Cambiar Consulting

by Beth Rounds, Partner

If you are a fan of Seth Godin, you will definitely like his latest book, Linchpin.  The premise of the book is that we live and work in a hyper competitive world, one that requires us to think very differently about our contribution whether we are the CEO, a manager or a single contributor.   While this statement isn’t earth shattering, as humans we tend to get caught up in the “ignore it and it will eventually go away” syndrome.  So why it so hard for us to take risks, re-craft our mission or make a course correction before it is too late?   Blame it on our lizard brain – yes, you heard me right!  That lizard brain deep within, and which houses the doubts and fears, attempts to sabotage anything that feels threatening or risky.  Some might call this insecurity or self-doubt.  However you define it, until we identify these fears, resolve to overcome them and take action, we will be frustrated and stalled.

So what does it take to become a Linchpin?  Primarily, Linchpins challenge the status quo, exert emotional energy and make a map for the future.  Linchpins are brave enough to work hard and make a difference.  Of the seven key attributes outlined in his book, three rise to the top of my list as I think about our leadership and strategy.  Linchpins must:

Possess a Unique Talent. Godin states that we don’t need just a positioning statement or a unique selling proposition. We need superpower.  He says, “If you want to be a Linchpin, the power you bring to the table has to be difficult to replace. Be bolder and think bigger. Nothing stopping you.”  In other works, know your strengths, make a plan and stick with it.   When I think of MR companies that exemplify this trait, Communispace comes to mind. Diane Hessan, CEO, Communispace, says “We do one thing well and we are relentlessly focused on just doing it better and better and better.” With a past five year growth rate of 580%, Communispace is no doubt the clear market leader in consumer insight communities.

Managing a Situation or Organization of Great Complexity. In other words, when the situation gets tough – the tough get going!  As Godin describes in his book, “Linchpins make their own maps, and thus allow the organization to navigate more quickly than it ever could if it had to wait for the paralyzed crowd to figure out what to do next.”   There is a new class MR start-ups shaking things up, but there are also some existing  MR firms, both large and small, that are continually challenging the status quo.  One example is Gongos Research. I spoke with their CEO, John Gongos, a couple of weeks ago and he credits his company’s success to staying nimble with quarterly strategic planning and having a disciplined approach to customer acquisition and account management.  John recently spoke on this topic at a CASRO Leadership Conference in Chicago and a short article will be published in the upcoming CASRO Journal.

Leading Customers. We all know that as markets become more fragmented and consumer connectivity increases, we have to think differently about how we interact with our customer.  Social media, social networks, data mining/business intelligence, neuroscience and mobile are “hot topics” these days, and it will be interesting to see how these methods evolve over the next three to five years.   I believe those companies (some examples: Blue Ocean, Revelation, InsightsNow, Brainjuicer) that connect the dots on new technology and methods with evolving customers’ needs, will master the change that is necessary in new MR era.  The challenge is yours to figure it out!

As business executives, we could get pretty pessimistic about the future of our industry.  I, for one, am an optimist, and believe Linchpins are alive and well in the MR space.  These leaders are out there crafting and re-crafting their business models, staying focused on core strengths and leading customers into the future.  Are you a Linchpin?  From your perspective, would you add more traits to my/Seth’s list?

For more information about Beth Rounds.

Note:  In full disclosure, some of the companies mentioned in this blog are current Cambiar clients, others are not.

by Monica Wood, Partner

In the market research field we don’t often look beyond our external key stakeholders to understand why people behave the way they behave. For example, we are so very good at getting at insights related to consumer behavior and relay why consumers behave the way they do. But how often is it that we take that same level of understanding of human behavior and apply that to running a successful Market Research Organization.  There is much to be learned from an organization’s CEO and CMO and how to relate that to running corporate Market Research and Competitive Intelligence organizations.

What do CEO’s and CMO’s do that Market Research departments don’t do?  I will ask each of you reading this as I am sure you have perspective on this and may like to add your thoughts.

One thing that CEO’s and CMO’s do that most Market Research departments don’t do well is have a relentless pursuit of delivering their numbers. They tend to stop at nothing to make sure that sales and profits are delivered.  Do Market Research departments do the same? Do they promise specific sales objectives will be met and how they will help the company?  Do market research departments drive for cost efficiencies with relentless pursuit like CMO’s and CEO’s do? Do Market Research Departments help identify ways to create topline and bottom line impact voluntarily or only when they are asked?

