Data Gurus Podcast | Insights on Business Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions, Market Research & Data Collection

Welcome to another captivating episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is delighted to have Lindsay Zaltman joining her on the show today! Lindsay is Partner and CEO at Olson Zaltman, a world-renowned marketing strategy firm.

In this episode, Lindsay shares his background and talks about how he got to where he is currently in his career. He explains the way they work at Olson Zaltman. He also dives into how humans think and experience the world through metaphors and discusses how metaphors can be used as an effective marketing tool.

Lindsay’s background

Lindsay’s father was one of the founders of Olson Zaltman. He was also a Professor of Marketing, and Lindsay often used to look at the work he was doing. He always encouraged Lindsay to think about things a little differently- as he did in the marketing world. So from early on, Lindsay knew he would make his career in marketing, market research, or insights.

Lindsay did his undergrad with an anthropology background and went on to get a Master’s degree in marketing research. He spent some time in the advertising world, doing account planning, and then joined Olson Zaltman.

Olson Zaltman

Olson Zaltman has been around for the last twenty-five years. They specialize in getting into the unconscious thoughts and feelings of consumers. They were doing System 1 thinking long before it got that label. Lindsay considers Olson Zaltman the founder of applying neuroscience to the area of market research because they specialize in getting into consumers’ deeper thoughts and feelings and helping their clients develop strategies built on deeper thinking to make bigger business impacts. They specialize in metaphor as their primary way of thinking.

Metaphors

Metaphor is the most basic way humans think about and experience the world around them. Metaphors cross all language, demographic, and cultural barriers. In western languages, we tend to use about five to six metaphors per minute in our conversations.

Surface metaphors

When consumers talk about a brand, category, or experience in life, they use the surface metaphors that reside in their 5% of conscious level thought, without even realizing it. Those surface metaphors become shorthand for more complex ideas.

Deep metaphors

At Olson Zaltman, they have bucketed those surface metaphors into deep metaphors. There are only about sixteen to eighteen deep metaphors, and they are unconscious universal frames that all humans share. Balance, container, transformation, freedom, and connection are some of the themes, human truths, or unconscious frames, that all the surface metaphors are tied into.

Consumers

Consumers don’t know that they have those deep metaphors. Olson Zaltman’s role is to uncover them and help clients leverage them for their product innovations or communications. They explain to their clients how a bundle of surface metaphors fits into a key theme of a deep metaphor.

The work they do

About half the work they do at Olson Zaltman is marketing, communications, branding, and insights. The other half is research and development, or renovation if the client is getting into a new product category.

US patent

Their most tried and true product, and the one they are known for, is called ZMET. ZMET is a metaphor elicitation technique developed by Lindsay’s father, and it was the first marketing research technique to get a US patent. It is a qualitative one-on-one in-depth process.

A quantitative tool

They also have an online quantitative tool, called Simile, to measure the deep metaphors in statistically significant ways.

Big data

There is a lot of excitement going on with big data. Lindsay feels that the pendulum may have swung too far towards looking for quicker surface-level input versus some of the deeper thinking that techniques like ZMET allow clients to do. However, he does acknowledge that the things learned from big data are the “what” and those create an opportunity for the “why” to be explained. He also believes that the pendulum will start swinging back, and people will rethink things.

Technology

Some fascinating things are going on internally at Olson Zaltman regarding applied technology. They are working with AI and other technologies to help improve ZMET.

The best research plans

Lindsay thinks that the best research plans have qual and quant. They also have traditional and non-traditional research. He believes that technology and advances in what we know about the mind will give us better ways to understand consumers than traditional surveys would.

 

About Lindsay Zaltman

Lindsay is Partner & CEO at Olson Zaltman, a world-renowned marketing strategy firm.

Lindsay is co-author (with Gerald Zaltman) of the book “Marketing Metaphoria” by the Harvard Business Press.

Marketing Metaphoria has been translated into seven languages. He is also co-author of a chapter in The Handbook of Marketing Research on manager-researcher relationships and a case study in the Harvard Business Review. He has been cited in numerous publications and events including TED Talks, The New York Times, Fast Company Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Advertising Age, and Variety. He was also the key brand consultant for filmmaker Morgan Spurlock in his movie on product placement and branding, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. He has lectured extensively at various Fortune 500 companies and conferences around the globe.

He has extensive experience in the advertising and communications field. Before joining Olson Zaltman Associates, he was an Account Planner in the Consumer Insight Group at Arnold Worldwide in Boston. While at Arnold, Lindsay worked with various technology, anti-tobacco, and packaged goods clients. Before Arnold, Lindsay spent several years at Dymun & Company in Account Management working with clients in banking, finance, and the arts.

