here’s an example. Instead of buying somebody a basket of cookies go to a baking class together and re-create the recipes for years to come!

2. Listen close.

We know one of the best gifts you can give is simply letting the recipient know that you really hear them. For example, say you gift someone a Bluetooth speaker. Don’t stop there—take it a step further. Throw in a customized playlist full of songs they love, or songs you know they’ll love to make it even more meaningful. There’s no doubt they’ll be ready for the next (virtual) karaoke night!

3. Share an idea.

You’ll always find us browsing a well-stocked library. Book-Recommendation Roulette is a great way to create ideas that lead to opportunities during the holidays. Here’s how it works. First, get friends and colleagues to sign up—everyone who does becomes both a sender and a recipient. Second, assign senders to recipients. Senders will be responsible for buying a book they recommend for their recipient to inspire new thinking.

With just the right amount of serendipity, that book might seed your next million (or billion) dollar idea. Then keep it going, swap your books, build some buzz, and keep adding new people to the group with each round.

4. Rally together.

Sometimes the best gift of all is something you can’t find in a store. Working towards a common goal is truly special. Say you know somebody who keeps a cause close to their heart. You can rally your coworkers together to contribute to that cause physically or financially. This will show your recipient you care about what they care about — establishing a deeper connection between you both.

5. Change your perspective.

We’re no strangers to framing (challenges or opportunities) – and we know looking at things through the right lens can make a big difference. If your family is separated during the holidays, go beyond just a FaceTime call. Elevate the occasion with online games and activities that you can play together from anywhere. If you want to take it a step further, bring Google Cardboard to the party.

Here’s to the interactions that keep on giving!

Follow Vivaldi on LinkedIn & Instagram for more holiday cheer! 

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With the end of summer fast approaching, it’s natural to hit a lull in weekend entertainment. There are only so many TV shows to watch or places to visit, and this is where Vivaldi comes into the picture. We have compiled a list of some of the books our team has been enjoying lately — from behavioral economics to page-turning novels, there’s something here for everyone.

The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel

Recommended by Ben Kuenzle, Strategy and Business Development Director

“Morgan Housel looks at the traditionally analytical practice of personal and professional investing and brings a new psychographic lens into the conversation around why we make the money related decisions that we do. According to Housel, investing money is a soft skill not a hard one.”

The New Climate War by Michael E. Mann

Recommended by Tabea Tiesler, Munich Office Assistant

“Michael Mann writes about how the current climate change debate is merely a propaganda war – but very soon it’ll be a fierce battle for resources.”

No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer

Recommended by Joana Asshauer, Strategy Consultant

“Hastings and Meyer dive into the culture at Netflix and how it’s the foundation for the company’s success. Netflix CEO, Hastings rejects the conventional wisdom under which companies operate to instead build a culture based on freedom and responsibility.”

The Social Animal by David Brooks

Recommended by Joana Asshauer, Strategy Consultant

“Brooks discusses what drives individual behavior and decision making by delving into sociology, psychology, and biology and summarizing discoveries in their overlap— such as brain development in early life. He follows the journey of two fictional characters, ‘Harold’ and ‘Erica’, and portrays how people’s emotional personality changes over time.”

Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu

Recommended by Jessi Mardakhaev, Associate Director, Marketing and Digital

“A profoundly moving memoir, Nadia Owusu explores the aftershocks of a life marked by personal loss, lost identity, and statelessness. Beautifully written and deeply honest, it’s a book that sits with you even when it’s on the shelf.”

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Recommended by Hannah Shone, Senior Designer

“Ishiguro tells the story of Klara, a girl who, carefully observes the behavior of the customers browsing in her store. The book and its unique narrator explore the question: what does it mean to love? ”

Circe by Madeline Miller

Recommended by Hannah Shone, Senior Designer

“Miller explores the idea of female strength in a man’s world with Circe, daughter of the sun god Helios. Circe is not powerful, like her father, nor alluring like her mother, but after turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she also possesses great power.”

Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang

Recommended by Yashi Samrendra, Intern

“Chang eloquently tells five different tales on the lives of immigrant families haunted by lost loves. Her characters are each motivated by a different purpose and a different person — some looking to avenge the death of a father and others seduced into their own death by a ghost of their past.”

