Transformation Beyond Advertising

Imagining the Purpose-Driven Future of Communications at SYPartners

“The 21st century will be equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today’s rate of progress; organizations have to be able to redefine themselves at a faster and faster pace.”

                                                                             – Ray Kurzweil, Director of Engineering, Google

With the rapidity of change happening in the world and in business, companies’ communication strategy must transcend traditional advertising. Having core values is no longer enough. If a company is to remain successful, it must find a compelling way to make their purpose stick both internally and externally. Successful business growth almost always requires internal cultural transformation, however, identifying exactly what needs to change can be quite daunting. Often, a company will enlist external expertise. SYPartners (SYP) is a strategy and design consultancy that occupies a powerful niche in the world of strategic communications.

SYP helps Fortune100 leaders leaders transform their organizations, their teams, and themselves by establishing a clearer connection to the company’s purpose. The result? New strategy development, organization, design, culture, new offerings, experiences, and communication tools. To gain a deeper understanding of SYP’s method, we approached Senior Strategist Jacques J. Swartz.

Rachel, Lauren and Pandu at the SYPartners office in NYC

SYP has a unique value proposition in its identity as a “transformation consultancy.” Can you tell us more about what it means to focus on transformation?

We work with clients to help them articulate a bold and ambitious vision for the future and then plan the way forward accordingly. Our clients come to us when there’s a meaningful inflection point. There might be a new CEO taking the reins, or the company might be experiencing changes in their market in terms of disruption or new entrants. Each client-serving team consists of a fusion of three disciplines: strategy, design, and program management. Everybody's working together: every strategist has design sense, every program manager thinks strategically about the work, and every designer understands the dynamic of the client relationship.

In looking at your clients' transformative moments, what trends do you see?

I’m going to name a bias of mine: I’m really resistant to naming trends. I think they’re often overstated, and things are more ambiguous, complex, and random in practice.

•  One trend is companies that enter new markets, who must consider deeply what it means to be a global organization. What does it look like to lead from New York City, when we also have to be responsive to what’s happening on the ground in Beijing?

• There are also key technologies being developed that are affecting everyone broadly, like cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things…Clients come to us when they see potential opportunities among these changes.

You came to SYP after being the Director of Strategy at Eyeball, a brand strategy agency. How would you compare the brand strategy world to your work at SYP?

In branding, your job to find a point of view about a product, company, or service that will be compelling to its customers. After a while in branding, I realized that more than just the brand matters to these company’s futures. I started to have a point of view on the decisions the organizations were making. I wanted to go deeper than just the brand strategy. I wanted to think about how I could help these companies think differently in the long-term, and not just how to could help them with a single campaign.

For those who might be interested in working at SYP, what skills, perspectives, and attitudes are most valuable to cultivate?

Standing in the shoes of another human . The ability to empathize, and to think from beyond your personal perspective and position. We also appreciate having talent from a range of fields; people at SYP come from many backgrounds. This diversity of skill sets and perspectives helps us bring creativity our work and ensures fresh solutions to complex problems.

Contributing writers: Lauren Glover, Rachel Rubin, Pandu Maulana

Want to Learn More?

• The Human Side of Transformation