Innosight 

Focus of Business

• Innosight focuses on innovation consulting, helping business leaders to "develop deep insights into the needs of tomorrow’s customers, align around a shared vision of the future, and then create the organizational momentum to get there". They are a leader in disruptive innovation and strategic transformation. 

Types of Services They Offer

• The services offered by Innosight include the creation of growth strategies, the development of innovation capabilities and the building of new businesses.  

Apparent Strengths

• Innosight is the leading expert on disruptive innovation and strategic transformation, with a unique approach to growth strategy. They also have a collaborative approach to innovation consulting.
• Their methodologies and approaches to innovation transcend traditional analytic consulting approaches. Moreover, their thought leadership in innovation can be seen through their books (including The Innovator’s Dilemma by co-founder Clay Christensen), Harvard Business Review articles and other stories.

Apparent Weaknesses

• Innosight has many competitors, most of which generate more revenue.

Clients

• Their clients include Walgreens, Aetna and Procter & Gamble.

How They Find Clients

• Innosight has a 'Contact Us' page, where potential clients who are interested in working with them can send inquiries.

Locations

• Innosight has offices in Boston, Singapore and Switzerland. 

 Why Innovation! 

Focus of Business

• Why Innovation! helps organizations to tackle innovation challenges by promoting an agility and innovation culture, and enhancing the development of new services, ways of working and services in organizations.

Types of Services They Offer

• The services offered by Why Innovation! include digital strategy consulting and implementation support, digital product innovation management and facilitation, agile transformation road map and program management, and organization re-design to enable business agility and innovation.

Apparent Strengths

• Why Innovation! delivers practical and sustainable outcomes, and has been providing software engineering, change management and process improvement consulting for many years. 
• They have recently been supporting agile and innovation initiatives at large organizations, and this has led to strong references for them as well as more trust in them. 
• They deliver a lot of value to organizations, including sustainable organization change, faster time to market and return on investment, enhancement of innovation ecosystems, optimization of the delivery process, and new business models and digital channels.

Apparent Weaknesses

• Why Innovation! is geographically limited, with its offices located in Asia only.  

Clients

• Why Innovation! has worked with companies such as Prudential, KLM and HSBC. 

How They Find Clients

• Why Innovation! has a 'Reach Out' page, where potential clients who are interested in working with them can send inquiries.
• Due to the fact that they work with many large organizations such as Standard Chartered, they have strong references, and more companies continue to want to work with them.

Locations

• Why Innovation! has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. 

Fjord

Main Focus of Business

• Fjord Singapore started in 2017 with the aim of bringing service design, co-creation, and energy to the Singapore market.
• Fjord, including the one in Singapore, mainly focuses on designing projects that have a real impact. The studio puts people first and uses the latest technologies that not only captivate and bring joy to people but also redefine industries in a digital era that is constantly evolving.
• Fjord Singapore also makes sure that they are responsive to the environment and they can regenerate to continue being relevant.

Services They Offer

• Some of the services Fjord offers in its various locations, including Singapore, are
•  design consultancy;
•  service, marketing, system, and experience design;
•  business, industrial, product, and digital product design;
• user insights and experience as well as innovation and creative technology.

Apparent Strengths

• Just like all Fjord studios, one of Fjord Singapore's strengths is that it takes advantage of the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) when designing products and services.
• Fjord also started to include industrial designers in its studios. This new and unique addition of industrial designers makes the company's teams cross-disciplinary, which enables the company to effectively meet customer needs.
• Moreover, these cross-disciplinary teams merge physical and digital designs to create connected physical products and services that have helped Fjord land big clients.

Apparent Weaknesses

• One of Fjord Singapore's weaknesses is that it does not have a website of its own. All Fjord's locations share one website.
• The only section about Singapore on the website is the studio locations, which makes it difficult for clients to gather any information about Fjord in Singapore unless they visit the physical location.

Clients

•  Carnival cruises, Velux, Sonos, Verdigris, and Metrolinx (an agency of the Government of Ontario) are some of Fjord's bigger clients.

How They Find Clients

• Fjord Singapore has a special email for clients' general inquiries (fjord.singapore.enquiries@accenture.com). The company also features Ted Kilian's email (ted.kilian@fjordnet.com) who is the group director specifically for project opportunities and new clients.
• Posting stories and information on some of the works that the company has done or is currently doing is one of the ways that Fjord finds clients. These stories usually feature the company's email (connected.products@fjordnet.com) in order to give people/potential clients the opportunity to connect with the company if they are interested in the services.
• Aside from the stories, Fjord also provides links to its social media accounts and physical locations/studios on its website.

Countries Fjord Works In

• Germany, USA, Canada, France, New Zealand, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Finland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Turkey, Ireland, England, Denmark, Italy, Australia, and Switzerland are the other locations apart from Singapore that Fjord has studios in.

Number of Employees

• According to its LinkedIn profile, Fjord has between 1001 to 5000 employees.

Accenture

Main Focus of Business

• Accenture Singapore focuses on converting ideas to industries which, in turn, helps clients grow their businesses and organizations.

Services They Offer

• The services Accenture Singapore offers are grouped into Consulting, Strategy, Technology, Digital, Corporate Functions, and Operations.

Apparent Strengths

• An Accenture report stated that Singapore is the best marketing hub in Asia because the country offers a diverse range of talents.
• Accenture Singapore also makes use of the Cyber Resilient Business approach to enable its clients to continue with operations even when attacks as they are in a position to embrace disruptions.
•  Competitive agility, Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain are some of the other aspects that Accenture Singapore takes advantage of to remain at the top.

Apparent Weaknesses

• Although Accenture has appeared 16 consecutive times in Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list, Accenture Singapore faces stiff competition from similar companies that also operate in Singapore such as Deloitte, Capgemini, IBM, and McKinsey & Company.

Clients

• Singapore's Changi Airport and Nationational Gallery, Schneider Electric, ABB, Avis, Sorgenia, and EnterFinland are some of the large corporate clients that Accenture Singapore works with or has worked with.

