Illuminating thoughts
It’s hard to believe it’s the end of the summer here on the East Coast. We’ve had quite a year so far at Orangefiery, from celebrating our 10th anniversary in NYC (thank you again to all who came out for the party!) to doubling our team size and formalizing a new leadership team to support our growing business and new offerings.
I’ve found myself reflecting quite a bit on what 10 years means. From the start, we have sought to take on our clients’ most challenging problems. In hindsight, I’m surprised at how often we’ve had the opportunity to do just that. Whether we’ve helped clients identify areas to become more customer-centric, create a market development strategy, refresh their corporate brand or reboot their corporate foundation, the assignments have been rewarding. Strategy and communications work well together.
As part of our 10-year moment, we’ve realized we need to treat ourselves like we would a client. We’re reinvigorating our channels to share with you what we think, hear and see. These quarterly updates will feature musings from me (Don’t worry, I’ll keep them short!) as well as interesting data and insights, recent client work and Orangefiery news.
Our goal is to spark curiosity and inspiration, with the hope that you’ll find value in it. Please let us know what you think and thank you for continuing to be part of our journey!
Mike Kuczkowski
CEO & Founder
Click here to join our mailing list!Igniting curiosity
Insights spotlight
We are intrigued by AI and, like many, have been piloting and testing its capabilities this year. Prompt generation is quickly becoming a critical skill. (We find today’s versions of generative AI are quite good at structuring problems; less so at creating accurate, quality content.) We’re not persuaded that AI will replace human jobs, but we’re convinced that human-machine collaboration will dominate knowledge work in decades to come.
One cautionary tale recently caught our eye. The New York Times’ The Upshot reported on research showing that when AI is training on a feedback loop of AI-generated data – which is increasingly common — it tends to degenerate into gibberish. (In response to the prompt “To cook a turkey for Thanksgiving, you…”, one chatbot kept repeating “need to know what you are going to do with your life,” like a latter-day Jack Torrence. The data visualizations in this piece are outstanding.
With AI-generated “synthetic” data now potentially training AI models, the implications are significant. If you’ve used AI to generate images, you’ve no doubt seen glitches. When it comes to images, researchers at Rice University found that because of this issue, self-consuming generative image models lead to tradeoffs between quality and diversity. In their experiment, when they ran the same query five times the images created converged on smiling, brown-haired, brown-eyed faces of European descent. (The researchers called this phenomenon MAD for Model Autophagy Disorder.) For a host of reasons, it suggests we don’t want generative AI using generative AI as training data.
What we’re listening to
What we’re reading
- How to Win an Information War, Peter Pomerantsev
- Think Again, Adam Grant
- The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
What we’re watching
- Bad Monkey
- Call the Midwife
- Succession
- Sunny
Rigor in evidence
PwC Trust Survey
PwC’s 2024 Trust Survey reveals a widening gap between executives and stakeholders when it comes to organizational trust. According to the survey, 90% of business executives think customers highly trust their companies, while only 30% of consumers do.
Connect through tech: Engaging stakeholders through digital transformations, McKinsey & Company
In a recent flash survey, 63% of respondents view AI implementation as a top priority, yet 91% disclosed they feel underprepared to deploy it responsibly. This gap highlights the critical need for strategic planning as companies navigate the use of AI—especially to maintain stakeholder connections.
Nailing the Pivot: Chief Executive
Did you know that 30% of any given sector is in transformation at any given time? This article offers valuable insights into balancing strategic vision with tactical execution—a critical skill for leaders navigating transformative change in today’s dynamic business environment.
Problem-solving spotlight
Duolingo data visualization
How did the language-learning platform Duolingo expand its presence to engage more than 100 million active users? We thought this recent article by Sherwood News was fascinating about how Duolingo has used its “make learning fun” approach to design an interface that engages its users through games and incentives.
