About Barbara Perry Associates

Staff

Barbara Perry, PhD, is founder and president of Barbara Perry Associates. BPA is a "virtual" organization. The associates are a network of distinguished, senior consultants with a variety of specialties, who come together on a project basis.

Dr. Perry brings a cultural anthropologist's perspective to her work with organizations. In her twenty-five years of consulting to Fortune 500 companies across a broad variety of categories, the focus has been on supporting their effectiveness as a team to not only see new opportunities, but be able to realize them.

She pioneered the use of ethnographic methods to get closer to the consumer. Her emphasis is on developing internal, cross-functional capability to go out into the consumer's environment and see with new eyes the underlying values and assumptions that give meaning to their experience and drive their behavior. Her proprietary methodology is being applied in a variety of ways including:

Human Centered New Product Development: to spur innovation at the "fuzzy front end," by uncovering unarticulated opportunities, unmet needs and the very early signs of emerging trends.
Market Development: to explore a potential new market or strategy for which a company has no "feel," and begin to scope out the areas of opportunity.
Brand and Communication Strategy: to identify the essence of a brand's meaning to both consumers and employees as the authentic platform from which to launch new products and services; to develop a new internal paradigm of the consumer's experience; to create more connected and relevant ways of speaking with the consumer.
Internal Organization Development: to build cross-functional teams and organizations aligned around the consumer's needs; to develop processes and cultures that foster customer-focused innovation.

Dr. Perry's publications include works on developing a team-based culture, dialogue, organizational learning and the use of anthropological methods to nurture innovation. Her recent book, Putting Hope to Work, (with Harry Hutson, Jr. Greenwood; 2006) was named by Harvard Business Review as one of twenty important ideas that leaders should have on their radar screens for 2007. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and internal seminars.

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