Adah Parris is a personal branding expert and an enthusiastic observer of people, patterns and stories. A change consultant, producer and network builder, she is particularly interested in human-centred design and storytelling as an approach to problem solving.
Since 2014 she has been a speaker and workshop facilitator on personal branding and storytelling for clients such as Innovate Finance, The British Council, The Startup Institute, The Hospital Club, Shambala Festival and The School of Communication Arts.
Adah likes to take each problem through three phases to find a solution. Firstly she examines the problem from the users' perceived (and sometimes unrealised) needs. Secondly she translates what has been learnt into brief, recognisable patterns and brainstorms solutions. Lastly she develops the tools and resources needed to deliver the agreed solution. Through this process, much can be learnt about a business’s products, services, brand, people and culture.
She believes companies seldom realise the business opportunity that their intangible human assets represent; particularly service companies whose only real asset is often the people they employ. Business change is therefore more about people change. She helps companies solve business or strategic problems by building new and better relationships in a commercial context.
In 2013 Adah worked with Congregation Partners as a consultant to help increase the effectiveness of their internal processes. She helped the company to understand their current skills, knowledge and behaviours in relation to their longer term commercial objectives. Together they came up with a plan for systemic structural and cultural change which she then helped them implement. This process had a pronounced commercial impact.
In 2012 she was contracted by Telefonica's Wayra UK Academy, a technology business accelerator, to build its experiential MBA style programme of acceleration for technology startups. Having understood the individual business needs of the startups she was also able to build Wayra UK’s support network of over 500 business leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors.
Adah also worked as a freelancer with Advertising agency, Ogilvy's Digital Labs team to help them tell their own story for both internal staff and external commercial partners. She was able to use her industry knowledge and understanding to help shape their educational and leadership partnerships. These partnerships defined a new route to entry for young creatives wanting to enter the UK Advertising and Communications Industry, a framework which became known as The Rough Diamond.
In 2010 she helped to resurrect the School of Communication Arts, an apprenticeship style Advertising, Creative and Entrepreneurship school which takes an immersive approach to learning. She was responsible for identifying, recruiting and building the relationships with the school’s support network of mentors and commercial sponsors. The school now has over 500 cross-industry mentors and several large industry sponsors. She continues to act as an advisor and mentor to the school, its students and alumni.
Adah acts as a consultant to both Congregation Partners and Friday Club London helping to foster mentoring sessions between London's technology start-ups and the cream of London's Marketing and Advertising professionals; an exchange based network where technological innovation is mixed with creating and nurturing influential relationships.
She is also a freelance consultant working as part of a team to design and deliver the first social media short course for Creatives at Goldsmith University’s Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship.
