Andrea (Andi) Simon, Ph.D., principal, and founder of Simon Associates Management Consultants (SAMC) launched SAMC in 2002 to bring the methods, tools, and theory of anthropology to businesses that needed or wanted to change.
Andi’s expertise lies in helping companies and non-profit institutions reflect on their purpose and their ability to achieve their goals. Some of the ways we help our clients include: developing their purpose and brand positioning; redesigning their organization’s culture; creating new Blue Ocean Strategies; and improving their financial performance using innovative and effective product development and marketing methodologies. Andi is particularly effective at understanding how current and prospective customers really “see, feel and think” about a company’s products, services, and experience. She can then help focus corporate leadership on those unmet needs to open new market space.
Expertise
SAMC was formed in 2002 to bring the insights of ethnography and the observations garnered from anthropological research to help companies change. From large organizations searching for their next big idea to entrepreneurs developing start-ups, or small and mid-size companies seeking new growth strategies, Andi found that they all needed a way to see what was happening literally “all around them.” We are far too often blinded by the light that tunnels our minds into comfortable directions, blocking out opportunities that might be just awaiting us.
Dr. Simon’s expertise was developed in academia and as an executive leading companies that needed to change. She has been a tenured professor of Anthropology and American Studies at Ramapo College in New Jersey, where she produced two distance-learning TV series for Sunrise Semester on CBS TV. She was also a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis, teaching Entrepreneurship to Arts and Science Students.
Dr. Simon’s business experience included positions as Executive Vice President at First National Bank of Highland (now a division of M&T Bank), Senior Vice President at Poughkeepsie Savings Bank, and a Senior Executive in management, marketing and branding at several financial services companies, including Citibank and NatWest Bank. She also established new marketing and branding for a number of healthcare institutions, including Montefiore Medical Center, St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center and Hurley Medical Center.
In all of her executive positions, Andi successfully led companies as they adapted to changing business and economic environments.
Blue Ocean Strategy®. Since 2007, Dr. Simon has been conducting workshops for CEO and Key Executives on Blue Ocean Strategy. Her lecture and workshop, “Change Matters: How to Open New Market Space,” has been presented over 400 times in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Andi is a trained practitioner in Blue Ocean Strategy and has helped dozens of companies discover new Blue Oceans, successfully opening up new markets.
Innovation Games®. In 2011, Dr. Simon and her partner/husband Andy Simon became trained facilitators and trainers in Innovation Games, serious games to spark business innovation. SAMC uses Innovation Games with clients, typically conducting between 25-30 game sessions each year. Some companies host Innovation Games on-site to help their own employees change. Others hold Innovation Games with non-customers or clients in order to include them in a creative process for constructing new products, refining marketing communications or designing new solutions.
Culture Change. So many of SAMC’s clients find themselves in need of a cultural assessment and as a result, a culture change process. Dr. Simon is qualified in using the
Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) developed at the University of Michigan, and is an affiliated consultant with the OCAI Online organization in the Netherlands. The OCAI survey is available in twelve languages and is widely used by companies such as HP, GE, MetLife, ING, and Shell.
Awards
Dr. Simon has won numerous Addy and Aster awards for her marketing and advertising campaigns. She is a well-published author with articles in Forbes, Business Week and numerous publications and online blogs. She is a guest blogger for FierceHealth Hospital Impact and Executive Street Blog.