How They Find Clients

• Accenture Singapore finds clients by promoting their services and products n their website. The company has insights into its products and services online as well as articles, client stories, and a newsletter to reach new clients as well as retain the ones it has.
• Moreover, Accenture also has a Contact Us page in which potential clients can find the information they need to get in touch.

Countries They Work In

• Apart from Singapore, Accenture operates in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Ireland, Norway, Argentina, Romania, Poland, and England.

Number of Employees

• Going by Accenture's LinkedIn account, the company has more than 450,000 employees in over 120 locations around the globe. However, there was no specific information about their Singapore branch.

Research Strategy

Deloitte

• Deloitte focuses on consulting business in Singapore. Its audit business is also the primary focus of Deloitte Singapore.
• This company offers services such as audit & assurance, consulting, Deloitte private, financial advisory, legal, risk advisory, and tax.

Strengths

• Deloitte has 42 years of proven performance in Singapore. Deloitte Singapore was founded in 1967, and it became the largest professional services firm in Asia.
• Reputable companies trusted this company. It has strong capabilities that serve four out of five Fortune Global 500 companies.

Weaknesses

• On its website, this company rarely puts its clients' story as a marketing strategy. Website viewers hardly find a case study to know more about Deloitte Singapore.
• Deloitte Consulting tries to be everything to everyone. This company offers all types of consultation, from technology to management.

Clients

• Deloitte Singapore helps Fusion Bank to compete in the financial market as a digital bank.
• Deloitte Singapore also has Amazon Web Services as its client. Deloitte helps AWS in handling its lightning series project.
• Deloitte Singapore typically finds clients by promoting their services on LinkedIn. This company also attracts its clients by speaking at conferences and exhibitions in Singapore.

Company Overview

• They have offices in more than 150 countries such as Australia, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Austria, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, India, Indonesia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, US, UK, UAE, and Egypt.
• Deloitte has 216,755 employees, as stated on LinkedIn.

Capgemini

• Capgemini focuses on four key businesses in Singapore. Those are financial services, application services, Capgemini Invent, and Capgemini products.

• This company offers 12 primary services, such as business services, digital services, technology operations, innovation, 5G, AI, and banking.

Strengths

• This company focuses on technology application services such as Big Data, AI, 5G, and Cloud. This sector drives growth to its Singapore or South East Asia businesses.

•  Capgemini Invent is at the forefront of innovation to address the client's need for future inventions and technology.

Weakness

• Its financial services in Singapore was started in 2016. This company made a late expansion in financial services while its competitors had started earlier.

Clients

• Some big clients are Adobe, Intel, and IBM.

• This company attracts its clients by posting client stories on its website so the customer can understand how Capgemini works.
• Capgemini opened a new robotic process automation in Malaysia to drive growth and attract clients in its Singapore business.

Company Overview

• They have offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, United States, Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and UK.

• They have 194,068 employees, as stated on LinkedIn.

EY Singapore

• Ernst & Young Global Limited is a multinational professional services firm with its headquarters in London. The firm provides advisory, assurance, tax, and transaction services to help their global clients maintains investors' confidence, manage risks, and strengthen their controls.
• The company's clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.  
• EY Singapore operates in four main service lines; namely, Assurance, Advisory, Tax and Transaction Advisory Services, and they help their clients meet regulatory requirements, inform their investors, and fulfill the stakeholders' needs.

• One apparent strength for EY Singapore is the company's insatiable curiosity and their firm belief in asking better questions to come up with better answers to help their clients more efficiently, leading to a better working world.
• Another key strength that has built the firm's reputation in Singapore is its provision of "high-quality professional audit services objectively and ethically" to the companies they audit.
• The firm also conducts a Global People Survey on its employees and other stakeholders to gauge if they are on the right path to building a better working world.
• EY Singapore also launched EY Wavespace in October 2018 to help its clients leverage the power of emerging technologies as traditional consulting methods are being phased out.
• The facility was a first-of-its-kind in the ASEAN regions, and it drew the interest of companies from Malaysia and Vietnam.

• According to reviews on Glassdoor by former and current employees, EY Singapore has a poor work-life balance for its employees, and the management does not appreciate their staff.

• While EY Singapore does not mention any specific names of the companies they work with, they claim that their client list includes 82% of the Fortune Global 500 and 70% of the Forbes Global 2,000. 

• EY Global has over 200,000 employees working in the firm's member firms in more than 150 countries globally.
• The firm is present in eight regions and 31 countries in the Americas, 10 regions and 97 countries in EMEIA, and six regions and 23 countries in Asia-Pacific.

• EY has more than 284,000 employees. There are 287,775 EY Global employees of LinkedIn.

KPMG Singapore

• KPMG Singapore leverages their deep, practical industry knowledge and their multidisciplinary approach to help clients meet challenges in their industries and respond effectively to opportunities.
• KPMG Singapore is a member firm of KPMG International, one of the Big Four global firms providing audit, tax, and advisory services to global clients.
• KPMG Singapore offers the following main services to clients: independent financial audits and assurance, tax consulting, advisory, and enterprise.

• KPMG Singapore runs the KPMG Asia-Pacific Tax Center that is home to tax specialists in the Asia Pacific region.
• KPMG's tax team has received top-tier tax awards including Tier 1 Firm in Singapore — World Tax, World Transfer Pricing and Tax Transactional 2019, National Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year — Asia Tax Awards, 2018 & 2019, and Withholding Tax Team of the Year — Asia Tax Awards 2019.
• KPMG Singapore was lauded by Forrester as a leader in Microsoft Dynamics 365 services. 

• Most reviews left on Glassdoor by current or former KPMG Singapore employees point to long working hours and a poor work-life balance.

• KPMG doesn't publicly disclose the clients they work with, but they are available in 154 countries globally and work with clients from the corporate sector, government, and non-profit sectors.
• Most of KPMG's clients work across national borders so they can use both KPMG local firms and the global network.
• KPMG Singapore works with clients "who value objective advice delivered by people who are committed to professionalism and integrity. " 

• According to their LinkedIn profile, KPMG Singapore has between 1,001 to 5,000 employees, 2,231 of whom are on LinkedIn.