Lindsay earned a Master's in Marketing Research from the University of Georgia and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Maine.

 

About Olson Zaltman

As the Harvard-founded pioneers in the use of mind science for consumer insights, we are passionate about helping our clients unlock the hidden power of the unconscious. We uncover the beliefs and behaviors that impact consumers’ decisions and partner with strategic leaders like to determine the most impactful way of leveraging deep insights.

95% of consumer decisions are made deep in their unconscious where beliefs and behaviors are rooted. The ability to uncover this unconscious was the beginning of Olson Zaltman at the Harvard Business School Mind of the Market with the launch of ZMET, the first market research technique to receive a US patent.

Our academic roots are reflected in our highly vetted research tools. We’ve conducted more than 2,000 studies in 40 countries worldwide and our work has been cited in 4,000+ academic and industry publications. Academically rooted, Olson Zaltman is high-touch and rigorous in its methodology, and results-oriented.

Our team is filled with smart, curious, and interesting people. They are a big part of why we enjoy coming to work each day, and why clients enjoy working with us. We are purposefully small – some would say “curated”. We hail from a diverse array of disciplines and theoretical orientations, which helps us to generate wholly original ideas. Our DNA is a mixture of scientist, artist, and philosopher – but the kind you would want to talk to at a cocktail party.

 

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Book mentioned:

Marketing Metaphoria by Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman

 

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Welcome to this inspiring and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Sima is joined today by Bryan Orme, the president and CEO of Sawtooth Software. For more than 30 years, Sawtooth has helped its clients optimize products and pricing and make better business decisions with their conjoint analysis tools. Bryan has won multiple awards in the marketing research field, published over 100 articles and papers on conjoint analysis, and written three books on related subjects. In today’s show, Bryan helps us understand the differences between conjoint analysis and MaxDiff and highlights how Sawtooth Software tools are doing good things in our world.

Bryan’s journey

No one chooses an insights and analytics career. While doing his MBA work, Bryan discovered his interest in these research techniques and realized how useful they could be in solving important problems. He worked at IntelliQuest, Inc. for a while before moving to Sawtooth in 1995.

An overview of Sawtooth

Sawtooth is an insights platform for web-based surveys and surveys/devices not connected to the web. Their tools are used for product and price optimization,needs-based segmentation, and are useful in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Their survey platform is best known for conjoint analysis and MaxDiff, and their best-kept secret is a powerful survey-writing tool.

Who are Sawtooth customers?

Sawtooth serves a diverse group of motivated and loyal customers. They serve consultancies from the very large to the very small. Sawtooth customers include companies like Google, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble. They even serve academia and government agencies, but no one customer makes up more than 3% of Sawtooth’s revenue.

The shift that has happened

In interpreting insights and strategies, there has been a democratization of the platforms and a push toward DIY techniques. There are both good and bad aspects to this shift, but the quality has suffered. Bryan says, “People have become satisfied with a C or C- answer in two hours instead of an A or A+ answer in 1-2 weeks. The pendulum has swung too far in the DIY direction.”

Conjoint explained

A product or service has several pieces, like brand, functionality, performance, design, price, etc. Conjoint determines what drives people’s choices and what’s most important to them by asking multiple questions with varying features. The tool helps to predict what people do in order to pinpoint the most optimal combination to maximize the potential market share. Product managers, founders, and engineers can use this information to ensure product success in the marketplace.

MaxDiff explained

MaxDiff is a close cousin to conjoint and a great starting point, but it’s easier to use and more broadly applicable. It can be done by anyone with minimal research experience. “It’s like a one-attribute conjoint with a lot of levels.” Without using a 5-10 point scale, MaxDiff eliminates the cultural tendencies and bias of some people by just showing items and having them labeled as “best” or “worst.” MaxDiff is a statistical analysis of the data with great discrimination. We can think of conjoint analysis as the multiple-attribute extension of MaxDiff.

What Bryan is most proud of

Bryan is most proud of the good that Sawtooth does in the world. He gives three examples. In Tanzania, Sawtooth Software is used by the government to identify the barriers to prenatal and postnatal care for women with the goal of providing better healthcare. Prompted by a Ph.D. marine biology student in the British Virgin Islands, Sawtooth Software is used to manage tourism sustainably to protect the fragile coral reefs. Research and development at Honda use Sawtooth software to incorporate features like dual sliding doors that are controlled by the key fob on Odyssey minivans.

