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Marketing Darwinism - by Paul Dunay
Digital Transformation, Exec Interviews, Innovation, Transformation

Exec Interview with Vinay Patel, Co-Founder of OIC Advisors

Marketing Darwinism talked to Vinay Patel, Co-Founder of OIC Advisors

  1. Tell us about OIC Advisors and its core thesis.  

                We started this company after being in professional services for most of our careers.  We’ve been around the block!  Over the years, we’ve noticed that we see the same mistakes over and over again in core areas like strategy, communications, organizational alignment, and operational execution.  Our mission is to help proactive leaders drive growth through successful transformation.  What differentiates us from the many consulting companies out there is that we take a very practical approach to solving big challenges holistically – many times, a leader brings us in to fix operational problems, but may not know that there are people problems as well.

We get results quickly – being action oriented, we dive right in, start to talk to team members, analyze existing documentation, and come up with a prioritized roadmap, usually in just a few weeks.  And we freely share IP – if we have a template or a process that will improve our clients’ situation, we freely share it.

  1. How do organizations take it when you tell them either what’s broken or what needs to be improved?

                It varies a lot – no one enjoys being told their baby is ugly!  But when a leader brings us in because their organization is not moving fast enough, not keeping pace with the rate of change of the market, or the results are not matching their expectations, it is usually a sign that they are not running at what we call “Operational Velocity.”  So, they hire us with the expectation that we will help them improve this situation, and they usually have an area of focus in mind (such as a particular organization, or a business process).  When we do our analysis, we always try to think holistically and look at the bigger picture – for example, are team members aware of the strategy of the company, do they know what metrics are critical to success, do they have role definitions for their roles?  A lot of times, there is misalignment between leadership expectations and team member reality.  So, when we surface some of these issues, there is usually a light-bulb moment, and we have great conversations about what can be done to achieve the desired results at speed.

  1. What are the themes that emerge most often when considering once-great companies that slow-down or face headwinds?

We see many common pain points again and again.  Some common themes we see are:

  • Misalignment on vision and strategy – CEOs or Founders have a vision, but it is not captured or communicated to the rest of the team, and there is no defined strategy to execute that vision.
  • Tech and process debt – we see this a lot in the largest global enterprises.  People know what the problems are, but they either don’t have the time, or the remit, to finally address them. These are often challenging because the solution needs to be cross-functional, with multiple teams in agreement on the fixes.
  • People in the wrong roles – leaders being in “aspirational” roles, or role definitions that are not clear.  There are no job descriptions, and people are hired to solve specific problems, rather than strategically move the company forward with key skillsets.
  • Portfolio Management – lack of a true product management function, not keeping pace with market changes, or lack of a differentiated, competitive portfolio of offers.
  • Toolset strategy – too many tools, lack of governance around software assets, poorly defined and implemented processes.

  1. How often are the “fixes” technological?  How often are they “people” fixes?

                There is always some component of non-technical challenges that we address.  This can be with people in wrong roles as mentioned previously, or business processes being outdated and not keeping up with the growth of the company.  When we provide a solutions roadmap, we break it down into areas like Organizational Recommendations, Technical Recommendations, and Process Recommendations, and highlight the interdependencies across each area – you can’t make foundational changes in a vacuum.  We also often see that the actual organizational design is part of the problem, the org was either NOT consciously designed, or it hasn’t been adjusted to keep up with where the company wants to go.

  1. We used to use the term “Digital Transformation” a lot.  Now we invoke AI-led efficiency.  How does a large organization transform itself while still operating and providing for customers?

                This is one of the biggest challenges that organizations and leaders face today – with the pace of change being so fast, leaders do not have the luxury of stopping the “run the business” activities at the expense of “transform the business.”  So, our recommendations include short-term fixes, quick wins, and a longer-term roadmap that builds on previous successes.  For AI specifically, there needs to be an AI governance process that covers what the AI strategy is, goals for the use of AI, what the governance process is, what data sources will be used and how, skills gaps, etc.

