TNS China Director Leaves to Set Up Shanghai Firm

Former TNS China General Manager Paul Zhou has left to set up a new agency called Illuminera in Shanghai.

'One of the main reasons I left is the strong belief that traditional market research agencies have 'successfully' downgraded themselves to data factories and yield higher value consulting type work to others,' Zhou told DRNO. 'As a result, we not only accept slim profit margin as a norm but have taken much less important roles in client's decision/strategy making process.'

Zhou believes that this creates frustrations for clients and leads to complaints that research agencies are too focused on techniques without having a grasp of business issues.

He added: 'It is envisioned that in China, just like in the more developed European and US markets, research or fact based consulting firms will emerge to fill the void that large research companies have left unattended. Illuminera, in a way, is my answer to this call.'

Zhou joined TNS China in 2003 as Research Director, rising to the position of General Manager for Shanghai and Guangzhou before leaving to go it alone in July. Prior to this, he was with ACNielsen in New York, Frito-Lay in China and two specialist research firms in the US. He has an MBA from the University of Michigan and an MA in Sociology with an emphasis on survey research and statistics from the University of Akron, Ohio.

Illuminera currently has nine full-time employees and Zhou expects the research-based consultancy to grow to 15 by the first quarter of 2008. The firm is online at www.illuminera-strategy.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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