 

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Welcome to this informative and inspiring episode of the Data Gurus podcast! In today’s episode, Sima is thrilled to introduce you to Roseanne Luth, CEO and President of Luth Research, based in San Diego. Luth Research is a privately held market research company with over 300 highly trained and dedicated employees. Roseanne’s vision is to advance the research industry to its highest and best potential by establishing the most scientifically valid, internet-based data collection service. Roseanne shares her secrets of success that have allowed her company to grow, evolve, and thrive since 1977!

 

Staying power

Roseanne is quick to say that starting a company was very different 45 years ago compared to today. The keys for her have been to stay focused and be committed, with a fair amount of personal stubbornness thrown in for good measure. “If you don’t evolve as the world changes, you’ll be left behind.”

 

The inspiration

Even in a male-dominated world, Roseanne found that people were supportive and willing to help her when she began her company back in 1977. Wanting to work for herself and do things her own way was her inspiration for Roseanne. Since she was young, and her husband also ran his own business that provided for their family, she could be more flexible and take more risks.

 

Being vulnerable

As her business grew, the time came when Roseanne had to approach the bank and ask for a loan, but she didn’t have the financial background and knowledge to have her “ducks in a row.” The loan officer was helpful and supportive in explaining the steps she needed to take, but she had to be honest and vulnerable in admitting what she did not know.

 

Not defined by gender

Roseanne felt that she was defined by what she accomplished and not by her gender. She never felt like a minority because of the confidence she had in herself as a business owner. “How you define yourself has to do with how you perceive the world and how you go out there and do your thing.”

 

Growing and evolving

In growing a business, there is always a “next phase.” Technology is always changing and requires you to try something new. To fight against the fear of becoming obsolete, Roseanne knew that she had to be willing to make changes, especially when the online world opened up. As a result of her leap of faith in this new investment, Luth Research doubled its revenue in just two years.

 

Going digital

Roseanne’s company plunged into the digital world before it became the norm. Going digital with behavioral data was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up, but it meant that they needed researchers who knew how to use the data. She says that her company would not still exist today if she had not been willing to go in this new direction.

 

The innovation space

Roseanne knows that a percentage of her energy and dollars have to be spent on innovation. After looking at the budget from every possible angle, she confers with her people about where to put their dollars and how much to invest, and she makes the final decision as the coach of her team.

 

Regrets?

Roseanne tries not to look back and call any of her moves mistakes, but she classifies them as challenges that helped her learn and move on to the next bigger challenge. She recounts the unpredictable timing of COVID as the latest challenge that threw a kink into her plans for her Savvy Shares program.

 

What is Savvy Shares?

Savvy Shares is a survey opportunity for people to earn by giving their opinions and data. In short, people complete surveys and acquire shares in Luth Research instead of receiving a check. The panel is made up of thousands of people who receive dividend payouts over a long period of time instead of traditional pay. It’s a concept that is growing, new, different, and definitely innovative.

 

Leadership lessons

Roseanne’s leadership is always guided by the principle of doing what is right. She doesn’t allow herself to cry over challenges but looks at each one as a learning experience. A firm believer in not being controlled by emotions, “Suck it up” and “No whining” are words she lives by. She says, “A leader is always on stage, and everyone is watching, so you should act like it.” As she compiled her team of both high-paid positions and minimum wage spots, she followed her rule of never hiring someone who looks down on someone else.

 

Looking to the future

Roseanne is trying to step back and push her two daughters to take over more leadership in Luth Research. Her desire is to see a great future for every single person in her company, and her goal is to grow enough that every employee does well for themselves.

 

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Welcome to another informative and exciting episode of the Data Gurus Podcast!

Today, Sima is happy to have Zain Raj, the CEO and Chairman of Shapiro+Raj Agency, joining her!

Zain has had a very interesting journey! In this episode, he dives into how he got to where he is today and talks about his company, Shapiro+Raj. He also gets into how we need to shift and adapt to a changing world.

How Zain’s journey started

Zain graduated in India with an economics and finance degree, intending to become a CPA. After graduating, he pivoted and signed up for a new advertising program. He has now spent thirty-six years in the marketing industry. He has never experienced even one unhappy day because he loves what he does so much!

Moving to the US

Zain met an Indian woman living in the US, married her, and stayed in India for a year before moving to the US. He has been living in Chicago since then.

Advertising

After moving to the US, Zain got into the advertising industry and ran big global clients. He moved from brand advertising into direct marketing and then into data analytics. Then he joined the world of digital advertising.

Creative

Zain loves advertising because it requires empathy and creativity. You also get to be analytical and have the opportunity to work with a diversity of talent.

Critical qualities

Zain feels that depth and empathy are critical qualities for any business.