Synechron

1. Key Focus

• Synechron is a digital information technology consulting company and a technology service provider for financial services. It helps companies to evolve their business using the most cutting-edge innovations.

2. Types of Services

• Synechron’s main services in Singapore are mainly financial services aimed at accelerating banks digital transformation. Using a state-of-the-art Financial Innovation Lab (FinLab), company seeks to help banks embrace emerging technologies such as AI and data science, machine learning, and Blockchain, among others. It also creates new solutions in areas like banking and wealth management.

3. Strengths

• Synechron’s key strength is its strong brand image. As a leading digital consulting firm with 18 offices across the globe, the company can rely on the strong brand to attract loyal customers and partners Singapore.

4. Weaknesses

• Synechron is relatively new in the Singaporean market having entered the market in 2018. Thus, the company will struggle to gain a considerable foothold in the market owing to stiff competition from established players such as PricewaterhouseCoopers.

5. Clients

• Among the major Synechron’s customers are Asurion and Efma. Asurion has operations in 14 countries including Singapore. Efma is a global non-profit organization with operations in 130 countries including Singapore.

6. Finding Clients

• The company finds clients by conducting aggressive digital marketing and public relations. For instance, its prowess in marketing helped it win the “Campaign of the Year” in Business Intelligence Group’s 2018 Public Relations and Marketing Excellence Awards.

7. Countries

• Synechron has operations in 18 countries, including USA, Canada, UK, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Serbia, Hungary, Germany, Italy, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, Australia and Development Centers in India.

8. Number of Employees

• Synechron has between 5,001-10,000 employees.

PWC

1. Key Focus

• PricewaterhouseCoopers provides professional services to organizations. It helps businesses solve issues as well as helping them identify and maximize on opportunities.

2. Services

• PwC provides a wide range of services in three broad categories, namely assurance services, tax services, advisory services, and digital solutions.

3. Strengths

• PwC is a renowned brand with operations in 158 countries across the globe. Thus, I can leverage on the strong brand to attract new customers.

4. Weaknesses

• PWC has had to contend with work-related controversies such as sexual harassment that have tainted its image.

5. Clients

• The main PWC clients in Singapore are Singapore Exchange (SGX), multinational corporations (MNCs) such as Goldman Sachs, and emerging companies in Singapore.

6. Finding Clients

• PWC conducts advertisements in the print media such as business magazines as well as online and social media aimed at reaching potential clients.

7. Countries

• PWC operates in over 158 countries located in various parts of the globe.

8. Number of Employees

• In Singapore, PWC has 3,800 employees. Globally, it has over 276,000 employees.

McKinsey & Company

• McKinsey & Company focuses on advising leading enterprises and institutions across various sectors in Singapore to create "transformative growth and achieve breakthrough performance."
• They achieve this by delivering ground-breaking knowledge and advice to companies in Singapore towards tackling their toughest challenges.

• McKinsey & Company offers management consulting services. Other services are environmental consulting and research paper publications. 

• The company has several years of experience in the management consulting industry and a strong legacy since its inception in 1926. 
• With offices in over 160 cities from over 65 countries, the company generated an estimated annual revenue of $10 billion in 2018.
• Based on ratings on Glassdoor which reveals a rating of 4.6 out of 5 from employees in Singapore, it can be deduced that the good working condition in the country is a perceived strength of the company.

• McKinsey & Company faces competition from big industry consultants.
• As a global company, the businesses of the company can be affected by factors such as government policies, currency fluctuations, and others.

•  General Motors, PepsiCo, and Ford Motor Company are some of the company's large corporate clients.

• McKinsey and Company partners with Singapore’s Economic Development Board to identify its clients. The company also leverages digital marketing by constantly updating its social media pages to advertise its services to potential clients.

• The company has a presence in over 160 cities from over 65 countries around the globe including Singapore.

• McKinsey & Companies has 30,254 employees on LinkedIn with 359 based in Singapore.

BCG Digital Ventures

• BCG Digital Ventures is focused on inventing, building, scaling, and investing in startups with the most influential global companies.
• It also focuses on "digital-innovation product development and commercialization."

• BCG Digital Ventures is a corporate venture, investment, and incubation firm.

• Despite being founded in 2014, BCG Digital Ventures records an estimated annual revenue of $153 million per year with about 1,129 employees. A 23% growth in the number of employees in the company from 2018 shows the strength and growth of the company.
• The company has a strong social media presence with 10.9K followers on Twitter and 5K followers on Facebook.

• The company lacks presence in markets such as Africa and South America.

•  UPS, Allergan, and Starbucks are some of the company's corporate clients.

• The company announced that it would partner with Singapore's Economic Development Board to reach out to clients when it launches in the country. It also leverages digital marketing by constantly updating its social media pages to advertise its services to potential clients.

• The company currently does not have a presence in Singapore, however, the company announced in November that it would launch its first office in the country in spring 2020.
• It currently has a presence in nine cities; Manhattan Beach, Berlin, London, New York, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, Silicon Valley, Seattle, Mexico, and Stockholm.

• BCG Digital Ventures have 1,171 employees on LinkedIn with 12 based in Singapore.

Cordence Worldwide

Main Focus of Business

• "Cordence Worldwide refers to the global partnership of Member Firms of Cordence Worldwide. Each Member Firm is a separate and independent legal entity. Cordence Worldwide does not provide services to clients."

• Cordence Worldwide, through its global partners, provides a "full range of subject matter expertise and management consulting which includes offering strategy execution, CFO services, human capital, information technology, sales & marketing, research & development centers, lean thinking, production & distribution, and shared services to "enterprise and government clients in a variety of industries and sectors in all major economic regions."
• Cordence Worldwide has one partnership located in Singapore called Avalon Consulting.

Types of Services Offered

• They offer subject matter expertise and management consulting services. They deal with business intelligence, digital, and sustainability. They work in industries as varied as automotive, education, government, legal, and the public sector.