Also, it is imperative that all transformations include a very strong communications plan, both internally for employees and externally for customers, so that everyone is aware of the shifts that the company is making.

You cannot expect a transformation to be successful without leaders who are focused on the big rocks that need to be moved – they need time, resources, and executive backing to be able to take some cycles away from their day jobs.  But they have to show results quickly and then keep building on those results.  We have seen this work again and again, so it is possible with a bought-in leadership team and a culture that embraces change.

  1. What are the types of organizations that need OIC Advisors the most?

                Most of our clients come from organizations that are having difficulty scaling and growing.  We find that we are most successful in organizations that have leadership who are acutely aware that they need to evolve and change, and are ready to make difficult decisions, and to bring their team along on the journey.  The size of the organization is not the most critical success criteria – we have made significant progress and received endorsements from large Fortune 50 clients as well as start-ups with less than 100 people.  We usually work with technology companies because they are rapidly evolving and need to pivot quickly or else they become obsolete.

  1. As we go into 2026, what do leaders need to think about most?

               They need crystal clarity on what they are trying to achieve in the coming year and whether they are setting their team up for success.  Because that implies that success is defined and can be measured, and daily noise can be filtered if it does not affect your definition of success.  Also, do I as a leader have the right tools and resources to position my organization for success?  This includes technical tools, financial resources, people resources with the right skillsets, and operational tools that allow the team to efficiently achieve their goals.  We see innovative and disruptive solutions like AI do the exact OPPOSITE of what they should: they disrupt the organization’s business by flooding it with noise, pilot projects, evaluations, and a fear of being left behind.  Instead, these programs should be clearly managed with business outcomes in mind and administered as critical transformation projects, including factors such as organizational design and governance.

October 20, 2025by Paul Dunay
Digital Transformation, Exec Interviews, Leadership, Transformation

Digital Transformation – Brass Tacks: Interview with Dharmesh Godha, President Advaiya

Marketing Darwinism:  Dharmesh you’ve been on our pages before, welcome back.  Tells us about the progress at Advaiya.

Dharmesh: Thanks Paul.  2020 has been a year of massive amplitudes.  In society, there are many people who are suffering and have lost loves ones and jobs. In the business world, companies of all sizes have been jolted into a new state of being; many have realized that all of the earlier talk about sustainability, disaster recovery, and- frankly- agility was real.  Black swan events happen and will happen and companies need the digital infrastructure and a corresponding culture to manage through them.  We’ve been very fortunate to be able to help a variety of organizations through this process this year.

Marketing Darwinism:  Can you give us more specifics? Can we move away from “Digital Transformation” as a one-size fits all approach?

Dharmesh:  We agree.  The details and nuances are the nub of the matter.  We believe very strongly in a vertical contextuality not just a patina of “understanding” that is really in practice superficial.  I can’t help a Financial Services company create a digital backbone if I don’t understand its customers, its regulatory environment, and the changing landscape in the space.  Similarly, we’ve seen the healthcare system buckle under lack of capacity because earlier consultants thought of them as “any old” industry and convinced them to be “just in time.” In reality, they are a social service that requires a peak load view not a base load view.  These snapshots of vertical insight differentiate us often.

Marketing Darwinism:  In a WFH or now Work-From-Anywhere context, how do organizations need to think about digitization?

Dharmesh:  We have believed in WFA and SFA (Source from Anywhere) for a long time.  We have understood that the best talent for the job can be found anywhere and that our customers themselves are not fixed in time and space.  We believe that in a WFH and WFA context, the “silicon” isn’t the full solution- people and culture are a big part of the equation.  Technology infrastructure and applications need to enable them to uncover new scenarios and act on them.  That is the heart of real innovation and progress.

Marketing Darwinism:  How is Advaiya’s growth orientation?

