Photon launches The Leading Edge in New York
Photon Group has made on if its first business expansion moves since the company’s perilous debt problems came to light, launching a New York office of The Leading Edge.
The announcement:
NEW YORK, November 17 – The Leading Edge, one of Australia’s most innovative custom research firms, is launching a presence in North America. This is part of a strategy to globalize its business proposition to better serve a growing list of multi-national clients. The firm continues its global expansion, adding a New York City office to its existing agencies in Sydney, Singapore and London.
Newly-appointed New York CEO and Founding Partner, Daniel Binns, joins the company from Omnicom-owned Interbrand where he established their global corporate social responsibility and sustainability practice.
Prior to Interbrand, Daniel was worldwide account lead at McCann Worldgroup for both Coca-Cola and Unilever. Binns says “Clients are increasingly looking for strategic thinking based on facts and analytical rigor. However, they don’t want to lose the creative spark that turns an interesting opportunity into a truly compelling business idea. We believe The Leading Edge’s fusion of research and strategy skills perfectly meets this need and that’s what attracted me to this opportunity.”
Australia-based global CEO, Andy Bateman, comments “Daniel was the perfect choice to head up our New York business. His strong consulting and strategic skills, combined with his experience in helping global clients realize their growth ambitions are the perfect credentials for this position. In addition to that his, extensive experience in running businesses in markets around the world make him an extremely qualified CEO. ”
Binns adds, “Research can at times be flat, one-dimensional and devoid of commercial reality. The Leading Edge’s approach of adding highly experienced strategic consultants to the business, provides clients with rich, multi-dimensional and truly actionable insights. This proposition is certainly resonating with clients and we are already working on a wide range of projects, particularly in the consumer goods, global healthcare and global media sectors.”
Bateman also joined The Leading Edge earlier this year, from Interbrand, where he was CEO of the New York Office. Under his leadership, The Leading Edge is expanding both its geographic base and its service offering to better serve a growing number of international clients.
Bateman notes “In most maturing segments and markets, the last chance that clients have to differentiate themselves is in the identification and application of superior customer understanding and insight. It’s not about research for research’s sake but about identifying and activating an unfair advantage. We’re retooling and reorganizing our business to meet this emerging need in the marketplace.”
The Leading Edge New York will offer clients strategic, and innovative market research and customer insight, high-end analytic modeling, brand, product and corporate strategy, as well as an ability to help clients take these resulting strategies through to execution. The Leading Edge’s implementation capabilities include employee engagement, product and service innovation, customer experience design and go-to-market strategy development.
Source: The Leading Edge press release