Apparent Strengths

• The consultants are part of their local cultures and communities, which positions them to "literally and figuratively" to grasp their needs very quickly. The complementary regional expertise and consulting capabilities of Cordence Worldwide’s Member Firms put a diverse set of cutting-edge skills and knowledge at every clients’ disposal.

Apparent Weaknesses

• They are a partnership model, rather than a company with one overall management team, so clients would not deal with one company, but rather the partnership company nearest to their location.

Clients

•  Their clients are with actual consulting partnerships. As Cordence themselves do not have clients (just the partnerships), this means that each partnership publishes their own unique clients.

Finding Clients

• Cordence Worldwide has a contact form on their website, where a potential client can fill out information and a partner company will contact them.
• A news scan showed that while Cordence Worldwide regularly announces their new partners, they do not mention clients because they do not have any, per se.

Geographic Footprint

• Cordence Worldwide has over 65 offices around the world with a presence in Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Number of Employees

• They have over 3000 consultants around the world.

Avalon Consulting

Main Focus of Business

•  Avalon Consulting is under a partnership program with Cordence Worldwide, the company that is profiled above this one. It provides a "full range of subject matter expertise and management consulting which includes offering strategy execution, CFO services, human capital, information technology, sales & marketing, research & development centers, lean thinking, production & distribution, and shared services to "enterprise and government clients in a variety of industries and sectors in all major economic regions." 
• They have the same focus of business as Cordence Worldwide and have offices in India and in Singapore.
•  Avalon Consulting is an "Asia focused strategy and management consulting firm."

Types of Services Offered

• They offer subject matter expertise and management consulting services. They deal with business intelligence, digital, and sustainability. They work with "clients across the spectrum of business covering corporations, financial institutions, private equity companies, venture capitalists, government bodies and industry associations."

Apparent Strengths

• They are located right in Singapore and in India and have consultants that live permanently in these areas, so they are able to "maintain a global perspective while retaining the local flavor of individual markets."

Apparent Weaknesses

• They do not have the global reach that other much larger firms do that are not a partnership model.
• They have an inefficient contact form where the client is forced to either call or to email, rather than fill out a form right on the website. If they want to fill out a form, they must go to the Umbrella company which is Cordence Worldwide, but that is not readily apparent on the Avalon Consulting website.

Clients

• Some of Avalon's clients include Coromandel International, Altran India, Deepak Fertilizers, DSM Nutritional Products, Asahi India Glass Ltd., CRH India, Ashok Leyland, Rio Tinto Alcan, National Scientific Company, Thomas Cook India Ltd., American Securities, Premier Paints, Qatar Export Development Agency, The Blackstone Group, and Dow Kokam.

Finding Clients

• They do not have a contact form, but there is an email provided that clients can use that is located at the bottom of the page.

Geographic Footprint

• They have one office in Singapore and two in India. One Indian office is located in Kurla West, Mumbai, while the other is in Bandra East, Mumbai. 

Number of Employees

• According to LinkedIn, Avalon Consulting has 180 employees in India and in Singapore, combined.

Propellerfish

1. Main Focus of Business

• Propellerfish's main focus is helping organizations overcome strategic innovation challenges.

2. Types of Services Offered

• Propellerfish categorizes its business into innovation projects, insight projects, and internal capability projects.
•  Innovation projects are all about helping organizations bring innovative products or services to market, while insight projects are all about leveraging technology, ethnography, and experiments to help organizations understand their consumers better. Internal capability projects, on the other hand, are all about helping organizations develop the skills, processes, and internal structures needed to promote innovation.

3. Apparent Strengths

• Propellerfish is an established player in both Singapore and the Asia Pacific. It considers itself the leading innovation consultancy in Singapore, and it has been operating in the region since 2009. Propellerfish's Singapore office caters to the Asia Pacific region.
• The Asia Pacific team has local team members across five countries and carefully vetted partners across 12 countries. The consumers in the region that Propellerfish has a wealth of insights on range from the poorest to the most affluent.

4. Apparent Weaknesses

• Propellerfish is not headquartered in Singapore but is based instead in the United Kingdom. This may be considered a weakness in case brands prefer Singapore-based consultancies.
• There is hardly any press coverage of Propellerfish.

5. Large Corporate Clients

• Propellerfish's large corporate clients in the Asia Pacific include Shell, PepsiCo, and Audi.

6. Client Acquisition

• How Propellerfish typically finds clients is not available in the public domain, but the company makes itself known digitally through its website, its LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, and the content it posts on Medium.

7. Locations

• Propellerfish has three offices, and they are located in London, New York, and Singapore.
• Its operations are divided geographically into Europe, America, and Asia Pacific. Propellerfish's Asia Pacific team is based in Singapore.

8. Number of Employees

• The company lists 10 employees on its website, but it identifies Founder Alex Marquez and Strategist A-Young Kim as its key contact persons in the Asia Pacific.
• The company, however, indicates on its LinkedIn profile that it has 11-50 employees.

Heist

1. Main Focus of Business

• Heist specializes in helping brands identify the cultural nuances and behaviors that alter consumer choices.
•  Heist describes itself as a global innovation consultancy and a UI and UX design agency.

2. Types of Services Offered

• Its services are categorized into design research, design sprints, and bespoke design and development.
• With design research, the company conducts fieldwork to suss out cultural norms and evolving customer needs. It builds pop-up studios in local communities to bring itself closer to concerned users.
• With design sprints, the company leverages collected cultural and user insights to address its client's most crucial problems. It promises to develop a ready-to-test solution in just three weeks.
• With bespoke design and development, the company promises to develop a multi-faceted solution in just three months. It guarantees a future-proof solution that will dramatically improve the client's capabilities.

3. Apparent Strengths

• Though it has only one office, which is located in Singapore, its operations are global in scope. Several of Heist's clients are Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies.
• Heist utilizes a design-led and human-centric approach that clients find effective. This approach encompasses the following phases: research, defining opportunities, concept development, and prototyping.

4. Apparent Weaknesses

• Heist is relatively young, as it was founded in 2016, only a few years ago.
• There is hardly any press coverage of Heist.