Last but not least, we have to recommend The Interaction Field by Erich Joachimsthaler, Vivaldi Founder and CEO

“Erich Joachimsthaler explains that the only way to thrive in today’s environment is by creating value for everyone. Businesses that solve the immediate challenges of people today and the major social and economic challenges of the future are the ones that will survive and grow.”

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Vivaldi CFO, Richard Rolka, joined new Senior Partner, Chris Halsall [see bio], for a virtual Q&A to welcome him to the Vivaldi team.

Richard: Welcome to Vivaldi, we are very excited to have you.

Chris: Thank you, I’m very excited to be here.

We thought this Q&A would be a good opportunity for everyone to learn a little more about you and the work you do. You have a very interesting consulting background – at McKinsey, Prophet, and Ogilvy Consulting. Can you tell us a bit about how your focus has evolved over your career?

Sure. I like to describe my focus as driving growth and change at the intersection of business and brand strategy. I have been interested in marketing and innovation from a very early age, and it has influenced my career choices to ultimately bring me here today. I started out in brand management with P&G, which at the time was a wonderful place to learn the fundamentals of marketing.

The transition into consulting was really a desire to tackle a broader set of business challenges. My choices of consulting firms over the years have moved me progressively closer to the customer, which is where the real value creation and innovation is happening. Just creating a strategy deck that sits on a shelf gets old very fast — I wanted to help make the change happen, which is what brought me to Vivaldi.

So tell us a bit more about your decision to join Vivaldi.

Vivaldi gives me the ability to connect all the dots needed to help clients transform and grow — from leading edge brand and business strategy, to actionable innovation, new digital experiences and creative expression. Some shops have similar scope, but Vivaldi is the first one I’ve seen that has genuinely “de-siloed” these capabilities in how they work with clients.

So what is your “super power”?

I guess the ability to see around corners, which is not as amazing as it sounds — it’s just a new type of pattern recognition. It’s about seeing what’s happening in other categories – where new technologies and customer behaviors have shaken up the status quo – and then applying that to shape the change with clients in their categories. A great example of this is with Erich’s new book, The Interaction Field [Erich Joachimsthaler is Vivaldi’s founder and CEO]. The Interaction Field unpacks how a new breed of company has been able to achieve unstoppable growth, and then demonstrates how almost any business or brand can apply this formula. It’s very cool.

I think we have all heard the expression, “seeing around corners”, but what does it really mean?

Traditional consulting created a multi-billion dollar industry in the late 20th century by monetizing their pattern recognition of “best practices”, observed across many clients within the same sector. Essentially helping companies skate to where the puck is — if you will allow a hockey reference. Today, that is often the last thing you want to do, as it just makes you more vulnerable to having your business eroded by more nimble attackers.

Now more than ever, companies need to, “skate to where the puck is going”. Often this means putting aside what is best practice in their industry, as that becomes increasingly irrelevant. Irrelevant because customer and consumer expectations are no longer being defined separately in each category, but rather collectively across all categories. They want all the brands they engage with to deliver the choice of Amazon, the convenience of Uber, the experience of…well you get the idea.

When you accept the premise of this convergence of systems – of expectations, behaviors, technologies, and this new type of pattern recognition, it gives you much more line of sight into what is next for your brand and business.

Take Bitcoin as an example. You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to see that recent correction coming. Examined narrowly, there was no reason to believe the market enthusiasm for Bitcoin should abate. But when you take a holistic, systems view, how could Bitcoin maintain its rate of growth, without addressing the huge carbon footprint it is creating?

“We can’t just skate to where the puck is. Now more than ever, companies need to skate to where the puck is going.” – Chris Halsall

Can you describe an example of a sector where you have applied this new type of pattern recognition?

Sure, I think automotive is a great example of an industry that has had to fundamentally transform very quickly. Everyone is familiar with the big technology shifts there, around BEV and AV, but these are just a part of many more changes to come.

