MRS Conference Feature: Old Chestnuts, New Dip

Researchers are not here to predict the future; we don't need to be in the boardroom; and lack of accountability is still our biggest issue. In her third report, Phyllis Vangelder hears Conference 2008 asking the same old questions, but at least trying to give new answers.


Honing Business Skills

This session on Tuesday afternoon was a manifesto for using creativity, insight, organisational nous and communication skills to make research the basis for business change. Simon Lidington, Managing Director, The Insight Exchange and MRS Chairman, suggested that researchers can identify great insights and provide a missing link, often acting as translators, from consumer to strategic language.

Gregg Fraley, Principal, GF Enterprises, focused on the development of creativity-forming activities. Noting that creativity could be enhanced using Creative Problem Solving and advanced ideation techniques, Fraley set out some of the behaviours linking creativity and personal innovation which he considers particularly applicable in the research industry.

Nick Bonney, Head of Insight, Orange UK and Jonathan Fletcher, Managing Director, Illuminas, in their paper 'Client 2.0: the clientside researcher in a 'flat world', looked at the wider context in which research is used in organisations which are unimpeded by hierarchy. Businesses have been delayered and devolved and are now driven by softer holistic concepts. How does research fit into this paradigm? Crucially it relies on collaboration and teamwork and a leadership which puts the customer at the centre. The role of research in this culture is to be part of a client team that will identify the 'hotspots' which drive business decisions.

The paper, 'The business of insight: The price of everything and the value of nothing?' written by Andy Dexter, Managing Partner, Truth Consulting and Alice Page, Head of Market Research & Competitor Analysis, UBS Hong Kong, and delivered by Andy, looked at business models in the MR sector, exploring when they work and when they don't. The paper suggested that dominant business models are better suited to supply rather than service organisations. However, certain aspects of what clients demand are entirely people-dependent and not well served by production-orientation models. Andy suggested that different models are emerging, where data are thought of as commodities, but thinking is not. We have to invest in developing knowledge and pay more for top talent. An alternative business model involves partnership, where clients and agencies have matched skills.

By Day 2 we were used to the informal conference style and audience contributions.


The Big Planning Debate

A session described as The Big Planning Debate took the form of a panel, again looking at the role of the researcher in the boardroom. Are we doing enough to support the case for marketing investment, particularly when business faces tougher times? It was good to see a mix of agency planners and researchers sharing the platform, not in opposition, but concerned with a common problem.

The inevitable video clips before the discussion featured marketing directors from client companies. A consensus seemed to be that research is often used in an insurance rather than forensic role.

Rupert Howell, Managing Director, ITV Brand and Commercial, began the discussion, looking back on his experience with research as an advertising agency leader. He remembered being booed at an MRS conference 15 years ago for suggesting that the research industry showed a critical lack of responsibility, but he believes that accountability is still the biggest issue in the research industry today. He made a plea for research agencies to work with clients if things go wrong to help get it right next time. Howell feels it important for senior people, not young graduates, to present at board level. Clients want experience and interpretation, not just figures. The role of research, he suggests, is not to predict the future, but to give a snapshot of a situation at a given time.

Kirsty Fuller, Chairman, Flamingo International, was more concerned about whether learnings from research are driving decision-making than an actual seat in the boardroom. This is dependent on developing long-term relationships with people at senior level in client organisations, gaining their respect and having enough experience to draw on analogies and other perspectives. For research to be assimilated with and incorporated into strategic thinking we need to be clear, concise and speak with authority. Peter Dann, Director, The Nursery, underlined Kirsty's argument, 'I want my thinking to be in the boardroom'.

Richard Huntingdon, Director of Strategy, Saatchi & Saatchi UK, commented, 'When research comes from a long-term partnership with a real relationship, it's dynamic'.

All the members of the panel stressed the need for short presentations, concentrating on the ends, not the means. According to Malcolm White, Founder of krow and APG Chairman, a subjective, powerfully delivered presentation gets listened to.


The fourth and final part of Phyllis' Conference 2008 report is at www.mrweb.com/drno/news8122.htm .

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