If the Q&A below doesn’t answer your question, feel free to give us a call or drop us an email. +1 804 612 8796 / conversation@thefrontierproject.com.
Why “Project”?
We believe the quality of decision-making in most organizations is far from optimal, with short-term, legacy-shaped decision-making being the norm. Our mission is to help organizations develop a strategic decision-making style that incorporates the full gamut of economic, social and environmental implications that provides a sustainable return on investment.
Another goal of the Project is to raise the level of public engagement with social, economic and environmental problems.
We do this through the learning & development and experiential strategy programs we build, especially in the areas of innovation and diversity. In addition, we run Frontier Sessions where we bring a cross section of smart people together to address a key social issue and generate potential solutions. And for our series, “An Evening With…” we bring in globally renowned experts for a night of debate with a diverse audience of business people, politicians, educators and community activists.
Why? Because we care… and believe it’s better to act than sit back and complain.
See also…
Why “Frontier”?
We believe that by synthesizing the disciplines of business school theory: psychology, behavioral economics, cultural anthropology and negotiation theory, we can take a stakeholder approach to strategy that keeps us ahead of emerging trends and allows us to rapidly reposition clients to more advantageous positions.
You all travel a lot. do you have recommended places to stay for an engaging visit?
Yep, you can see our recommended hotels at this Google Map.
Do you accept credit cards?
Heck yeah we do. We’ve found that many of our clients need just a few hours of consulting time here and there to supplement their thinking on projects, and putting these types of charges on their purchase cards is much easier than going through the procurement process. If you’re looking for a few “booster” executive coaching sessions or maybe just an independent set of ears to sit in on a meeting with you, we’ve taken the hassle out of making those things happen. Call Bailey, our Studio Chief, for scheduling and credit card processing.
Why is “to be most engaging” your goal?
Our goal is to be the most engaging strategy and leadership development firm. It’s not that we don’t aspire also to be the smartest or brightest or most charming firm, but more that we believe what really matters is that our clients are engaged with the material and actually execute the changes we recommend or the techniques we teach. The measure is not how smart we are, but the long-term impact of our work.
Why don’t you post exec ed syllabi to your website?
We talked (argued) long and hard about this one. In the end we decided posting detailed syllabi to our website might be a little too tempting for our peers in other firms to ‘borrow’ the material. If you’re interested in learning more about a particular program design, feel free to contact us at conversation@thefrontierproject.com. We would love to have you visit the studio to enjoy some great French press coffee and we’ll walk you through it. (Out of town clients will have to settle for for a phone call without the coffee, sorry.)
Why strategy and leadership development?
It seems a strange mix doesn’t it? You don’t see Bain & Co. or BCG wandering around teaching leadership development programs.
To us it makes perfect sense. We believe the core focus of all rising executives should be on developing and executing strategy. So part of our practice (“consulting”) is dedicated to applying our tools to support clients in developing and executing strategy and the other part (“leadership development”) is dedicated to teaching skills essential to developing and executing strategy.
Who are your competitors?
It’s hard to say precisely as we cut across industries and consulting functions. If we weren’t working at Frontier we’d probably be working at places like Ideo, Booz-Allen, McKinsey, in academia at a non-profit or camping in Joshua Tree.
Where are you based?
Our studio is in Richmond, Virginia. From here we have a low-cost of operations for our studio space and administrative functions and the team who live here get to enjoy a short commute, low cost of living with easy access to rivers, mountains, beaches oh, and a short train ride to Washington DC. For more on Richmond, see the NY Times.
Do I have to be based in Richmond to work with frontier?
Not necessarily. We have consultants based in New York in addition to Richmond. Our work takes us across the globe. Last time we checked, Spencer had our servers operating out of Boston with a back-up center in Bulgaria.
How do I intern with you?
Write to the boss: ryann@thefrontierproject.com. Try to include details of what you would bring to the team and what you would like to get out of the experience.
What are your academic resources?