With any significant transformation, it really has to start with “framing” — essentially, what business are you in? If you hear a CEO or an analyst call refer to their business as “carmaker”, that’s probably not a long-term stock to hold. While manufacturing will represent the bulk of the sector’s revenues for at least another decade, we reached peak auto 5 years ago, and there is no turning back. This is why you are increasingly seeing auto makers reframe what they do as being a, “mobility services provider”.

Once you have reframed what your reason for being is, now you can start to look around the corner and plan where you need to go. Applying our convergence principle, we can identify several forces that will fundamentally reshape the sector. Some of these have already begun to take hold and others have not yet reached a tipping point. I will describe just a few here.

Why is that you can buy anything online — literally anything, but it’s still a very painful process to do that with automobiles. Carvana showed what was possible, but that was limited to used vehicles. New vehicle ecommerce in the US has been slowed artificially by regulations, that I won’t get into here. But now that Tesla has found a workaround, the genie is out of the bottle and won’t go back. Much more of these transactions will shift to digital, which sets off the next ripple of foreseeable implications.

One implication of auto ecommerce, is that it will result in the move to a single, non-negotiable price for each new vehicle. It just won’t be sustainable for manufacturers and dealers to “race to the bottom” with inconsistent pricing. In the short-term manufacturers and dealers are trying to preserve negotiated price with an ecommerce-light experience but it won’t be possible for that to survive long-term. Which of course sets off the next ripple.

If you are a dealer and you have lost your ability to negotiate extra margin on a sale, what does that mean for the future of your business? What if at the same time you are losing this profit, you are also being impacted by the move from internal combustion vehicles to battery electric vehicles, which require a small fraction of the dealer service visits that dealer profitability once depended upon? Now you see the next ripples of implications — around the need for new offsetting revenue streams, etc.

I could go on and on but you get the point. And this was just chasing down the highly predictable implications of one thread of convergence around online sales. We haven’t even gotten into the implications of the move away from “owning” things, what happens in an AV world, etc. Seeing around corners, is not a parlor trick, it’s just about putting in the work to look at the forest and not just the trees.

Is this just about new business models and innovation, or can it be applied to things like brand?

Absolutely, although it’s probably not too wise to only focus on brand without adapting your business. We can apply the same principles to skate where the puck is going on brand building. While this is a whole, rich topic on its own, let’s talk about some of the bigger shifts.

This convergence in expectations has profound implications for the role of brands and how they are built. It is no longer enough to just make a great widget and overlay it with some emotional benefits. Consumers are demanding more value than brands are providing, and this value needs to show up in many more places. This is forcing brands and businesses to begin to focus more on the quantity and quality of “interactions”, rather than just on the “transaction” alone. The days of monolithic brands that just pushed ads and engagement are drawing to a close. Brands now need to reframe their role, and construct an ecosystem of new direct interactions around their consumers — interactions with real, reciprocal value exchanges. Anyway, this is a big topic, so let’s set up another time to dive into this further.

“The days of monolithic brands are drawing to a close. Brands now construct an ecosystem of new direct interactions — interactions with real, reciprocal value exchanges”  – Chris Halsall

Thanks for sharing your thoughts today Chris, and once again, welcome to Vivaldi.

Thanks Richard.

The post Seeing Around Corners: A Q&A With Senior Partner Chris Halsall appeared first on Vivaldi.

Below Lee shares his thoughts on challenges facing business and brands today, celebrating failure, and how we can get to disruptive ideas.   

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing every company today?   

I’d say understanding the mid and long-term consequences of COVID-19 and how it will re-shape demand for a given category or indeed open up new ones should be paramount. A company cannot continue assuming that the terms of competition within its categories will remain stable— they need to be re-evaluated. Every business must have its critical planning assumptions defined and consequences and opportunities understood.      

Equally, it’s not new news to say that COVID has sped up the adoption of digital into more areas of our lives, proving the parity or indeed superiority of digital services over physical in many cases. Many companies should no longer be thinking digital transformation so much as business model transformation, embracing an ecosystem of multiple parties adding value into and extracting value from the brand system.   

Given your experience, how can businesses reach and get to disruptive ideas?   