Dharmesh:  Over the last 5 years, we’ve had a continuous, secular growth trajectory.  Q2 of this year was a hiccup as we all adjusted to the new reality of Covid.  But as companies sought change and wisdom and frankly help in Q3, we’ve seen our growth return.  Right now, we are focused purely on customers and partnerships; growth will persist if we maintain that focus.

Marketing Darwinism:  You work a lot in aiding marketing organizations.  How is that going?

Dharmesh:  In our incarnation as an agency- for content, digital assets, analytics, visualization of data, and so on, we attempt to be an organic part of the teams we support.  Marketing teams have been wonderful to work with- at times we are simply a human-being extension and at times we are developing markets together.  None of our offerings are atomic- they all connect to a larger marketing reality.

Marketing Darwinism:  What’s next?

Dharmesh:  We have a lot planned for 2021. We are continuing our big push with applications and infrastructure but also with our “last mile” customer work.  As we grow in both North America and Asia, we’ve been able to bring on some exceptional talent.  As with everything, they’ll help us define what is next!

December 14, 2020by Paul Dunay
Exec Interviews, Transformation

Interview with Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder and CEO of QuestionPro

Marketing Darwinism spoke to an old friend and associate, Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder and CEO of QuestionPro.

Marketing Darwinism: Vivek, some big changes in QuestionPro I see. Can you tell us more?

Vivek: Paul, thanks. Yes, we’ve moved the company to Austin, Texas and are ready for our next large phase of investment and growth. We hit 200 people and I realized that we were no longer the scrappy startup full of hungry, footloose folks. We are now an established brand with world-class talent and as such wanted to find a city that would sustain us as we double revenue and increase the team substantially. Austin has proved to be a perfect location for QP.

Marketing Darwinism: Other than the move, what else is new and exciting at QP?

Vivek: Well, we’ve been asked by customers, partners, and users to help them use research, information gathering, and other elements to provide amazing experiences to their customers and ecosystem; as we thought about their feedback, we realized that while twenty years ago, we were a “survey” company, we are now truly a company that facilitates what we call “e(t)” or “experience transformation.” The markets are simply too crowded for any organization to NOT help its customers provide experiences to their customers. We are very happy with this concept, which we see not so much as a pivot but as a continuation of our QP proposition.

Marketing Darwinism: Vivek, QuestionPro has a set of “sister” companies that you’ve helped create. Tell us about them.

Vivek: Well, even though we try to be humble, I must say that when I look at the family of companies that I’ve helped build, lead, and grow, I think first of my incredible partners in crime- the team. QuestionPro has people all across the globe- who think about the mothership as well as Ideascale and TryMyUI, both lead by incredible friends and leaders. There are so many synergies in the QP family of companies and each has grown magnificently. We know it’s a combination of hard-work and luck so every day we thank our customers and amazing associates for their contributions to this.

Marketing Darwinism: What are some of the factors that aren’t captured in the numbers? Is there some sort of secret sauce?

Vivek: Well, I could say it’s our culture but so many organizations have great cultures. Frankly, I think it’s our business model which has always been predicated on ease of adoption, intense listening, and frictionless service. When your mantra is that you have to shave all friction out of the company in order to do what’s right- at the right price- for tens of thousands of customers then you’ll be successful irrespective of other factors. Well, you do need a great product too!

Marketing Darwinism: How does Marketing fit into your growth planning?

Vivek: Throughout our history, we’ve oscillated on this question but now, we take marketing and the marketing community incredibly seriously. In fact, my mentor is a marketer who lives in the Seattle area and he has always beat me up on this matter. We’ve realized that great marketers think about audiences and experiences and worry a bit less about the numbers and ROI. They come from audience and experience. So, yes, we are investing heavily in marketing and it has paid dividends.

Marketing Darwinism: Any parting thoughts?

