未来咨询公司的新样板

    对于客户，PSFK拥有一套组织研究以发现趋势的办法，而并不是重复主流媒体已经报道过的东西，该公司也在销售给非客户的研究报告中使用了相同的办法。PSFK在全球各地的研究人员会花几周时间收集数百个新涌现的创新案例，然后，研究人员会使用PSFK独特的识别模式来确定一种趋势。福克斯解释称，如果它能跟PSFK私有网络中的多数案例吻合，这种趋势就得到了验证。接着，PSFK会利用其庞大的外部网络收集到的专家看法和观察意见对其发现的趋势进行佐证，并会在报告中注明引用的原创性研究成果。举例来说，在《零售业的未来》这份报告中，PSFK就引用了星巴克（Starbucks）高级设计主管麦克•派克以及三星（Samsung）设计研究和战略主管麦克•米莱的观点来支持其发现的趋势，比如“数字赋权的员工”和“店中店”这些概念。

    这就是PSFK的秘诀，它并非优秀设计或高效策略的仲裁者，而是进行聚合及验证的工作，一个领风气之先的智囊。普希娅和福克斯表示，自2009年以来，这家私有公司的企业客户增长了一倍以上，并产生了公司的绝大部分营收。PSFK有大约70%的营收来自咨询业务，20%来自那些吸引到数百名与会者的会议或小型活动，另外10%则来自于赞助商和广告。

    PSFK目前的收入主要由客户研究业务推动，韦纳表示，该公司希望三项业务之间的收入能够更加平衡。要做到这一点，PSFK很可能会采用这样一种方式，即以思想先驱品牌建设或特定主题的研究报告为主体，同时吸引公司的赞助并举办相关的活动，乃至客户报告会。最近，该公司就在跟科技巨头微软和英特尔从事这方面的工作。

    同时，该公司的免费网站PSFK.com仍然人气不减。它每月的访问人数达到了100万，其中甚至包括公司咨询业务的一部分客户。PSFK.com的撰稿人和特约编辑不乏大公司的在职员工，他们在阿迪达斯（Adidas）和威登肯尼迪这些名声显赫的公司任职，往往以寥寥数百字来介绍自己感兴趣的产品。福克斯和公司的全职员工也会在网站上发表文章。最近，这些文章中就有对时代广场（Times Square）上真人大小的迪士尼（Disney）卡通形象增强现实表演的精辟观察，还有对“智能服装”的概述。这种衣服的面料植入了传感器、加速度计，以及其它工具用来测定穿着者的活动和健康状况。

    微软品牌战略团队的主管罗宾•拉纳汉说，微软品牌战略团队和未来趋势研究团队跟这家软件公司的其他员工一样，会定期阅读并讨论他们在PSFK网站上看到的东西。拉纳汉说：“他们的博客文章是了解未来趋势的必备读物，因为他们能够透过文化现象看到暗涌的潮流，在其声势壮大之前就发现它们。”

    尽管PSFK的客户名单令人印象深刻，业务能力也在不断增长，但它还不大可能威胁到麦肯锡这样一家有着85年历史、全球客户达9,000家的老牌咨询公司，或者是波士顿咨询集团（Boston Consulting Group）这样的公司，尤其是在管理咨询领域（谈到思想先驱品牌建设，PSFK尚可算是有竞争力的对手）。PSFK也没有试图跟艾迪欧（IDEO）或斯马特设计公司（Smart Design）这些有数十年历史的创新和设计公司展开竞争，这两家公司近年来也开始提供新兴科技的商业战略以及影响产品设计开发的文化趋势方面的咨询服务。

    但是实际上，这些并不是PSFK真正的抱负所在。福克斯说，PSFK希望保持灵活，保持创业公司的感觉和活力。这样一来，PSFK咨询公司及其媒体平台将继续呈现一种博客风格的好奇心和速度，通过员工个人化的新鲜品位和时尚触觉进行主流趋势以外的研究和分析。“我们希望发展壮大，但我不知道我们是否需要成为一家50人甚或100人规模的公司，”福克斯说。“我们目前做的不错的地方在于策划管理那些启发灵感的想法，帮助企业描绘一幅创新图景。”

