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Media execs launch Activate consultancy
The former president and COO of MTV Networks, Michael Wolf, is teaming up with web pioneer Anil Dash to build a digital media consultancy venture. Their Activate consultancy aims to help clients develop products and tools that suit the digital age, as the technology and media sectors continue to converge. Wolf claims his consultancy will be radically different to traditional consultancies and says it will focus on growth rather than cost slashing.
"This is very different from the legacy consulting business with its focus on such things as cost cuts and restructurings," says Wolf. "Many of the old tool sets are not sufficient anymore. We want to focus on growing and building new things." These comments have surprised some commentators because firms that hired Wolf and his companies in the past have often undergone ruthless cost slashing.
Wolf was previously a consultant at McKinsey & Co, where he was managing partner of the media, entertainment and information practice. Prior to this, Wolf was a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. Dash is a founding director of Expert Labs, an independent non-profit firm that creates web technology "to help the US government tap into the expertise of the public". He will continue in his role at Expert Labs, while doing consultancy work for Activate. Dash was a pioneer at blogging platform Six Apart before he founded Expert Labs.
Activate will be based in New York and is set to open a Silicon Valley office later this year. Wolf claims Activate already has clients but does not wish to reveal them.