Do you mean ‘disruptive’ in its truest Clayton Christensen sense, or do you mean ‘ambitious non-incremental ideas’? You have to calibrate the project’s ambition early on. But on the issue of generating ideas, firstly, the hard bit is getting ideas which an organization can actually exploit. You often find the signifier of success for idea generation workshops is the number of ideas generated. Everyone has had a great time, lots of Post-It notes over the walls, and tons of ideas that never see the light of day again. I’d rather sweat over articulating a much better definition of the problem for innovation to solve and get fewer but more relevant ideas generated. Innovation is a rigorous discipline, not a theatre show. Creativity happens when you give it a place to stand, but you’ve got to find that place first.  

There are two organizational blocks to great ideas, the misuse of consumer insights and experimentation failure. With regard to the misuse of consumer insights, much work needs to be done to educate organizations on research methods— reliability vs. validity if you like. If your innovation effort is calibrated to operate within the field of reference and experience of a consumer, asking them for their opinion and following it is a reasonable input. However, there is just one little hiccup with this neat and convenient approach— it’s not the consumer’s job to know what they will think and feel in five years. If you’re looking for ambitious non-incremental ideas, I’d say this isn’t a great platform for innovation. I once worked on a project for an Airline creating a future experience for their First and Business class lounges. The global insights team had diligently run a global (and expensive) survey presenting management with a beautifully elegant 2+2 matrix detailing all possible features of the lounge experience on ‘valued most’ and ‘used most’ axes. Guess what? People valued and used ‘free food’ and ‘free Wi-Fi’ the most. How much free food and how much free Wi-Fi can you really give? “But we’re now offering round the clock food service and extended free Wi-Fi to non-loyalty cardholders.” Yes, but it still looks, feels, and smells like a dentist’s waiting room in the 1980s. What about the guy over there curled up trying to get sleep, the woman over there covering her mouth on the phone because there is no privacy?   

Ok, so I’m being a little unfair, but asking the consumer to recall and reflect on their subconscious feelings and behaviors at different moments and situations is bizarre enough, but following this path means you’re going to quantify yourself into a dead end. It’s this type of project where observing consumer behaviors in the context of their experience and understanding how key cultural trends will shape expectations becomes critical. You have to embrace evidence that pushes thinking beyond the ‘now’ and into ‘tomorrow.’ We should seek to ‘design for tomorrow’s customer today.’    

The second block is creating the organizational processes, culture, and KPIs to embrace experimentation within the innovation process. [More on this below.]

How do we celebrate failure?   

Experimentation should be a baked-in element of the innovation process. Much work still needs to be done to educate executives on Lean Start-up and design thinking methods. There are many teams in organizations who are innovating but are not considered an innovation function and are encumbered by outmoded KPI’s that do nothing to embrace experimentation. Test & learn as a key managerial competence is key. Celebrate the capacity to execute experiments and share the knowledge gained.   

What is the most important question that companies need to be asking themselves?  

What are my planning assumptions about how COVID will change my current categories of operation and open up new ones?   

Is there a company that you could point to as a recently successful model of reinvention?  

I’m a hopeless petrol head— cars and bikes. I adore Bentleys, despite years of under-investment. VWs acquisition of Bentley has dragged the products into the 21st century. However, what I admire most is that Bentley’s essence has been maintained with great discipline and vision. The cars feel ‘inevitable,’ logical evolutions of the lineage, and you can trace key signatures of the experience back 90 years to the ‘Blowers’ that took on the Le Mans 24 hours. There is an ‘evolving permanence’ baked into each new model. This is a result of a beautiful integration and translation of the brand DNA with its design language. As a result, a brand with enviable lineage and pedigree feels as authentic today as it did 50 years ago. The secret here is to define the character of the brand, the way it always must feel, and the key points of difference it should always own but should constantly innovate upon. In other words, if you’ve got lineage and pedigree, don’t zig and zag— evolve.   

The post The Rigorous Discipline of Innovation: A Q&A with Senior Partner Lee Powney    appeared first on Vivaldi.

Vivaldi accepts the coveted award for the third year in a row, having previously won in 2017 and 2018. Both the academic advisory board and the independent jury, comprised of distinguished representatives from business and academia, reward the team’s agile and integrated project approach. The project addressed the growth challenges of Vivaldi’s client BayWa r.e. – a fast-growing pioneer in renewable energy.