Shapiro+Raj

After working with big companies for a year, Zain wanted to spend more time with his family and spend the next stage of his career doing something more fulfilling. He saw many of his clients struggling with insights, so he decided to build a new model of an insights company. He bought Shapiro in 2015 because it was one of the largest independent companies based in Chicago with whom he had a long history. He then rid the company of the pieces they did not need and added a digital agency and a creative ideation capability to the platform. They brought in a brand strategist from advertising agencies and consulting forums and added the other necessary pieces to become a strategic insights consultancy capable of helping their clients get to market faster and spark transformative outcomes.

Growth

Over the last five years, Shapiro+Raj has tripled in size organically, without having either a sales or a business development team.

Equity value appreciation

Zain’s firm and their team have added more than 91 billion dollars of equity value appreciation for their clients over the last four years.

Two parts

Zain’s business has two parts. The one part is a life-sciences business, working with pharma companies. The other focuses on financial services, home improvements, building materials, retail, and technology.

Radical shift

Zain’s company approaches the radical shift brought about by Covid by considering how human beings will respond to the changing world. They also look at the changes in the economic, geopolitical environment, and the individual’s environment.

The uncertainty in the world today

They currently see a world with no framework, so most people and consumers have no idea how to think about their lives. People are constantly trying to figure things out, and that is why so many people are having mental issues right now.

The uncertainty on a business level 

On a business level, everything is in short supply. So people are unsure of when their supply problems will get solved and what their pricing will be.

Predicting the future

Zain’s team has been helping their clients by using their methodologies to predict the future and then working backward.

What will happen in the future?

There is a negative rebound with building materials, home improvements, and financial services. Groceries have pivoted to a delivery model and will stay strong. Talent will continue to be an issue.

A new trend 

A new trend is growing, around delivery apps, and with companies like Uber and Lyft.

Talent

For companies to find new talent, leaders have to see the world of work in a new and different way and figure out how to become more flexible and collaborative.

Bio:

A visionary leader, entrepreneur, business accelerator, investor, philanthropist, and industry futurist, Zain Raj is considered a global leader in finding new and different ways to grow brands. His unique ability to unearth surprising insights and incite inspired ideas has created billions of dollars of value for his clients and investors.

Currently, Zain is the Chairman and CEO of Shapiro+Raj, a top-ten independent insights and inspiration company in North America. He is also the founder and CEO of ZedNext, an ideas incubator that takes an objective and disruptive look at trends to help marketers and business leaders realize their full potential in this data-driven, digitally-led, and insights-driven world. His theories and methodologies provide clear and actionable ways to help companies deliver sustainable growth through these times of significant economic and cultural change.

He has authored two Amazon marketing and sales bestsellers, Brand Rituals™: How Successful Brands Bond with Customers for Life and Marketing For Tomorrow, Not Yesterday: Surviving and Thriving in the Insight Economy™. An evangelist for innovation and a strong believer in empowering others, Zain is a sought-after speaker on how marketers can build their businesses and improve their brand value in this evolving landscape of big data, mobility, digitization, and commoditization. He contributes his insights to The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fast Company, Forbes, Crain’s, and publications of the nation’s top business schools.

 

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Welcome to another exciting episode of the Data Gurus podcast!

Sima is happy to have Richard Jackson, the Chairman of the Winning Edge Mindset, joining her on the show today! Richard has spent the last thirty-eight years helping people understand their mindset and shape it to achieve their goals.

To change our mindset, we need to think about how we think. Yet very few of us ever do that. In this episode, Richard shares his journey and talks about what he teaches people in his Winning Edge course. He discusses what drives mindset and explains how our values impact how we feel. He also shares strategies for navigating tough times and structuring a goal-oriented mindset geared for success.

Richard’s background

Richard got divorced in the early 1980s. He felt bad and complained a lot, so a good friend suggested that he work on himself. Richard got a notebook and spent the next few years speaking to anyone he thought was doing better than him. He asked parents, CEOs of large companies, Olympic gold medal winners, and people who seemed happy what made them the people they were. He wanted to know what was going on in their heads that made them set exciting goals and forge ahead when it seemed that most others were not doing that. Then he made notes.

Starting a business

A few years later, Richard had the crazy idea to start a business using his hobby. He codified his notes and spoke to psychologists and neuroscientists to learn why we do what we do.

Growing a successful business

Richard started working with small companies initially, and later larger companies heard about what he was doing and wanted to work with him. He has worked in 19 countries, with companies of all sizes and anyone wanting to do better.

The first thing

The first thing people have to do when they start working with Richard is to define what better means to them.

Richard’s daughters

Richard now has three of his daughters working with him in the business.

The way we think

The way we think gets shaped by how we take inputs from the world around us. We easily take on stuff from other people without questioning it.