Obviously, we’re all book geeks with most of us having graduate education under our belts (though we’d all probably love to be back in school). Along with the ongoing research Aaron and Alan at VCU Medical School (empathetic communication), we all follow published research from across our disciplines.
For a greater understanding of our consulting approach, we encourage you to read the academic work of: Howard Gardner at Harvard, Peter Whybrow at UCLA, Barry Schwartz at Swarthmore, Richard Layard at LSE, Dan Ariely at MIT and Chip Heath at Stanford. While we don’t agree with every aspect of their research, they’re stretching the frontiers of our understanding relating to the optimization of decision-making.
Do you have a political agenda?
No, though we have a social agenda (see “Why ‘Project’?” question). We’re big believers in diversity of thinking so we actively recruit from varied backgrounds and attitudes. Our team members cut across the political spectrum, have divergent religious views and different cultural backgrounds. We passionately agree to disagree.
Why do you employ graphic designers, photographers and other “creatives”?
Well, we like to think that we’re all creative, but the reason we employ people gifted in the graphic arts is that we’re deeply aware that strategy and learning can be turgidly dull. By embedding visual thinkers in our team, we can take complex concepts and present them visually to increase understanding while at the same time expressing multiple complexities.
For our leadership development programs, we believe that immersing participants in the subject of study increases learning. So we use a lot of photography, audio and video to bring case studies to life. And occasionally, we tool around to express a point: In this case that arbitrary boundaries influence our behavior…
Why do you call your office a studio?
Ryann would claim that we’re just being pretentious (she insists on calling it the office). For the rest of us, we call it the studio as it feels more like a place where we create rather than administrate.
How do I work for you?
Watch our blog, Engage Thinking, for announcements that we’re recruiting. Or offer to intern for a while if you’re interested in our experience.
How do you win new clients?
Almost always by referral. We don’t advertise (though we’re currently considering one exception to that). We prefer to sponsor events, activities, research or groups that we believe in.
Why do you have doors and sawhorses as desks?
When we started the firm without investors, we were bootstrapping every expense. The doors cost around twenty bucks and each sawhorse, twenty five dollars. So we created desks for $70. We found clients appreciated the fact that we weren’t wasting their money on designer furniture and we appreciated having a large space to work on (doors are bigger than most desks, obviously).
This theme has guided our approach to investment ever since. We spend a lot on technology to allow us to support clients around the world and equipment to produce immersive program materials, but we avoid swanky furniture in gleaming offices. Essentially, we invest heavily in resources that assist our work and avoid investing in anything that’s superfluous.
We also owe an apology to the customers at the local Lowe’s, who suddenly had an unexplainable ‘run’ on sawhorses – it was our fault…
What books are you reading?
With ALL the free time (very little) we seem to have nowadays, we try to stay on top of the latest, unusual, and potentially influential works we can find about business, life, society, and warlords. If you’re looking for a good nighttime read, and haven’t found anything in the reviews on Shelfari, Amazon or Barnes & Noble, you can check out ours at Frontier Bookshelf.
What are FURLs?
(No, It’s not that.) (Or that.) FURLs are Frontier URLs. These are web-based pages we build to communicate directly with our partners. This allows us immediate access to post information, videos or updates related to your project that can be distributed to anyone of your choosing. Only you will know they exist, but in case your worried, the answer is “Yes”, these FURLs can be password protected so that your information is completely secure. FURLs are one more exceptional way for Frontier to stay in touch with our clients.
I’m looking for a speaker for a conference/large corporate event. Do you do that sort of thing?
Yes, we do. We’re frequently asked to speak at corporate events, conference panels and non-profit groups about our approach and research.
Scott and Aaron (the less-than-introverted members of the team) are regularly writing and delivering lectures. Their current portfolio consists of:
The Art, Not Science, of Influence
Scott on the theory and techniques of influencing decisions.The Body Giveaway
Aaron on the use of body language in negotiation.Irrational Choices Rule
Scott on why humans make sub-optimal choices and how to avoid decision-traps.
If you’d like one of us to speak at your meeting or event, contact the Studio Chief, master of all calendars: bailey@thefrontierproject.com.
