Michael Dunn built a consultancy without even knowing it. Dunn spent a few years building up software startup and custom software firms. But after signing on with what was then Prophet Market Research, with the idea he would bring his revenue-growth strategies to yet another company, he instead soon realized where the business was headed. "What I ended up finding out was I was actually building a consulting business," Dunn says with a laugh. "The client service part of it, working with prospective clients to help them understand what their problems were and to bring strategic thinking or solutions to them was very consistent with what I had done before." But he had to play catchup when it came to practice building and people development, he adds.
Now 10 years in and CEO of Prophet, Dunn is quite a fan of the industry he accidently found himself in. "The beauty of consulting is that it kind of evolves and you can kind
of show up with new problem-solving approaches, new tools and new value propositions for clients that can continually be evolved and refreshed, and so that part has been very exciting; I like that."
The large strategy issues that the firm is tackling also are attractive to Dunn, particularly as Prophet, which has about 110 billable consultants, has migrated from the market research space to the branding space. "When I was running the IT services company, it always felt like the projects we were working on were really important to our IT buyers. It still felt like the things we were working on were a couple of steps removed from the core of the business.
"So what I loved about the move to consulting, especially the marketing and brands space, was the level of importance that the problems we were addressing had in the overall story for our companies. The nature of the questions that we're being asked to solve, and how important those questions are to the overall health and viability of our clients' businesses—that part is very sexy. It's very sexy; it's very intoxicating."
One of the biggest challenges in the marketing space today, he says, is the lack of accountability—namely the idea of doing something just because it's the way it's always been done. Another is the challenge of differentiation, something Dunn defines as an "eternal search." However, with the right advisers in place, they are challenges Prophet is ready and able to address.
As the client roster grows, Dunn says he sees plenty of growth for his firm, and sees opportunities for potential acquisitions and clients alike all over the map. The current state of the U.S. market doesn't worry Dunn, as Prophet's non-U.S. growth grew by 80 percent last year. Acquiring a few small firms that specialize in marketing ROI and innovation will provide a most robust suite of services to clients, who are typically, Dunn says, division presidents with P&L responsibilities.
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