What about in the area of assessing talent?  CEO’s and CMO’s typically look at talent on a regular basis. They look for talent that can solve business problems and drive results. They look for great people leadership. How much attention do we spend on that in the Market Research arena?  Do we try to develop a research person’s business and leadership skills as much as develop their project management and methods knowledge?

So how do we get a seat at the table and create impact?  Might it be that we need to be as relentless on key business topics as our other C suite executives? Don’t we need to know more about the business and less about the project?  Don’t we need to be true business partners in every sense of the word? In my experience that is the case. The CEO of Novartis and other companies where I ran the Market Research and Competitive Intelligence function expected not only me but my team to deliver business value, not just value understanding any specific market research project.

How do you transform Market Research department from being transitional project managers to being true business thought partners?  Love to hear your thoughts.

My fellow Cambiar business partner, Ian Lewis, and I having created  successful Market Research and Competitive Intelligence functions at such well known companies as Time Inc, ToysRUS, Campbell Soup, Novartis and others.  We have ways to help build world class Market Research and Competitive Intelligence organizations and are here to help you have an impactful seat at the table.

For more information on Cambiar’s Research Impact Practice and Monica Wood.

by Bill Guerin, Partner

In consulting with research companies to improve their sales performance, I live by the principle that a problem well-defined is half solved – and so I invest the time to really understand why a sales program is under-performing.  In recently reviewing my work with 45 different research companies over the past 3+ years some interesting themes emerged:

From the end client’s perspective….

• I didn’t know your company does that?! A client’s perception of their market research firm is typically limited to their relationship with their account manager and the type of work they are currently doing with the firm – they often don’t know others at the firm or understand the company’s full portfolio of products and services.  This represents tremendous opportunities to grow accounts by expanding the network of relationships and exposing clients to a wider range of offerings.
• Give me more! Clients want and desperately need market research firms to be bolder and more proactive in taking steps to help and support them in new or different ways.  Sales and client service organizations are typically exceptional at reacting and responding to clients’ requests, but often struggle with taking the initiative or creating opportunities.  Doing so involves a more holistic approach, maintaining a longer term view of the client relationship and developing new capabilities – such as more in-depth knowledge of the client’s business and the ability to look across a series of research projects to synthesize results and develop over-arching themes.
• Best of both worlds.  Clients have conflicting views of big versus small market research firms.  For large firms, they like the global reach, the cache associated with branded solutions and proprietary methodologies, and so encourage smaller firms to “productize” some of their approaches and improve global capabilities.  At the same time, clients don’t particularly like that large companies often try to be all things to all people because clients don’t know how to best use the larger companies.  By comparison, they enjoy working with boutique firms because it’s easy to understand their areas of expertise and gain access to high-level thinkers within the firm.  They also view smaller firms as much more agile, creative and user friendly and challenge the larger firms to be more flexible and client-centric.

Internal marketing research company issues…

• Plan the work and work the plan. In many organizations, the sales strategy and objectives are nebulous or overly-general and are not driven down in the organization through simple, aligned execution plans.  Also, there is often a lack of basic sales management discipline in consistently following through and holding individual salespeople accountable for execution – e.g., by establishing clear account plans and executing against those plans.
• Right players in the right boxes. Salespeople are not effectively deployed, either because the sales organization has not created a structure responsive to the sales strategy and objectives, the sales model and/or job specifications are not sufficiently defined, or individuals have little awareness of their personal interests, strengths and capabilities and how best to align with the sales organization’s current needs.
• Pay for performance. Sales performance management and reward systems perpetuate a broadly defined status quo, rather than stretching individuals and rewarding them commensurate with their true value to the business.
• More meaningful metrics. Sales reporting systems are retrospective in nature, don’t track a balanced set of key performance indicators for effective sales management, are not viewed by management as accurate or credible and provide data with little actionable information or insights.

I’d love to hear your perspectives – are any of the above issues challenging your firm’s sales performance?  If not, what are your biggest obstacles?

For more information, go to Bill Guerin and Sales Performance Solutions.