For a company that started out as a marketing research agency, Prophet has been a good pretender over the years. But the reality is that its core corporate culture and design have never really mixed. Granted, there are excellent brand creatives at Prophet - but they put up with a lot.
Change your stripes: there will be an expectation that you will act, think and speak like a management consultant. You will need to worry about utilisation, profitability, pricing and level of project discount, irrespective of rank. Of course there will be sky-high expectations of what you can achieve with unreasonable timelines.
Patronised by strategists: I remember a moment of celebration when someone was promoted to design director in New York - the whole thing gets shared live in a company-wide broadcast, and the reason she was promoted was 'she's great at making things look pretty'. For the consulting team, design exists to 'beautify' content. It's a top-down mindset that is prevalent in every office.
Overlooked by digital: in its attempt to become more 'digital' Prophet has been hiring senior leadership from places like Fjord and Huge. These people come in with limited understanding of brand but license to create digital design fiefdoms that look down on 'traditional' design. A mess that only leads to attrition.
