Unless you've been under a rock so far in 2020, you probably know that what was once A.T. Kearney—with roots all the way back to 1926—is now simply Kearney. The new brand emphasizes the humanity that clients, colleagues, and alumni value most in the firm, according to Alex Liu, Managing Partner and Chairman of Kearney. The new Kearney brand was shaped primarily by client perspectives, he says, and what they find distinctive and valuable in Kearney people, the way its professionals work, and how the firm contributes to client success. As part of a comprehensive review of Kearney's existing brand and value proposition, select clients provided feedback that helped define the firm's approach. Firm partners, colleagues, and alumni contributed to shaping the new brand messaging, visual identity, and a personal storytelling approach to communications. Liu sat down with Consulting to discuss the thinking behind the new brand and the new Kearney.
Consulting: A.T. Kearney's been around 94 years and has a long history in management consulting. So, why the rebrand?
Liu: A brand is always an aspiration, an articulation of purpose. It's got to be grounded in your history and, as you know, we have a long history as one of the original firms of the industry. So the brand has to stand for something that's a bit timeless; it has to look to the future, yet it has to refer to the past. The most exciting aspect of our new brand, I think, is that it so accurately captures our voice. If you strip away all the jargon, all the greed, all the frameworks—all the things that we may call vices—the greatest has always been and still remains the clients and the people at the center. The firm is the vessel for those values. And the way we looked at our rebrand is to re-affirm the solidarity and the uniqueness of our clients and our people. We really wanted to make the clients and the people the star of this show, as opposed to the firm.
Consulting: Why now?
Liu: It is a new decade and it's been eight years or so since we've asked ourselves any of these questions about our brand and who we are and who we want to be. It was good timing for a refresh and to re-affirm some of the principles the brand stand for; it's not just the look and feel, but it's also about how we interact with our clients and with our people.
Consulting: And can you talk a little bit abot the decision to drop the "A.T." from the new brand?
Liu: A.T. Kearney with the initials referred to Andrew Thomas Kearney, but we wanted to modernize it and make it more inclusive. It's not just about one person. We still have the spirit of Andrew Thomas Kearney and his fundamental principle of essential rightness in the advice we give, and how we conduct ourselves in the market and how we conduct ourselves as citizens. Essential rightness is still the oxygen and the soul of this firm.
Consulting: Can you talk a little bit about how clients were instrumental in this new brand?
Liu: Absolutely. A big piece of this exercise was us going to all of our clients and asking then what do you think Kearney stands for? What are we great at? What do we do differently? Why do we exist? We came up with a couple of fundamental insights. Clients see us as offering expertise but also empathy. What they said that we can see the expertise, but we can also see the empathy. We can see the care, we can see the commitment, we can see the confidence. We can see that you really want us to succeed. The people, therefore, are more real, relatable and refreshing. We're original. Obviously, we were also one of the original consulting firms, but they mean original in thought, original in actions. So, we really set the expertise and empathy ideas as our core insight around the entire rebranding exercise. This also cascaded, by the way, into the five core values of the firm. Generosity and solidarity are two of them, which are the fundamentals of teamwork. In addition to those two, we also have passion, curiosity and boldness, which I think are the hallmarks of excellent professionals. If you put those five ingredients together that is the fuel to link to being the difference with clients, with their problems, in their communities, the quality of the team's work. And it links to the how, right? You have to be working side-by-side with the clients. They are not privileged to work with us; we are privileged to work with them. It was really about re-affirming the key principles of the industry itself and our own unique positioning in it. And again, these are words that came directly from our clients. These are their words, not ours.
Consulting: Can you discuss the reaction internally?
Liu: The excitement of our people was very palpable. I view this as a way to energize our talent and communities. I think it will be helpful in our recruiting efforts. We really wanted to focus on the people of Kearney. In fact, in our branding and marketing we're not using stock photography anymore; we're using real photography from our people. We're moving toward using 100 percent crowdsource imagery from Kearney colleagues, which showcases their individual perspectives and worldviews. From October to December last year, we collected more than 10,000 original photographs taken by Kearney's global employees. Having your people be at the center of it, making them the hero in their quest to serve clients is so much better than the consulting industry of old. And I've been in this industry for 30 years, so I've seen the all the virtues and vices this industry has to offer, for sure. Culture beats strategy every day of the week, I see it more and more all the time.
Consulting: So, seems like as good a time as any to discuss the state of the firm, business and what you anticipate in 2020. How's the firm doing these days?
Liu: We've never been stronger. We started 2020 with the largest pipeline of committed work ever. We have the most profitable run rates. We've had double-digit growth, at least, in all our key markets and we've even doubled in a few other key areas. Our talent pipeline is full. I think the market is also moving towards us. I've had conversations with clients—they're kind of tired of not getting the best team, the best thinking, being overcharged, etc. They're looking to be treated right. We've doubled and even tripled share in some of our key clients. So, the state of the firm is quite strong. It's not perfect: our culture is not perfect, our client mix is still not where it needs to be; the quality of our revenue needs to improve but we're on our way. We've got some big and very aggressive competitors out there to keep it interesting, but we're ready.
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