SINCE 2026
FutureBrand
Strategy Director
- Commercial Rigor + Creativity
- Insight-to-Concept Pipelines
- Independent Fortune 500 Practice
- AI-Augmented Strategy Delivery
INNOVATION, BRAND & STRATEGY · EX-DELOITTE · EX-ACCENTURE
Amanda Kou
New York City Metropolitan Area
She invents new-to-world products from consumer insight and drives them to commercialization.
Amanda Kou is an independent brand, innovation, and strategy consultant in New York, now a freelance Strategy Director at FutureBrand after running her own firm, Kou Consulting, where she advised Fortune 500 and growth-stage clients across 60-plus engagements. She trained the analytic half of her craft at Deloitte and the inventive half at ?What If! Innovation and Accenture, where she pushed concepts to testable MVPs. She is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher — the human-centered thread beneath the strategy work.
- 60+Fortune 500 & startup engagements
- 10Foundational Inventors she led & promoted
- 5 yrsInventing at ?What If! Innovation
- 3–5Inventors & strategists per team
HAPPENING NOW
STANDING TODAY
HOW SHE THINKS4 BELIEFS
Four convictions run through a decade of strategy work.
THE IMPACT
A decade of work, from Deloitte rigor to her own practice — pull one out.
EVERYTHING ELSE · 5 WORKS
THE TIMELINE
She turned analysis into invention, then invention into her own practice.
The whole record, newest first – tap any moment and Aster tells the story.
2021–PRESENT
Running the fused method under her own name
In December 2021 she founded Kou Consulting LLC, the hub through which she advised Fortune 500 and growth-stage clients across 60-plus engagements. Around it she stacked senior freelance roles — SYLVAIN, Burns Group, COLLINS, Landor, and, from April 2026, FutureBrand — selling the fused method directly from New York.
“works at the intersection of innovation, brand, and strategy”
2016–2021
Inventing new-to-world products at ?What If! and Accenture
Over five years she rose from Commercial Inventor to Lead Inventor at ?What If! Innovation, running end-to-end consumer research into new products for Fortune 500 clients and leading a 10-person inventor cohort. Concurrently, as an Accenture Innovation Principal, she pushed concepts from insight to testable MVPs.
“Created new-to-world products, brands, and services for Fortune 500 clients”
2006–2016
Public-health training into strategy and operations consulting
An honours science degree at Queen's University and a Master's in Health Management at Columbia gave her an analytic root; a fine-arts strand at Parsons ran alongside it. At Deloitte (2013–2016) she trained the commercial-rigor half of her craft, advancing from Consultant to Senior Consultant across 5-year strategy, M&A integration, and cost work.