Vivek: Well, I want to leave your readers with just a few thoughts. First, please check out QuestionPro and send me feedback if we don’t wow you. Second, for my fellow founders out there, build the company you want to build not the company that others put pressure on you to build. Finally, simplify always. Nothing else works.

January 29, 2020by Paul Dunay
Advertising, Advocates, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Branding, Cause Marketing, Conversion, Conversion Optimization, Customer Experience, Data Mining, Influencer, Innovation, Interactive Marketing, Internet, Lead Generation, Optimization, Reputation Management, Social Media, Strategy, Transformation, User Generated Content

7 Ways Blockchain can Transform Marketing

Here’s a great video of me and Aseem Badshah the CEO of Socedo, a social media lead generation tool, talking about 7 ways Blockchain can transform marketing! We hope you enjoy it …

January 26, 2018by Paul Dunay
Agile Marketing, Business Intelligence, Content Marketing, Conversational Marketing, Innovation, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, ROI, Social Media, Social Networking, Thought Leadership, Transformation

Are Marketers over indexing on ROI and the return of the Marketing Mix?

Two of my very good friends, Romi Mahajan of the KKM Group and Aseem Badshah of Socedo shot a video discussing our most recent blog post on the Return of the Marketing Mix. Ultimately, marketing is a mix of channels, tactics, and bets, of which some are measurable and some are not. It’s time for marketers to reclaim their role as engagers, risk-takers, and experimenters!!

January 16, 2018by Paul Dunay
Data Analytics, Transformation

Digital Transformation as an Expression of Business

In much of industry, the idea of “Digital Transformation” has taken root. At the core of this process is the need to replace antiquated and “slow” processes, products, and service offerings with agile, automated, and “smart” processes, products, and service offerings. In addition, digital transformation is about the inclusion of all potentially interested parties (employees, partners, customers, influencers) in the creation and execution of new lines of business and innovation.

While the concept of Digital Transformation has been around in the entire Internet Age, necessary elements have indeed been missing. First, not always were the underlying technologies ready for “prime-time.” What works in manicured and controlled environments doesn’t always work at scale or in fast-moving, instant-decision environments. Second, the culture of transformation has not always been present with many forces internally and externally being focused on the power of the status quo. Third, Digital Transformation requires the foregrounding of certain parts of the organization at the perceived expense of others parts. With these constraints, the prevailing scenario for transformation has been characterized by the gap between intention and execution.

Of the organizational barriers that impede the progress for Digital Transformation, the schism between IT and Business is perhaps the most profound. Business users in organizations are governed by entirely different imperatives than IT teams are. While business changes, roles and cultures do not always keep up with the dynamism of business models and the directives that come out of the C-suite.

Business users are defined by the “Power of NOW!” while IT is chartered with issues of security, governance, compliance (and at times control) that if applied in the canonical methodology, are antagonistic to the time-based agility that has come to define modern business.

This happens even when IT teams and Business teams are friendly and believe in the same overall set of goals. This is the result of technology configurations that were not flexible or adaptive, two defining characteristics of true Digital Transformation.

When IT and Business are in Harmony, agility is possible in a way that does not run afoul of the core mandates of IT. When IT and Business are in structural harmony, all of the manic energies of the organization can be trained on the same end goal.

Running IT like a Business and running Business in an IT-native world are keys to Digital Transformation. At stake here is the ability of organizations to navigate the shoals of modernity and complexity, in which every expanding pools of data and ever-growing avenues of expansion characterize business.

As such, Digital Transformation is the ultimate expression of IT-Business Harmony and IT-Business Harmony is the starting point of real Digital Transformation.

Guest post by:
Romi Mahajan, KKM Group
Srini Venugopal, Epicor Software

May 11, 2017by Paul Dunay

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Welcome to my blog, my name is Paul Dunay and I lead Red Hat's Financial Services Marketing team Globally, I am also a Certified Professional Coach, Author and Award-Winning B2B Marketing Expert. Any views expressed are my own.

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