If its gaming tactics are not enough to keep users coming back, Duolingo leveraged its social media presence to appeal to Generation Z learners on TikTok, incorporating quirky and eccentric content. In a 2022 blog post by Duolingo, the company states that approximately 60% of its U.S. users are under 30 years old and as such, their TikTok followers continue to increase, growing by 76% in the last year alone.
Spark pulse poll: What are your current and future perceptions of AI?
Link to 90-second survey
Client spotlight
SAB BIO (formerly SAb Biotherapeutics) underwent a strategic rebrand to reflect their shift toward patient-centric storytelling and showcase their strategic evolution toward changing the lives of people impacted by type 1 diabetes.
Through stakeholder interviews, brand strategy workshops and creative concept development, we worked with the SAB BIO executive team and delivered a patient-centric brand narrative, a sharp new visual identity and an updated digital presence, authentically communicating SAB BIO’s commitment to changing lives through innovative biopharmaceutical solutions. “A big thanks to the Orangefiery team for their partnership throughout this process. A great team to work and collaborate with,” said Samuel Reich, SAB BIO’s chairman and CEO.
Orangefiery in action
Announcing our new COO and CPO
We’ve expanded our C-Suite team to support our expansion. We’ve named Laura Smith as Chief People Officer and Diana Dopfel as Chief Operating Officer. As many of you know, Diana has had an incredible impact over her tenure here both with our clients and internally cultivating our unique culture, so this promotion is well-earned and a natural extension of her growth at Orangefiery. Laura is a veteran of high-growth professional services businesses and has helped us evolve our HR infrastructure significantly. Congratulations to both Diana and Laura – it is great to have our new leadership team in place!
We’ve launched our new corporate social impact practice
This summer, we formally launched our corporate social impact capability. While some organizations are deemphasizing efforts around programmatic DEI and ESG, we believe this work is more important than ever. We help clients in this space align on strategy and purpose-driven goals, while also developing the tools they need to articulate how their social impact activities tie back to their overall mission and fulfill the needs of their stakeholders. Our offerings range from strategy workshops to creating “purpose” narratives, to providing end-to-end support for strategy, programming, operating model and stakeholder engagement.
We rebranded and launched a new website!
This past spring, we refreshed our core brand to ensure it reflected who we are as a company after 10 years. This is reflected in our new visual identity and website. Explore who we are, what we do and our latest perspectives on the new website.
Making headlines
The Shoemaker’s Children Have a Brand
How do you build a brand with activation in mind? Read Mike’s recent Forbes article, “The Shoemaker’s Children Have a Brand,” to learn more about our unique approach to brands and how we activated it earlier this year for ourselves!
Guest hosting on The PR Week podcast in August
Recently, Mike joined The PR Week podcast to talk with Steve Barrett and Diana Bradley about Orangefiery’s decade-long journey tackling some of the most pressing strategy and communications challenges, our recent expansion into corporate social impact, and insights for aspiring PR agency founders.
The origins of Orangefiery on the Chris Voss Show
Mike recently joined Chris Voss’ show to share more about his personal and professional journey, including the founding of Orangefiery (not Kuczkowski Partners). Together Chris and Mike talk about how to optimize corporate communications, business strategy and organizational purpose in today’s dynamic business landscape.
Team updates
The team takes on the Subway Series!
Our team had a summer full of fun activities – including a trip to Yankee Stadium for an unforgettable Subway Series game! Our Mets fans showed up in force, while our lone Yankees supporter (kudos to Mike for holding his ground!) kept the rivalry spirit alive.
This was just one highlight of a summer packed with collaboration to welcome our new hires to the team and all get to know each other better outside of the office. We hope your summer was equally memorable. Catch you next time!
Sparking connections
Follow us on LinkedIn | Instagram
Contact us at [email protected]
Closing ember
Stay tuned for our next quarterly roundup where we’ll be wrapping up the year by sharing some of industry trends and our 2024 highlights.
Interested in learning about something new or curious about our perspective on a particular topic? We’d love to hear from you to help guide our upcoming thought leadership and other content. Get in touch with us at [email protected].