Duarte Launches New Communications Strategy Practice to Help Business Leaders Ignite Powerful, Persuasive Movements

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Duarte Inc., experts in persuasive storytelling and communications, today announced the launch of a new strategy practice, led by a growing team of senior consultants. The agency's new offering helps address an expanding need that Duarte has seen among its clients for high-impact communications that effectively move large numbers of people to belief and action, especially for leaders trying to spark and sustain change.

"Duarte is well known for its work in helping leaders craft and refine their messaging and develop powerful visual stories. Our new strategy practice is a natural evolution of a role that we've long played for our clients," says Duarte Chief Strategy Officer Patti Sanchez, who leads the team. "During recent years, we've seen a rising importance of movements in the world around us. The new practice we're launching today is in response to that trend."

Duarte's new communication strategy practice is focused on building support for bold ideas and sustaining change over time. It's built on strategic methodologies and insights from a 2016 leadership book written by Sanchez and Nancy Duarte, the firm's CEO. The book, Illuminate, provides a proven framework to lead people through five stages of transformation and practical communication tools to inspire others to support and execute a big vision or idea. Based on four years of in-depth research, Illuminate is rich in case studies and anecdotes about how great leaders like Apple's Steve Jobs, Starbucks' Howard Schultz and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used speeches, stories, ceremonies and symbols to mobilize the masses.

"Great leaders create a feeling of hope that inspires people to contribute extra energy to a transformation until they arrive at the goal. The vision – or dream – of the end state must be so compelling that it creates a sense of longing to pull employees, partners, and customers toward the future," says Sanchez. "To sustain people's interest and commitment over the long haul, leaders need to deliver an ongoing stream of meaningful and timely communications that are articulated with clarity, certainty, passion and empathy."

Duarte's new team of senior strategists are veterans of moving audiences through systematic use of empathy, storytelling and impactful moments. Sanchez has led transformative communications initiatives for brands including Cisco, Hyperloop One, Hewlett-Packard and VMware for more than 25 years. Other founding practice members include three new senior strategists experienced at C-suite advising. They are Becky Waller Bausman, SVP of Strategy at Duarte, whose background is rooted in positioning and product strategy; Dave DeFranco, who's led sales enablement and change initiatives for many of the world's largest B2B tech companies; and Brie Osgood, who has deep experience with executive communications at Moody's, Johnson & Johnson, HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

"Change is hard for a lot of people, which is why a lot of movements fail and a lot of corporate transformations fall flat," says Bausman. "The collective wisdom we bring as a team helps leaders solve how to best communicate in one moment or over several moments in time to make a movement successful."

For the past 30 years, Duarte has played a role in many movements that matter, including its work with Silicon Valley's leading brands such as Cisco and Salesforce, former Vice President Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," and the transportation revolution led by Hyperloop One. Duarte helped Hyperloop One crystallize and communicate its vision for high-speed, on-demand transportation during its first public technology demonstration in the Nevada desert in May 2016.

"The Duarte team very rapidly hit the ground running, and delivered super high-quality messaging and presentations in record time," says Kimberly Salzer, chief marketing officer at Hyperloop One. "It felt like they were an extension of the Hyperloop One team in terms of strategic thinking, agility, speed and trustworthiness."

To learn more about Duarte's new communication strategy services, please visit: www.duarte.com/strategy

About Duarte Inc.

Duarte Inc. delivers communications that transform. The firm specializes in moving people – in one moment or over the course of many moments – through persuasive, visual stories and presentations. Through expert creative services, a training academy, and a series of best-selling books, Duarte helps leaders effect change using a unique blend of storytelling, visual thinking, and empathetic communication techniques. Clients include top global organizations such as Boston Consulting Group, Cisco, Hyperloop One, Salesforce and VMWare, as well as thought leaders such as author Michael Pollan, former Vice President Al Gore, and former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. To learn more, visit www.duarte.com

SOURCE Duarte, Inc.

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