Qindle in MT/sprout
Intel, Nvidia, Cadence… they all know the work of Dutch creative consultancy Qindle
Amsterdam-based Qindle is better known in Silicon Valley than in the Netherlands. Their secret? Combining creativity with strategic consultancy in a different way than the more traditional agencies do. ‘We have down-to-earth conversations about big topics.’
Amsterdam’s Qindle is better known in Silicon Valley than in the Netherlands. ‘The CEO of Intel knows us, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, knows our work.’ Still, that’s pretty special to mention during an interview with MT/Sprout. How did founders Taco Schmidt (ceo), Ype Jorna (cco) and Wolter Prinsen (retired) do it? They combine creativity and strategic consultancy in the boardroom, a gap in the market they discovered in 2017.
Power in the combination
They are not interested in building yet another design agency, but dreaming of something different, ‘something big and compelling’. With creative thinking they want to make a much greater strategic impact, to influence the fundamental choices that precede such a briefing. The best place for that is the boardroom. Around the time they started, a lot of big consultancy firms acquired creative agencies. ‘Because they wanted to do more than just write a report and hand it in, so to speak. That also has to result in action in the organization and creatives are very focused on the result. So there is enormous power in that combination.’ What they also see is that the creative teams at those same big consultancies are quickly snowed under. For their new startup Qindle, they want to combine the qualities of a strategic consultancy and a design agency. The set up really needs to be fifty-fifty, otherwise creativity and consultancy do not reinforce each other. They started their careers in the creative industry, where they also founded and managed successful design agencies as entrepreneurs, and thereby understand those marketing and communications briefings from the back of their hand. ‘Make something beautiful, or something smart, sustainable or cost-efficient, or a combination of those.’
Brainpower at Intel
Only, that new concept is still completely unknown. How on earth do they get into the C-suite? Pure luck, they admit – and a lot of hard work. Through a C-suite leader they had been in contact with before. ‘He made the switch from AMD to Intel to build a new business stack. He needed extra brainpower.’ For two weeks, Schmidt and Jorna, travelled to Santa Clara to map out the entire strategy of Intel Arc, today a well-known brand for gamers and content creators. We wrote everything down on whiteboard, from the technology roadmap to how the products should reach consumers a few years later. At that time with fifteen people, now there are 20,000. ‘The team at Intel has grown based on that strategy. For us it is proof that we were on the right track.’Puzzle pieces at Philips
After a two-year process, the ball continues to roll within Intel. More business units are asking for ‘the magic’. The concept is also gaining traction beyond that. Qindle now has quite a few well-known names in its portfolio, including Altera, Flex.AI, Adidas, Haier, Amgen and Analog Devices. At Philips, for example, a very different puzzle had to be solved. In its Personal Health division, the number of packaging designs increased over time. With a wide range of products and varying requirements from local markets and partners, the count had climbed to 900 different packaging formats. ‘That had a slowing effect on sustainability, on the speed of product launches and new brand experiences.’ Qindle aligned all departments involved and reduced the number of packaging types to less than ten. ‘From the initial sessions with the management team to running a production line, and all the steps in between. We ensured that all stakeholders are aligned and understand why this is happening. If we were a traditional design agency, we would simply create a packaging design. Instead, what’s now in place is a much broader strategy that solves a business problem.’
Cadence looks at Nvidia
More recently, there was the briefing they received for Cadence CEO Anirudh Devgan. They quote him directly: “I want a presentation like Jensen Huang from Nvidia. I want to make a strong impression, because we are just as important to the global AI revolution. That’s storytelling, but there’s a whole layer of strategy behind how they present technology.” The scale-up now has thirty people on board, and the ambition is to continue growing steadily and organically, including in the Netherlands and across Europe. “Eighty to ninety percent of what we’re working on right now won’t be found on our website. We can only talk about it once the product reaches the consumer.” Qindle’s core activity is still centered in Silicon Valley. “There, we see the combination of creativity and consultancy being used for a very different purpose. We’re no longer the magicians who make things look good, we’ve became the architects of the narrative. And that’s where we’re really making a difference for the business.”
Understanding the impact
What also plays a role, they explain, is that companies in Silicon Valley tend to be technically driven. “The C-suite often sets the pace and defines the technical solution themselves. That kind of leadership is still shaping the company’s future and strategy. In less tech-driven companies, you often see the C-suite more in a governance role.” Tech companies regularly need to make major changes to their product portfolios. Their leaders are therefore highly focused on understanding the impact of those decisions. “If you need to gather input from every department just to figure out what a change means for the end user, you can easily lose up to six months.” “We can deliver that insight fairly quickly and with reasonable precision, without having to go through every layer of the organization.” By developing a prototype in a relatively short time, or by creating a use case for a proposition, they help bring clarity. “This is what you’ll be offering, was that the intention behind your technical decision? We help sketch the right picture and what can be done with it. And that has enormous value.”
Traditional consultancy
Naturally, they often encounter the classic consultants in the boardroom as well. “The McKinseys and Bains don’t quite understand what we do. They find us a bit difficult to pin down. They still focus on their analyses, while we look at what those insights mean for the rest of the organization, or for the other products in the portfolio.” Traditional consultancy typically focuses on optimizing individual silos: leadership teams, supply chains, or production processes. A vertical improvement, so to speak. At Qindle, as a creative consultancy, we take a more holistic approach. “We work horizontally across the entire organization, connecting teams, departments, and strategies. That’s the key difference.” “What gets said at C-level has to pass through a whole series of stations – R&D, supply chain, marketing – before it finally reaches the consumer as a product or service. The success of an innovation depends on connecting all those different stations. That’s what we do, and it’s how we keep innovation from getting stuck in a silo.”
No threat
What also helps is that the Dutch are known in the U.S. for not being overly impressed by hierarchy. Especially in Silicon Valley, that’s appreciated. “The board genuinely enjoys having us there. Because we help with their ideas, with telling their stories.” “We’re not threatening to them, they interact with us in a very informal way. We talk about very big topics as normal people. And we take that seriously. Creatives are always trying to make the world just a little bit better. They care about sustainability, about equality.” Schmidt and Jorna believe that their presence in the boardroom also gives those topics a voice. Not that they can change company policy overnight, but they “move things a little,” “shift the lens slightly.” They’ve noticed that the accessible nature of the creative perspective actually works in their favor at the boardroom table. Traditional consultancies, by contrast, have a very different effect. “When one of the big consultancy firms walks into the room, everyone sits up straight, even the CEO. The atmosphere changes instantly.”
Read the article in Dutch here