“We are delighted to have received this award for best consultancy. BayWa r.e. is an extraordinary client we want to thank for an outstanding collaboration, and we are proud of our clients’ appreciation of our work.” – Björn Sander, Senior Partner

At the award ceremony on December 3, 2019, in Düsseldorf, presenter Susanne Schöne and laudator Dr. Frank Höselbarth presented the “Best of Consulting” award to the Vivaldi project team represented by Björn Sander, Mario Bartels and Michael Stein. The prize was awarded to the consultancy headquartered in New York City for a project dedicated to the growing challenges of the client’s expansion:

“BayWa r.e. has been very successful for years now, but the rapid global expansion led to ‘growing pains.’ The increased heterogeneity of the organization in terms of market cultivation, organizational management and cultural backgrounds proved a critical pain point,” Sander explained.

Together with BayWa r.e. CMO Klaus-Stephan Meyer and Dr. Annette Risi, Director of Corporate Organization and Change Management, Vivaldi professionalized the company’s new market approach and internal engagement strategy. Project Manager Mario Bartels outlined the approach as follows:

“We chose an integrated approach based on insights of various target groups. In order to address the internal challenges, an internal engagement program was developed and rolled out based on the needs of the workforce and with clear top management commitment. The market challenges were addressed by deriving and implementing a marketing strategy across business and legal entities. This provided BayWa r.e. with a consistent market approach with agility in terms of global implementation and adaptation.”

The “Best of Consulting” project competition is one of the most prestigious prizes in the German consulting industry. The business magazine WirtschaftsWoche selected the best consulting companies in Germany in the categories Strategy, Finance, Operations, Technologies, Marketing & Organisation, and Pro Bono for the 10th time.

Images: © Frank Beer and Tim Frankenheim for WirtschaftsWoche.

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While some brands choose to shout louder, talk for longer or speak more often, we believe the real answer is a new paradigm for growth.

This was the premise for the event ‘The New Model for Building Brands’ that took place with over 60 senior client side marketers last week at The Swan at Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank where Vivaldi’s founder and CEO Erich Joachimsthaler gave a masterclass in what brands need to do to operate under this new paradigm.

Erich’s talk, in fact the subject of his forthcoming book, was focused on the new era of building brands, an era that turns the focus from brands living in the insulated ivory towers that the ‘World of Walls’ created to an age driven by the ‘World of Webs’ in which brands must build interactions with customers to help re-discover, re-define and re-assert themselves as one of the most powerful drivers of future growth.

Joachimsthaler kicked off by talking us through the 4 eras of branding, starting with the ‘Era of Logic’, a time when communications were ‘needs’ orientated, focused on building awareness and image – think Ivory soap. He moved on to the ‘Era of Emotion’ which was focused on what brands stood for, using differentiation and emotion to create value – cue the MadMen era. The ‘Era of Experience’ followed this where brands sought to improve lives and solve customer problems – e.g., jobs to be done – and ended with the current ‘Era of Exponentiality’ with a focus on transforming expectations of the value that brands deliver.

The evolution was brought to life through a surprising example: the company that has outperformed all but one of the so-called “FANG” stocks over the past decade – Dominos. The pizza behemoth’s progression from the old model to the new model was  exemplified through the ‘eras’ from the Era of Logic and the ‘30 minutes or its free’ (along with anecdotes about hiding from delivery drivers) to sponsorship of ‘March Madness’ in the ‘Era of Emotion’ to the advent of ‘pizza profiles’ allowing customers to save their favourites in the ‘Era of Experience’ to the most recent campaign ‘Anyware’ allowing customers to order their favourite pizza from virtually any platform which perfectly shows the ‘Era of Exponentially’.

At the heart of this progression is the principle of listening to your customers, leveraging their data and facilitating interactions and participation to dynamically learn through action. Principles that Joachimsthaler clearly defined into 4 areas that form the new model for building brands.

With the sound foundation of theory clearly established, it was time to see what this means in reality. Featuring a fascinating mix of more established digital businesses (Skyscanner and Deliveroo), a more traditional business (Hyundai) and a recent start up, a business lending platform coming from within a traditional business (Esme) the panel passionately debated each of the principles and the extent to which they applied to their reality.