5. Large Corporate Clients

• Heist's large corporate clients include DBS, OCBC, and Sun Life Financial.
• Heist lists 20 clients on its website.

6. Client Acquisition

• How Heist typically finds clients is not available in the public domain, but the company makes itself known digitally through its website, its Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, the content it posts on Medium, and the events it hosts.
• Heist participates in the annual Singapore Design Week by hosting sessions or workshops. This way, it makes itself known to brands attending these events.

7. Location

• Heist has only one office, and this office is located in Singapore.

8. Number of Employees

• Heist has only six employees, but it has ten collaborators and four advisors.

Research Strategy

Prophet

• To quote Prophet's About page, "Prophet is a consultancy that helps our clients unlock uncommon growth in the face of disruption."
• Prophet's services are divided into four distinct types:
• Brand Activation, where Prophet helps their clients create "relentlessly relevant" branding, "anchored in a strategic purpose" and an in-line company culture.
•  Marketing and Sales Transformation, which helps clients to "embrace customer-data strategies and impactful omnichannel thinking," freeing the sales team to manage human relationships.
• Organization and Structure, which forges "organizational structures that continuously innovate new products, services and experiences, and advance cultures that magnetize and excite top talent." This is generated through a proprietary "DNA, Mind, Body, Soul" framework.
•  Experience and Innovation, referring to the end-user experience. This service aids with prototyping and testing to obtain real-world feedback.
• Prophet's leadership team has multiple decades of experience in strategic roles in Fortune 500 companies, bringing an immense amount of knowledge to their clients.
•  Prophet's clients include many famous, multi-national corporations (see below), providing the company with immense credibility and strong relationships, both of which likely contribute to their growing client base.
• While listing more US firms than any other nation's, Prophet's news section shows that they have an intense interest in Chinese firms, which may indicate a large client base there. With the Chinese economy currently facing a major slowdown, this could hurt Prophet's bottom line.
•  Prophet's clients include Chick-fil-a, Marriott, Moneyfarm, Samsung, PagerDuty, Suning, Midea, Fora, and Electrolux.
• Prophet does not disclose its practices regarding how it locates clients; however, an incredibly strong existing client base, recent wins in two separate Transform Awards, and staying visible with interviews and keynote speeches all doubtless contribute.
• In addition, Prophet secured additional funding from Gladstone Capital and Comerica Bank in September 2019 which, according to their press release, will be used "to build the scale and capability" to best help their clients.
•  Prophet operates in the US, Germany, Hong Kong, the UK, China, Singapore, and Switzerland.
• Prophet has 575 employees listed on LinkedIn.

Priority Consultants

• Priority Consultants is "a multi-disciplinary integrated marketing communications firm" focused on providing "strong Relationships + Results" in the Asian markets, particularly South Asia.

• Their four main services are:
•  Content Generation, which creates meaningful, motivational content which tells their clients' stories.
•  Public Relations across multiple languages in the Asia Pacific to build their clients' brand awareness.
•  Marketing Communications and Events which bring people together to meet and share experiences.
•  Messaging Training and Workshops teach their clients how to tell their own stories with "skill and charisma."
• Despite its small size, Priority Consultants operates across the Asia Pacific and India and boasts an impressive array of multinational corporations of their clients across at least ten industry sectors.
• While the leadership team's background is not detailed, Chief Executive Kunalan Chakravarthy worked his way through the company ranks over 25 years, suggesting a stable leadership environment which likely includes careful mentoring.
• Notably, Founder Jane Prior recently returned to the company, having left it in 2010 to head Yahoo's APAC Communications division and serve in two other executive and partner roles in Singapore.
• Despite having been founded in 1985, Priority Consultants remains small (see below) and their newsroom contains only one announcement, referring to the expansion of their operations to India in 2018. A search for mentions in other news articles found very few, and none in which the firm was of primary focus. It, therefore, appears that the firm has accomplished little of note despite having several notable clients (see below).
•  Intel, Oracle, and HP are just a few of the many enterprise-level clients that Priority Consultants claim in just one industry.
• Due to a lack of outside sources regarding the firm and Priority Consultants not publicizing their marketing and sales tactics, we are unable to determine how they find their clients. In addition, they infrequently blog, ruling out content marketing, and tweet fairly infrequently (i.e., sometimes only once a month), ruling out social media marketing.
•  Headquartered in Singapore, Priority Consultants also has offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Mumbai, India, and Hong Kong. They claim to also engage with the markets of China, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Priority Consultants has 25 employees listed on LinkedIn.

Gwacamol

•  Gwacamol focuses entirely on designing, managing, and promoting websites to the benefit of its clients. They promise unlimited website changes, fast turnaround, and ongoing advice.

• Gwacamol provides four distinct services:
•  Web Design focused on an impressive user interface.
•  Web Management and site maintenance.
•  Marketing to draw traffic and place their clients "on the map." In practice, this amounts to setting up the client on Google Ads.
•  Graphic Design by a dedicated team, "ranging from icons [and] flyers to website illustrations."
• Due to the incredibly lackadaisical and broken nature of the web design of Gwacamol's .com site (see below), a complete lack of outside media attention, and a "Marketing" product that amounts to setting up the client on Google Ads, we cannot speak to this company's strengths.
• Gwacamol's greatest weakness appears to be its own website. As of the time of this brief, whole elements appear to be missing, including any clients in the "They Trust Us" section of the homepage and any text or graphics on the Plans page, which also had a non-functional FAQ section.
• While Gwacamol.sg functions better than Gwacamol.com, the failure of the former is still concerning and speaks to a major weakness in the company.
• In addition, one of the four examples of their web design work is down and another redirects to a possible phishing page.
• Gwacamol claims 288 clients, including Sterling RISQ, LexisNexis, and SC Global.
• Gwacamol seems to primarily find their clients through their site and via a referral program, though details of the latter are available only by request.
• Gwacamol's only address is in Singapore, though many of its clients are based overseas.
• LinkedIn lists Gwacamol as having between 11 and 50 employees, though only three have LinkedIn accounts.