    译者：王灿均

    For consulting clients, PSFK has a method for compiling research to discover a trend, rather than follow what's already been declared one by the mainstream media. The company also uses this method for its topic-based reports for sale to non-clients. For several weeks, PSFK researchers around the world gather hundreds of examples of emerging innovations. Then, the researchers use PSFK's method of pattern recognition to define a trend, which Fawkes explains is validated by tallying the numbers of similar examples the team has catalogued in the private PSFK intranet. The patterns are then supported by insights gained from experts that PSFK taps from its vast network, and their observations -- all primary research -- are quoted in the report. For the"Future of Retail" report, for instance, opinions from Mike Peck, Senior Design Manager, Brand and Packaging for Starbucks (SBUX), and Mike Milley, Manager of Design Research and Strategy for Samsung, backed up trends that PSFK consultants identified, such as "digitally empowered staff" or "store-within-a-store."

    And that is PSFK's secret sauce. Rather than an arbiter of good design or effective strategy, it acts as an aggregator and validator, a brain trust as much as a tastemaker. Parsia and Fawkes say that the privately held company has more than doubled the number of corporate consulting clients since 2009, which accounts for the majority of the firm's revenue. About 70% of this comes from consulting. Twenty percent of revenue comes from conferences, which draw hundreds of attendees, and smaller events. The final 10% comes from content sponsorship and advertising.

    While custom research is driving revenue today, Weiner says the company hopes that the stream will become more balanced between the three parts of the business. This is likely to take the form of commissioned thought leadership, or articles on specific topics that will be sponsored by a corporation, bundled with related events and a possible custom report. PSFK has been working recently with tech giants Microsoft and Intel on such projects recently.

    But the free, daily site PSFK.com is still a draw even for many of the company's consulting clients -- and 1 million site visitors a month. Some contributors and contributing editors have day jobs at influential companies -- from athletic gear maker Adidas to advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy -- who write posts of only a few hundred words spotting products and products that catch their eye personally. Fawkes and others on the full-time payroll also contribute. Recently, these posts have included pithy observations on Disney's (DIS) debut of life-sized augmented reality villains in Times Square, or an overview of clothing made with "intelligent textiles" embedded with sensors, accelerometers and other tools to measure wearers' activity and health.

    At Microsoft, the Brand Strategy team and Trends Council, among other employees at the software company, regularly read and discuss what they come across on PSFK's site, says Robin Lanahan, director of Brand Strategy at Microsoft. "Their blog is essential reading for keeping track of what's to come, because they see beneath the culture to the underlying trends that percolate up before they become significant," says Lanahan.

    Despite its impressive client list and growing capabilities, it's unlikely that PSFK will threaten the likes of McKinsey, an 85-year-old firm that has some 9,000 consultants worldwide, or McKinsey's peers such as Boston Consulting Group, especially in the arena of management consulting. (Although in terms of building a thought-leadership brand, PSFK could be considered an upstart competitor.) Nor is PSFK even trying to compete with the likes of decades-old innovation and design firms such as IDEO or Smart Design, which in recent years have begun to offer business strategy on emerging technology and cultural trends that affect product design and development.

    But these aren't really PSFK's ambitions. The company wants to remain nimble and keep their start-up feel and energy, says Fawkes. That way, the consultancy and its media platform will continue to provide blogger-style curiosity and speed, in terms of research and analysis of off-the-mainstream-radar trends that essentially appeal to the staff's personal, youthful tastes and stylish sensibilities. "We want growth, but I don't know whether we need to be a 50 or 100 person company," Fawkes says. "What we do well is curating inspiring ideas to help companies paint a picture where innovation can happen."