Client Services & Experience

We are not great at putting on band aids. But we find root causes quickly.  

From workflow mapping and research to video storytelling, we help organizations connect more effectively with stakeholders. Compelling narratives are key. Have a look at some of our videos below.

Brought in to solve a particular challenge, we often discover new ways to see the challenge so that addressing it also resolves other issues.

Services

Clients

Purpose-driven organizations comprise the core of clients served whether benefit corporations, nonprofits, or foundations. Encouraging more traditional businesses to actively embrace their social responsibility and measure their performance against critical issues related to environment, social, and governance has been at the center of Mr. Halperin’s work for decades.  Having the opportunity to work with an unusually wide range of organizations enables us to bring added perspectives and skill sets to bear to support clients, some of which are listed below. 

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Video Portfolio

People watch more than they read. Visual story-telling is essential. To make sure clients connect effectively, we create animations, graphics, and videos.

Case Studies

  • Situation 

    Successful national organization with leadership reputation faces transition. Death of founder, highly distributed structure, with regional consultants and small head office, leads to diffusion of message and brand with key audiences and clients. Built around an internationally respected and creative but somewhat arcane methodology for conflict resolution, organization now working at local, regional and national level on myriad issues with policy, business and nonprofit community. Help is sought to chart future, solidify brand and build robust organizational platform to honor major contribution of founder for many years to come. 

    Actions 

    We are engaged as consultants and design process for assessing priorities – from people to themes and locations. Audience analysis initiated alongside competitive scan and communications audit. In-person leadership coaching via facilitated meetings as well as telephone sessions. Positive and negative aspects of organizational identity (as distinct from founder identity) inventoried and assessed. Open-ended brainstorming sessions paired with structured training and analysis. 

    Results 

    Leadership team empowered to more fully make changes and disaggregate history and methodology from mission and vision; clarification of language and messaging, leading to greater effectiveness; organizational growth and increased fundraising, expanding service capacity; rationale for wide geographic and issue approach now supports brand and identity; organizational name changed along with core marketing language, enhancing impact and recognition. 

  • Situation 

    Entering a new, critical, and multi-national market major global energy company embarks on ambitious upstream expansion. Concerns about global reputation and license to operate quickly arise among stakeholders, potential partners and suppliers and within upper echelon of the host governments. Media is replete with stories of major global companies stymied in market entry efforts. Reputation management seen as key to operational success. 

    Actions 

    Multi-year effort launched to understand and track shifting public and leadership attitudes, knowledge, and core values related to key aspects of energy sector operations. Stakeholder engagement and assessment, political risk analysis, due diligence research, and partner evaluations undertaken to ground executive decision-making in deep knowledge. Extensive briefings, executive role-play sessions, analysis and coaching provided to internal and global executive team to support design and execution of multi-country business strategy. Traditional survey research techniques adjusted to local traditions (lack of phones, for example) and complemented with extensive field investigations. 

    Results 

    Communications and business strategies altered in accordance with our analysis and recommendations, building partnerships and trust with essential stakeholders. Client taps appropriate partners and vendors, leading to unparalleled success in markets that have bedeviled its competition. One of the largest engineering projects of the century successfully completed and operating; expansion underway. Firm enjoys strong license to operate from government and stakeholders -- enhancing retention, reducing regulatory costs, and securing positive media. Culture of dialogue embedded within organization, enhancing global and regional reputations. 

  • "Jonathan Halperin asks important questions, forces you to think strategically with an outcome orientation, and isn’t afraid to totally re-imagine the way of doing something to achieve desired objectives. Working with Jonathan to plan our annual conference of thought-leaders in food and other impact programs of the James Beard Foundation for several years has been an enlightening and rewarding experience. We feel smarter and more effective for having worked with him."

    Mitchell Davis
    The James Beard Foundation

  • "Halperin is a valuable asset to any ambitious leader looking to maximize the performance of their organization. His capacity to bring business strategy, communications, and social mission into alignment will be delivering returns to Greyston for years to come. Whether designing and facilitating complex stakeholder engagements or presenting new ways of thinking about sustainable supply chains, Halperin consistently brings integrity, professionalism and insight to the task. He combines the unique ability to address the largest strategic opportunities in an organization while simultaneously bringing people together to execute on near-term challenges."

    Mike Brady
    Greyston

  • "I have worked with Jonathan to full satisfaction on a number of small, strategic projects. He is a creative thinker with a deep understanding of the intricacies of sustainable agriculture and with a keen eye for business value."

    Jan Kees Vis
    Unilever

  • "We needed an outside perspective on working with leading corporations and turned to Jonathan to assess our approach, refine our strategy, facilitate internal roll-out and help us execute. He helped us to think big, see new opportunities, reshape our communications and engage internal stakeholders. His counsel and ongoing support has been constructively provocative. Jonathan’s strategic thinking is keen and his facilitation skills are superior; he drills quickly to the underlying issues with a deft combination of determination and diplomacy."

    Anne Lieberman
    World Animal Protection, US

  • "Jonathan reflects the best of social entrepreneurship. He leads with his heart but has connected with the great mass of political power and will in society."

    Joseph McIntyre
    Ag Innovations Network

  • "When I began to unhook from SustainAbility in 2008, after 20+ years, to co-found Volans, Jonathan was working with the US end of SustainAbility — and sent the London end of the Volans team a large cardboard box of multi-colored felt rocks, which initially I couldn't make head nor tail of. I thought he was mad, or overly American. But I have to say that, over time, those felt rocks have become a central feature of the Volans culture, thrown by team members at other team members (or guests) on the slightest provocation. That aside, he's a consummate professional, creative collaborator, skilled communicator, and keen intellect—and I am delighted both to have had Jonathan as a colleague and to now count him as a friend."

    John Elkington
    Volans, SustainAbility

  • "Jonathan makes connections that other people miss. Beyond an understanding of any single environmental issue or energy challenge, he knows how to use knowledge to drive change, how to bring the right players to the table, and how to reframe seemingly intractable problems to create space for new approaches. He’s a strategic thinker with a very clear sense of how things work."

    Ray Kopp
    Resources for the Future

  • "Jonathan Halperin has been a close colleague for more than two decades. Throughout this time, I've been impressed by his ability to navigate a range of challenging global business environments with great insight and savvy. Jonathan is the rarest of all businesspeople: a visionary thinker who knows how to put innovative ideas into practice to get results."

    Cynthia Scharf
    Global Climate and Sustainability Specialist

  • "Jonathan is adept at inspiring team members to work at their full potential and achieve great outcomes together. His insight, thoughtful guidance and ability to see the big picture while managing the details produces results any organization would be proud to showcase."

    Sarah P. Fuller
    Fuller Ink

  • "Combining insightful analytics with pragmatic approaches and personal passion, Jonathan is a great partner to help any organization (large or small, business or non-profit) capitalize on its opportunities and mitigate its threats."

    Perry Yeatman
    Kraft Foods, Kraft Foods Foundation