INKA Agency

• INKA is a self-described "Creative Agency where we provide all things creative on branding, social media, digital, and print."

• The services provided by INKA include:
•  Brand conceptualization and custom branding that includes building a compatible corporate identity.
•  Marketing strategy consultation which provides concrete results via campaign ideation (a process similar to prototype ideation).
• Both digital and print design, from website development, social media management, and systems development to corporate coffee table books, annual reports, and "marketing collateral."
•  Results measured through a combination of Google Analytics and Facebook reporting.
• INKA showcases much of the work that they have done for their previous clients. Not only is the work itself attractive, but INKA has also laid it out in compact, single-page collages that excellently summarize the breadth and quality of their work, leaving a very good impression on the viewer.
• INKA's greatest weakness is that they are a creative branding company that seems to do little to brand itself; for example, despite promising social media management, they have not managed their own social media profiles in years (see below).
• Despite the quality of their previous work page, it is concerning that their only case study concerns an annual report they produced for PAAB; while the images in the case study are attractive, it hardly showcases INKA's abilities as a branding consultancy, nor do they report any positive results from the work other than that it was "loved by our client."
• INKA's clients include GSC, CDC, and Setia.
• The company's method for finding new clients is unpublished in the public domain and therefore uncertain. Their own website is workmanlike, with only a single blog entry, ruling out content marketing, and they have not updated their Twitter feed or Instagram profile in years, ruling out social media marketing.
• INKA has offices in Malaysia and Singapore.
• INKA has between 11 and 50 employees, of whom only 8 have LinkedIn profiles.

Yellow Fishes

1. Focus of Business

• A branding agency, Yellow Fishes is focused on defining and building purposeful brands.

2. Types of Services Offered

• Yellow Fishes offers two types of services, namely, brand strategy and brand design.
• The brand strategy service encompasses the naming of the brand and the definition of the brand proposition, the brand positioning, the brand architecture, and the brand tonality and messaging.
• The brand design service encompasses brand identity design, visual brand language creation, packaging design, communication design, and logo design and management.

3. Apparent Strengths

• Yellow Fishes employs a branding process that is simple, linear, and efficient. This branding process is composed of the following stages: audit, strategy creation, design, and verbal and visual manifestation.
• It has the following proprietary branding tools: the Brand Anchor Model, the Let's Go Fishing Naming Module, and the Brand Meridian Model. These are the company's tools for brand strategy development, brand naming, and brand architecture management, respectively.

4. Apparent Weaknesses

• Though the company has an office in Singapore, its presence in the country appears limited. The fact that most of the company's clients are located in India and none of the company's clients are located in Singapore suggests that the company's business in Singapore is very small.
• The company is not focused on innovation consulting and does not describe itself as an innovation consultancy.

5. Large Corporate Clients

• Yellow Fishes lists 21 clients on its Case Studies page, but none of these clients are located in Singapore, and it is not clear which of these clients were acquired by the Singapore office.
• The brand reach of 13 of these 21 clients is limited to India. Only a few of Yellow Fishes's clients have a worldwide reach, and they include Bista Solutions, VMAX, and Jetair Tours.

6. Client Acquisition

• Yellow Fishes does not readily disclose how it typically finds clients, but the company makes itself known digitally to brands through its website, its LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest accounts, the content it posts on Medium, and its blog.

7. Locations

• Yellow Fishes has only two offices or locations. One is in Mumbai, India, where the company's headquarters is located, and the other is in Singapore.

8. Number of Employees

• Yellow Fishes identifies six employees on its website, but its LinkedIn profile indicates it has at least nine employees, none of which are based in Singapore.
• Yellow Fishes has not disclosed how large its workforce in Singapore is. Because the company, as a whole, has 1-10 employees, the number of employees in Singapore must be less than ten.

Jones Knowles Ritchie

1. Focus of Business

• The focus of Jones Knowles Ritchie's business is brand building.
• Jones Knowles Ritchie describes itself as "a design-led creative company building brands for scale, disruption and good."

2. Types of Services Offered

• The company categorizes its services into communications, film and motion, identity, naming and writing, and packaging.
• It also lists the following capabilities: brand design, brand experience, brand stories, communications, consultancy, copywriting, film and motion, identity, innovation, manifestos, naming, strategy, packaging, planning, structural design.

3. Apparent Strengths

• Jones Knowles Ritchie Singapore's branding capabilities have received recognition from award bodies. Its WWF Disappearing Tiger packaging design was awarded the Bronze Spike and the Wood Pencil by Spikes Asia and D&AD Awards, respectively, while its Opus by Prudential design was in Spikes Asia's shortlist for the logo design category.
• Jones Knowles Ritchie Singapore has been in business since 2013 and is in the capable hands of Managing Director Intan Mokhnar and Head of Strategy Katie Ewer.

4. Apparent Weakness

• Though innovation is one of the capabilities of Jones Knowles Ritchie, the company does not specialize in innovation consulting and does not describe itself as an innovation consultancy.
• Jones Knowles Ritchie's innovation consulting capability pales in comparison to those of firms that consider themselves innovation consultancies.

5. Large Corporate Clients

•  Heineken, Kraft Heinz, and Prudential are among the large corporate clients of Jones Knowles Ritchie Singapore.

6. Client Acquisition

• Jones Knowles Ritchie has a regional director who works from the Singapore office. It is the responsibility of this regional director to build partnerships with local brands, regional brands, and global brands across the Asia Pacific region.
• Jones Knowles Ritchie Singapore does not readily disclose how it typically finds clients, but the unit makes itself known digitally to brands through its website, and its Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo accounts.
• Jones Knowles Ritchie, as a whole company, also has its LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vimeo accounts. It runs ads on LinkedIn as well.

7. Locations

• Jones Knowles Ritchie has an office in each of the following locations: London, New York, Shanghai, and Singapore.

8. Number of Employees

• Jones Knowles Ritchie, which is headquartered in London, has more than 300 employees worldwide.
• It has a total of 714 full-time and part-time employee profiles on Linkedin. Of these employees, 12 are located in Singapore.