Perhaps the most compelling example of the 1^st principle of ‘Establishing a direct connection with consumers’ was given by David Pugh, Marketing Director of Hyundai, whose recent work establishing the ‘Click to Buy’ offering for the Korean car brand has created the perfect platform to help interact with, learn from and create connections with the car buying consumer.

As a start-up coming from within the firmly established finance brand of RBS/Nat West, the 2^nd principle of ‘getting consumers participating in value creation’ is at the heart of the proposition of Esme. Veronika Lovett, Esme’s founder and CMO spoke about how their business’s success or failure is built on speed, agility and an absolute focus on being service led, principles that many finance brands aspire to, but few attain. Anecdotally – recently funding a business in 29 minutes and helping an 80 year old fishmonger borrow money for cash flow purposes are testament to their success.

Joachimsthaler’s 3^rd principle of ‘building interactions beyond your portfolio of products and services’ and the 4^th principle of ‘creating a virtuous cycle leading to connected commerce’ were hotly debated by Deliveroo and Skyscanner, whose absolute focus on the consumer is at the heart of their work in technology development, business integration and evolution of their offering. Frictionless automation of systems and associated logistics work has propelled Deliveroo to employ over 30k drivers across 200 cities delivering from over 35k restaurants.  Similarly Skyscanner’s seamless search, shopping and booking experience has driven them to become the No. 1. Global travel metasearch site firmly becoming the traveller’s favourite.

The number and variety of questions that followed the panel session perfectly reflected the interest the new models had piqued in the audience and the conversations went on into the late morning. It was perfectly summed up by one of the senior marketers in attendance who expressed how inspired they were and left saying, ‘I am going back to think about my not-being-defined-obsessively by my competitors and start to really get to know my customer and my new competition.’

We’re holding similar talks in NY, Chicago, LA, Munich, Dusseldorf and Hamburg in the next few months. If you want to hear live how Vivaldi uses the 4 principles to work with clients ‘to write the next chapter’ in their businesses, contact us at hello@vivaldigroup.com to get more details.

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You often say that brands need to be culturally relevant. What is the biggest challenge facing brands in today’s context of cultural and societal change?

Stephen: A lot of research is showing that consumers are actively seeking and are more likely to purchase from brands with strong corporate and social responsibility. This is now extending further into an expectation that brands can and should make a positive impact on the world. Nike’s brave Kaepernick campaign, Tom’s fight for gun reform, and Patagonia’s donation of its $10m tax cut are testimony to this growing trend. However, finding and communicating brand purpose responsibly and effectively, then backing it up with action and commitment can be tricky to navigate.

What would you suggest that brands focus on, in order to achieve this?

Andrew: Brands need to think about – and aim for – impact in the right way. Impact is not the same as awareness. It is about building relevance with an audience that cuts through the noise by being entertaining, educational, or informative. To achieve this, brands need to develop ‘consumer first’ thinking. This means an immersion in consumer culture and an understanding of shared passions. This means tracking consumer journeys on and offline, and understanding consumers’ paths to decision-making, to know the best place and time to communicate. Brands need to consider all of this within a funnel approach and know how to deliver impact in the right way to achieve brand objectives.

Funnel optimization and performance measurement is a big focus for your team. How does this come into play with regards to brand-building?

Andrew: The funnel thinking that we apply to all doesn’t stop at the moment of sale. Brands need to consider the whole customer experience, including usage after the sale, in order to ensure systematic learning for continuous improvement through constant interactions and contribution. Only through these interactions will your consumers become active participants in brand-building and value creation. This is arguably more important than the sale itself, as the continuous learning through measurement of usage is a gold mine of information for innovation and for relevant contextual value-add communications. In short, brands need to listen and learn from consumers and use performance optimization as a way to be on a journey of constant discovery and evolution.

What is the role of data and analytics in understanding consumers today?

