Deloitte is further strengthening its business by hiring another well-known adland exec, in the form of ex-Telstra marketing director Andy Bateman.
The move follows on from Network Ten's chief brand officer Matt McGrath joining Deloitte Australia as chief marketing officer last week. Facebook’s former MD Stephen Scheeler also recently resurfaced at PwC to lead mobile strategy.
Bateman and top Telstra marketer Inese Kingsmill departed Telstra in March last year after a major marketing restructure under the reign of its CMO Joe Pollard. Both Bateman's and Kingsmill's roles were removed and Telstra's director of digital media and content Adam Good; IPTV head Eric Kearley and Telstra TV MD Ian Davis also left, just months before.
Since leaving Telstra Bateman founded 'Everyone', a boutique strategy firm focused on driving growth through innovation, customer experience design and the application of technology.
He will sit in consulting arm 'Monitor Deloitte' as national lead partner for innovation strategy, working closely with Monitor Deloitte lead partner Jeremy Drumm to further build this part of Deloitte’s consulting business.
Drumm says Bateman is perfectly placed to spearhead the growth of its innovation strategy practice in Australia.
“Over the past 25 years he has helped brands, businesses and teams around the world create the change that drives dramatic growth,” Drumm says.
Bateman says he thinks we are moving into the second act of innovation in Australia; from businesses experimenting with labs, funding startups and continuous product and service improvements, to recognising innovation as a core strategic capability that must be embedded in the organisation.
“Ultimately, if innovation is a core lever through which to drive profitable business growth, then innovation strategy is about applying strategic discipline and rigour to the innovation agenda within a client’s business end-to-end, to maximise growth potential,” Bateman says.
“Most studies and many leaders around the world will attest to the fact that the majority of organisations and countries are under-weight in innovation. They are simply not doing enough to drive sustainable long-term growth - and that’s what we’ll be helping to solve.”
Deloitte says Bateman will draw from his Everyone’s “extended collaboration group of innovation experts”, as well as the Australian arm of Monitor Deloitte - the brand for Deloitte consulting’s strategy practice - with more than 3000 strategy professionals globally.
Deloitte will also be adding further capability from Bateman’s network with growth strategy and innovation expertise, across a range of sectors in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
“Joining Deloitte enables me to supercharge the vision I had for Everyone, to be a progressive innovation strategy and execution business,” Bateman says.
“Scope, scale and culture really matter in this business and I see huge potential to build something really meaningful with Deloitte, with people I respect and feel a sense of shared values with.
The move follows a number of high profile advertising industry moves, as more are lured over to the consulting world.
In December Russel Howcroft resigned from his role as executive general manager at Network Ten Melbourne to take up a chief creative officer at PwC.
One of Australia’s most respected advertising agencies, The Monkeys and design agency Maud, were also pulled over to the consulting world last month after Accenture acquired the businesses for an undisclosed fee.
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