Research Strategy

Concept Lab Communications

Main Business Focus

• Concept Lab is a design agency focused on building the brand image of its clients.
• Their branding focus could be from the ground up building, the refinement and improvement of existing brands' look and feel or the "extension of a brand’s identity through new or unique marketing initiatives."

Services Offered

• They offer three distinct services packaged as Brand Catalysts, Design Alchemists, and Digital Fusionists.
• As Brand Catalysts, they facilitate brands to be leaders in their industries, as manifested at every touchpoint.
• As Design Alchemists, they offer creative designs and solutions that enhance communication and maximize engagement.
• As Digital Fusionists, they create digital efforts and campaigns that leverage various data and platforms.

Apparent Strengths

• Founded in 1997, Concept Lab must have garnered invaluable experience and growth, as experts that create and develop positive brand impact for SMEs, large enterprises and multinational corporations.
• They have shown to have "a track record of or building brands from the ground up, for refining a brand’s look and feel, and for extending a brand’s identity through new or unique marketing initiatives." They have developed over 100 corporate and product logos, and taglines.
• As a design agency, they offer a wide variety of services ranging from logo identity design and tagline development to brand audit and marketing collateral.

Apparent Weaknesses

• Operating only within the Singaporean market means they may not generate any growth. Also, they may only hold a small share within their market.
• It appears that they have a poor marketing effort, as research to identify their ads in ads databases and reports, such as Adweek, Moat, and iSpot.Tv was futile. Moreover, they are not very active across its social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) and they are yet to post any content on LinkedIn.

Clients

• Some of its large corporate clients include Singapore Exchange, Sembcorp Industries, JPJ INVEST, among others.

How They Find Clients

• Concept Lab's marketing and advertising efforts are not known; however, they market themselves through their website, where they display various testimonials of some clients.
• They are listed in popular business directories in Singapore, such as Sortlist, and have been recognized in some articles as one of the best corporate website designers.
• While they are not very much active on social media, they also advertise their services across their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Locations/Offices

• Concept Lab operates only in Singapore and has an office in The Siemens Center.

Employee Count

• They have between 11 and 50 employees.

Creativeans Pte Ltd

Main Business Focus

• Creativeans Pte Ltd is an interdisciplinary creative consulting agency that provides solutions for creative and strategic problems and challenges of clients.
• As a company that builds brands, they focus on branding, packaging design and communication design across several industries and geographies.
• Their business model is based on collaborative engagement, strategic partnership, and creative incubation.

Services Offered

• Their services revolve around three broad categories: branding, design, and communication.
• When further expanded, these result in four core disciplines: branding, product and UI/UX design, packaging design, and communication design.

Apparent Strengths

• Creativeans have a high market presence internationally, as it operates across three countries within Europe and Asia.
• Their ability to have ISO 9001:2015 and management certifications strengthen their competitive edge in locally and internationally.
• They appear to have a strong reputation as they have multiple recognition and awards.
• This recognition and awards showcase their track record and commitment "to providing the best and pushing the boundaries of creativity."

Apparent Weaknesses

• While Creativeans may seem to enjoy a high market presence, it appears that they do not have similar market penetration in other locations as in Singapore, the headquarters. This is because they apparently do not have dedicated websites and/or operate wholly-owned subsidiaries for the Italian and Indonesian markets.
• Their inability to work with large enterprises and multinational corporations could directly or indirectly affect its portfolio, reputation and prospects, as they reveal to work primarily with mid-sized companies.

Clients

• Creativeans work with mid-sized companies and institutions, including Infraco Asia, Singapore Business Federation, Parex Group, LHN Group, and others.

How They Find Clients

• The company's marketing efforts are not known but through their website, they actively showcase their value proposition and samples of their completed projects.
• They also organically advertise themselves across its social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram; however, there are no paid ads as seen on its Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
• They are also listed in popular business and PR agencies, such as Sortlist.

Locations/Offices

• Creativeans have offices in three locations: Singapore; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Milan, Italy.

Employee Count

• The company has between 11 to 50 employees.

Cognizant

• Cognizant’s main focus is to provide innovation consulting services.
• The company’s services fall under categories such as digital business (artificial intelligence, digital engineering, and others), digital operations (enterprise services, industry & platform solutions, and intelligent process automation), and digital systems & technology (application services, cloud enablement, and others).
• Examples of Cognizant’s clients include 3M and Prudential Insurance.
• Cognizant operates offices in 27 countries worldwide, which include Singapore, the United States, Argentina, Germany, South Africa, and others.
• The company has around 289,900 employees worldwide.
• Cognizant is a competitor to Board of Innovation as the company focuses on providing innovation consulting services, and its clients also include Fortune 500 companies (3M and Prudential Insurance).

GAC Group

• GAC Group’s main focus is to provide innovation consulting services.
• The company’s innovation consulting services include research & development management, intellectual property strategy, and digitalization. GAC Group also helps companies with attracting innovation funding and expanding into new markets.
• Examples of GAC Group’s clients include AXA and Sanofi.
• GAC Group operates offices in Singapore, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Romania, and Spain.
• The company has around 200 employees worldwide.
• GAC Group is a competitor to Board of Innovation as the company focuses on providing innovation consulting services, and its clients also include Fortune Global 500 companies (AXA and Sanofi).

Design Sojourn

• Design Sojourn’s main focus is to provide innovation consulting services.
• The company’s innovation consulting services include design research, strategy & translation, and transformation & implementation. Design Sojourn also offers workshops and seminars on design thinking.
• Examples of Design Sojourn’s clients include Dell and ADP.
• Design Sojourn operates one office in Singapore only, but its clients are located around the world.
• The company has seven employees.
• Design Sojourn is a competitor to Board of Innovation as the company focuses on providing innovation consulting services, and its clients also include Fortune 500 companies (Dell and ADP).