Stephen: Data and analytics have become the fundamental basis for brands understanding consumers today and will become increasingly important. However, the vast amounts of data available make it a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we have lots of extremely valuable data at our fingertips, and on the other, it tends to be incredibly difficult to mine the data and turn it into genuinely valuable and actionable insights. This is the challenge all brands face in getting closer to and providing more valuable services, products, connections and experiences to their consumers. This is compounded by the fact that consumers demand transparent and responsible use of their data, and with more personalized experiences. But the tail must NOT wag the dog. Although technology helps brands process data, identify actionable insights, and automate the whole process, the need for human interaction and interpretation cannot be underestimated.

If you had to give one piece of advice to brands today, what would it be?

Andrew: Your competition is not your competition. Today’s consumers live in a world of noise and challenged attention, and your competition is everything vying for your customer’s attention. This means that brands have to really focus on listening to their consumers, understanding what interests them, what their goals, needs and wants are, and most importantly, what causes friction, and respond to this. A great example of this is medical insurance company Vitality (for full disclosure, they are a Client). The proposition and associated platform that Vitality has created don’t aim to compete against other insurance companies, but rather against the everyday challenges to leading a healthy life. The counterintuitive way in which they reward their customers for being healthy is a brilliant example of looking outside of your own echo chamber and thinking more broadly.

It’s been two months since you joined the Vivaldi family, what has been the biggest learning?

Andrew: We use the African proverb, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” as a mantra in the agency to encourage everyone to think about the power of collaborative working both internally and with clients. This is the same principle I would apply to our first 2 months as part of Vivaldi. We already feel part of the family and this has created a natural integration. This is at the heart of my biggest learning, that despite the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and geographies of the different people in the global offices, there is a shared sense of passion in the work and the desire to work together to solve our clients’ challenges. This is just the beginning of the journey, but the potential is huge, and with this collaborative spirit at the heart of the business, we can certainly go a long, long way.

Stephen: I am incredibly excited about the evolution of consultancies and agencies in helping brands navigate an ever-evolving world. Bringing together an independent world class consulting firm with an independent award-winning communication agency holds huge potential. However, that potential has to be realized through action and this is something that has impressed me since joining Vivaldi. The ability for a group of diverse individuals with limitless energy and passion for what they do to turn thinking into action is startling. In just a few months, we have gone from two separate businesses to a collaborative single entity working together to deliver amazing work for our clients. The open-mindedness, flexibility and belief in what we do is incredible. Alongside strong leadership, the future looks incredibly bright.

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Luis Gérardin brings over 25 years of operational, marketing and leadership experience at The Coca-Cola Company, most recently as Marketing VP for the entire South Latin business unit, and said “we are excited to bring a fresh, holistic and integrated approach to marketing strategy and execution, so that companies can face the constant changes in trends, technologies and competition while tending to the urgencies and short-term demands of running a business in complex environments”.

Alberto Velasco, who until recently was the Director of Digital Disruption for Business Growth Acceleration at The Coca-Cola Company said, “we see Latin America´s potential and believe that we can help companies operating here to be global leaders in strategic thinking and execution and to grow at the speed of the most disruptive enterprises of today.” Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company in 2004, Alberto held marketing roles with Hyundai, Mazda, McDonald’s and BellSouth Peru.

Vivaldi will use its base in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to develop the business in the entire Latin American region. The announcement builds on a year of expansion, client growth and new thought leadership for Vivaldi, who recently announced the acquisition of a London-based digital marketing agency as part of its ongoing strategy to extend its creative and UX capabilities into measurable social and digital activation in order to better unlock opportunities for clients.

Commenting on the development, Erich Joachimsthaler Ph.D., founder and global CEO of Vivaldi Group said, “Latin America has terrific growth potential… and the expansion of our presence enhances Vivaldi’s ability to support organizations across the region with our strategy expertise, award-winning creativity and in-market activation. For many years since founding the company, we have had strong ties with the business community in Latin America and we look forward to deepening the collaboration and achieving strong growth together.”

About Vivaldi

Vivaldi is one of the largest independent global strategy consultancies. Vivaldi’s strategy-to-action approach helps build strong brands, drives disruptive innovation, and establishes platform businesses that operate at the speed of business today.
http://vivaldigroup.com

For further information please visit: www.vivaldigroup.com and contact Vivaldi’s CMO, Agathe Blanchon-Ehrsam at +1.212.965.0900 or via email at: agathe@vivaldigroup.com

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