|
Laurence Bernstein has a diverse background of unrelated skills and activities, culminating in his current focus on helping companies understand the people they deal with, internally and externally, and guiding them on how to deliver meaningful experiences all around. In an odd way, he calls this brand consulting, and he accomplishes it through the auspices of the company he founded 10 years ago, The Bay Charles Consulting Group.
Protean Strategies makes magic happen by finding new ways to understand how people integrate products and services into their lives. This empathic understanding is combined with what is known about the product, the cultural and social context of the customers and the dreams and visions of the company, followed by intensive praying that some greater insight will crystallise from the ether. This is called Rainmaking: not really making it rain, but making the conditions right so it wants to rain!
Laurence Bernstein has made magic in a number of countries (UK, Germany, US, Denmark, Canada), many categories (cars, planes, tourism, banks, liver disease, and almost everything else) and in many segments (private, public, not for profit). He has developed gay and lesbian marketing strategies for companies around the world and is considered something of a thought leader in this space.
As researchers, Laurence has always been a thought leader, trying to develop innovative, robust and interesting methodologies to learn about people and stuff in the maximum depth with the minimum effort (i.e. cost). Together with Professor Bruce Barnes, Baycharles lead the way in applied Jungian psychoanalytics with the extremely successful Inner Directives methodology. Lately Protean has been developing ways of applying behavioural economics to insight gathering, using thin slicing and predictive market theories.
In the last ten years or so Laurence has penned an almost unending trickle of highly opinionated and contrarian literature on a wealth of subjects, including marketing and related disciplines. In spite of a sad record of annoying and even offending people, these articles, white papers and scribblings have appeared in publications and blogs in Canada, USA, UK, Germany and Italy. He has been a featured speaker at marketing and related convocations in Canada, US, UK, Holland, and has been invited to present topics and seminars at universities and colleges across this great nation.
Laurence is a graduate of Cornell University and is a member of the Cornell University Trustee Council, and the Cornell Arts Committee. He has worked for major hotel brands, advertising agencies (Saatchi and Saatchi, Chiat Day, Y&R) and was managing partner at RPM, one of Toronto’s most innovative and successful dance clubs. His worldview has been honed by stints living in the UK, US, Germany and, of course, being born and raised in South Africa.
Laurence lives in Toronto with his long-term partner and two cats.
Laurence on Laurence
“Three things temper my approach to work and play: a belief that the primacy of the West (North America specifically) is being over shadowed by other cultures and philosophies, largely due to our collective inability to envision, celebrate and amplify change; secondly, an almost Jungian belief that our culture is guided inexorably by a weird sort of spiritual commune; and, finally, that, in spite of it all, a shared vision for a greater future can bring us to a better place.
“Based on this I believe that we need to: understand the greatest internal and external relevance of whatever it is we are doing; understand and exploit collaborative intelligence, and find new and intriguing ways to understand the shared (or soon-to-be-shared) vision between people (whom some call clients, others call consumers and still others call stakeholders.
“Other than the above, I confess to being a closet computer geek and obsessive news junkie.”
Laurence Bernstein has a diverse background of unrelated skills and activities, culminating in his current focus on helping companies understand the people they deal with, internally and externally, and guiding them on how to deliver meaningful experiences all around. In an odd way, he calls this brand consulting, and he accomplishes it through the auspices of the company he founded 10 years ago, The Bay Charles Consulting Group.
Protean Strategies makes magic happen by finding new ways to understand how people integrate products and services into their lives. This empathic understanding is combined with what is known about the product, the cultural and social context of the customers and the dreams and visions of the company, followed by intensive praying that some greater insight will crystallise from the ether. This is called Rainmaking: not really making it rain, but making the conditions right so it wants to rain!
Laurence Bernstein has made magic in a number of countries (UK, Germany, US, Denmark, Canada), many categories (cars, planes, tourism, banks, liver disease, and almost everything else) and in many segments (private, public, not for profit). He has developed gay and lesbian marketing strategies for companies around the world and is considered something of a thought leader in this space.
As researchers, Laurence has always been a thought leader, trying to develop innovative, robust and interesting methodologies to learn about people and stuff in the maximum depth with the minimum effort (i.e. cost). Together with Professor Bruce Barnes, Baycharles lead the way in applied Jungian psychoanalytics with the extremely successful Inner Directives methodology. Lately Protean has been developing ways of applying behavioural economics to insight gathering, using thin slicing and predictive market theories.
In the last ten years or so Laurence has penned an almost unending trickle of highly opinionated and contrarian literature on a wealth of subjects, including marketing and related disciplines. In spite of a sad record of annoying and even offending people, these articles, white papers and scribblings have appeared in publications and blogs in Canada, USA, UK, Germany and Italy. He has been a featured speaker at marketing and related convocations in Canada, US, UK, Holland, and has been invited to present topics and seminars at universities and colleges across this great nation.
Laurence is a graduate of Cornell University and is a member of the Cornell University Trustee Council, and the Cornell Arts Committee. He has worked for major hotel brands, advertising agencies (Saatchi and Saatchi, Chiat Day, Y&R) and was managing partner at RPM, one of Toronto’s most innovative and successful dance clubs. His worldview has been honed by stints living in the UK, US, Germany and, of course, being born and raised in South Africa.
Laurence lives in Toronto with his long-term partner and two cats.
Laurence on Laurence
“Three things temper my approach to work and play: a belief that the primacy of the West (North America specifically) is being over shadowed by other cultures and philosophies, largely due to our collective inability to envision, celebrate and amplify change; secondly, an almost Jungian belief that our culture is guided inexorably by a weird sort of spiritual commune; and, finally, that, in spite of it all, a shared vision for a greater future can bring us to a better place.
“Based on this I believe that we need to: understand the greatest internal and external relevance of whatever it is we are doing; understand and exploit collaborative intelligence, and find new and intriguing ways to understand the shared (or soon-to-be-shared) vision between people (whom some call clients, others call consumers and still others call stakeholders.
“Other than the above, I confess to being a closet computer geek and obsessive news junkie.”
Articles By Laurence Bernstein:
|
 |
 |
Business Communication