BTS

• BTS’s main focus is to provide strategic consulting services across different areas.
• The company’s innovation consulting services include digital transformation, establishing innovation culture, and building design thinking. BTS also offers strategic consulting on strategy execution, business acumen, leadership development, assessments, and salesforce transformation.
• Examples of BTS’s clients include the Coca-Cola Company and Nike.
• BTS operates offices in 23 countries worldwide, which include Singapore, the United States, Brazil, Sweden, South Africa, and others.
• The company has around 600 employees worldwide.
• BTS is a competitor to Board of Innovation as the company provides innovation consulting services, and its clients also include Fortune 500 companies (Coca-Cola Company and Nike).

Implementing Innovation Strategies

• Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore are under pressure to innovate to remain competitive.
• Despite the risk of losing business because of not innovating, SMEs are hesitant to make significant operational changes due to the high costs associated with them.
• For SMEs in Singapore, keeping up with the fast pace of change is difficult especially in a limited domestic market. Therefore, they are compelled to expand to international markets.
• Expanding to these markets requires the adoption of ERP solutions for operational efficiency, which can be costly to small and medium enterprises.
• To deal with this challenge, the government launched the SMEs Go Digital initiative. Under this program, the government allocated funds to enable SMEs reach their innovation goals. The initiative offers subsidies of up to 70% for artificial intelligence and cyber security tools.

Lower Foreign Worker Quota

•  Businesses in Singapore face the challenge of hiring and retaining local talent without relying on foreign workers.

• The Government is limiting the number of foreign workers a company can employ (Dependency Ratio Ceiling). By 2021, the proportion of foreign workers that a firm will employ is going to be 35% from 40% in 2019.
• The restrictions on hiring foreign workers has a negative impact on labor-intensive sectors such as food and beverage and retail.
• To ensure that businesses implement these changes without challenges, the Enterprise Development Grant and Productivity Solutions Grant were launched to improve efficiency in business operations and subsidize the costs of technologies that help to boost productivity.

Digital Transformation

• While adopting a digital strategy improves business performance, many businesses in Singapore have budget constraints and have to deal with a complex IT infrastructure, which prevents them from making important digital changes.
• Moreover, according to Riverbed, crucial digital applications and services are not performing as expected in many businesses.
• The failure in digital applications and services has a negative impact on sales, employee productivity, and brand loyalty.
• To ensure that companies adopt digital strategies, investments need to be made in improving service desk capabilities and accelerating application development. Furthermore, IT networks and infrastructure should be modernized to drive more agility.

Data Security

• Data breaches lead to downtime costs, business disruption, and operational interruption. As of 2018, 56% of SMEs in Singapore experienced a cyber-attack.
• While large businesses can invest in corporate cyber security, SMEs face similar threats but do not have the resources to ensure that their data is protected. Therefore, these business have security weaknesses, and hence, are targets for cyber criminals.
• A majority of data breaches occur in businesses in Singapore because of human error or system breakdowns. Furthermore, 66% of SMEs in Singapore are unaware of the cyber threats they face.
•  Forty-four percent of SMEs that experienced a cyber threat in 2018 increased their security while 22% did not take any action.
• In Singapore, businesses are required by law to ensure that their data protection is secure by making the necessary security arrangements. SMEs that do not adhere to this law are subject to penalties in the event a cyber breach occurs.

Case Study #1: Man Bites Dog Showing the Best Use of Thought Leadership with 600+ Pieces of Media Coverage

•  Man Bites Dog is the consultancy company that created The Talent Crunch campaign, the salary surge campaign, and the talent shift campaign on behalf of Korn Ferry.

• This campaign was targeting global business leaders, corporates, entrepreneurs, labor economics, KF’s talent services, and the public.
• The campaign targeted c-Suite, providing sector data, and the information of the country focused. This was achieved by marching talents with financial performance.

• The campaign was executed in three phases, and each stage had a different campaign name.
•  Phase one was named as the talent crunch campaign. This involved challenging the agreed model of labor statistics, which states that demand will always be directly proportional to supply.
• This revealed a shortage of 85.2 million skilled workers by 2030, globally. This awakened KF’s talent services because, by 2030, there will be a GDP loss of $8.5 trillion.
•  Phase two was named as the salary surge campaign. This campaign revealed a threat to companies by showcasing KF’s reward capabilities by 2030 to rise by $2.5 trillion in annual payrolls globally.
•  Phase three was named as the talent shift campaign. This was the relaunch of KF’s strategic workforce planning services to show the C-Suite their talent blind spot. About 84% of leaders agree that in the future, there will be a high demand for highly skilled workers.

•  Through the campaign, Korn Ferry "successfully positioned as a global thought leader on talent."
• There was more than "600 pieces of global media coverage" (1.1 billion online readerships, 178 million reaches, 157K social shares)
• This campaign surpassed the media targets by over 900%.
• Man Bites Dog created local content toolkit for 20 countries, segmented by sector, including white papers, infographics, and video graphics.

Case Study #2: Father-Son Bond with Samsung QLED TV Campaign

•  Cheil is the design agency that created a father-son bond with the Samsung QLED TV campaign.

• According to Samsung's chief marketing officer, Ranjivjit Singh, the primary target audience of the campaign was Samsung's customers to better their lives because they value them.
• This campaign aims to create a greater emotional connection with its consumers.

•  Cheil, Samsung's design agency, created a film that captured a young boy who was able to fulfill the dreams of his father. During the story, this young man showcases the key features of the Samsung QLED TV very efficaciously.
• The film was shared through social media and in over 35 channel stations till the end of the festive season.

• The TV campaign was rated five stars by many customers that said it was the best campaign ever made by Samsung.

Case Study #3: First Ever Car to be Driven by an AI-Powered Smartphone!

•  Red Consultancy is the company that created the first-ever car to be driven by an AI-powered smartphone!

• The primary target audience was media stations to enable efficiency in spreading the word. Also, it targeted current Huawei users and nonusers.

•  Over 140 media were invited during the launch at the mobile world congress in Barcelona.

• The campaign has reached more than 6,800 million people in over 66 countries. It has also inspired more than 4,300 pieces of coverage.
• According to Gartner, in 2018, Huawei sales went up by 13.3%.

Research Strategy