Shaping the mindset

Shaping our mindset starts with us questioning ourselves and the way we think. Unfortunately, very few people ever think about the way they think. We will never change if we don’t think about how we think.

Covid

Covid has been a driver for people starting to think about the way they think. The people who did Richard’s Winning Edge course before Covid are grateful to have done it because it helped them navigate their way through the hardships brought on by Covid. They learned that even though they could do nothing to change Covid, they could change the way they think about it.

Richard’s program

Richard’s program starts with a gentle journey. They sometimes do big conferences, but there are usually about twelve people on the program, which lasts for two days, plus one. They help people set goals and get clear about what they want to get from life and the person they want to be.

Companies gain 

Companies gain from their employees doing Richard’s course because they will become more proactive and creative; therefore, they come up with more innovative ideas for the business, be happier and more satisfied, and know that they are working where they want to work.

Anxiety

Anxiety is the result of people being unable to interpret everything going on around them.

Our process 

When people say nasty things about us, we don’t get upset by what they say, but we become upset by the way we process what they say. In other words, we upset ourselves based on what they said.

Strength

We gain a lot of strength when we understand what truly upsets us and use it in a way that helps us rather than letting us hinder us.

Adult maturity

The pinnacle of adult maturity is to know that everything you do gets done to satisfy a value or an emotional need.

Responsibility

Richard believes that no human being can be truly happy until they take full responsibility for all the choices they make.

Happiness

Most people do not distinguish between happiness and pleasure, so Richard believes that happiness should always be running in the background in our brains. It will help us make it more easily through hard times.

 

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Richard Jackson’s email address: [email protected]

Welcome to the latest interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast.

Today, Sima is happy to have Martin Filz, the CEO of Pureprofile, joining her on the show. In this episode, Martin shares his background and career trajectory. He discusses authentic leadership, explains how to form a passionate, engaged, and efficient execution team, and talks about creating a successful business in the market research industry. He also highlights the importance of the panel and dives into how Pureprofile engages and interacts with its panelists.

 

Martin’s background

Martin was born in London. He loves insights and data! He first got involved in technology back in the 1980s and 90s, and it was an exciting time for him! He got into research for the first time in the 1990s. It happened when he headed up the European section during the startup of Redshare, a company that tracked the website behavior of users for brands. Right from the get-go, he loved working with consumer insights!

 

Nielsen

Martin also spent some time with Nielsen, integrating their teams across Europe.

 

Australia

Martin has an Australian wife and two daughters, so he moved to Australia in 2008.

 

Research Now

Martin Filz had a friend at Research Now who told him they were looking for someone to head Asia. He spoke to them and got involved with the company. Research Now was an exciting company with great leaders. Martin went from working with behavioral data to working directly with insights and sentiments, which were the things he truly cared about!

 

Getting headhunted

Martin got headhunted from Research Now to work at Lightspeed. Working at Lightspeed was exciting because they changed how insights got gathered. He later left Lightspeed to join Eureka, a company all about big data.

 

Big data 

Big data was another eye-opening discovery for him!

 

Pureprofile

After Covid struck, Martin wanted to be closer to home. Pureprofile did not have a CEO and was a perfect fit, so he joined the company. He helped them create a core strategy around being global, having great technology, and delivering the data, insights, and media campaigns their clients wanted. He also helped them get rid of their mountain of debt, which inspired clients to spend much more with them, partners to sign with them, and team members to get a lot more involved.

 

Martin’s skill

Even though many founders and entrepreneurs have brilliant ideas, they still need an executive team to make their ideas a reality. Martin understands that building a great execution team involves giving people the tools they need to flourish and then backing off and letting them get on with what they have to do.

 

Staying open and excited

Martin advises everyone to be hungry to learn and stay open to getting excited and discovering something new throughout their career!

 

Who needs to use data?

Data insights will be helpful for anyone who needs to make a business decision.

 

The metrics needed for a successful business

To have a successful business, you need to have engaged and passionate team members who love their work. You also need to have satisfied customers.

 

Clients and customers

Companies should adopt a personal approach and always put their customers first. Additionally, they should also be flexible with their clients and deliver what they want.

 

Panelists

Panelists should be given what they want and need and we should look at surveys in terms of how they will further the panelists' lives, and panelists should get well rewarded for participating in surveys.

 

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Book mentioned:

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos

Welcome to another exciting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast!

Today, Sima is happy to have Camille Nicita, the CEO of Gongos, joining her as her guest for the show. Camille is one of the four founding partners of Gongos.

In this episode, Camille shares her early career experiences and the journey she has been on since the founding of Gongos thirty years ago, which culminated in her becoming CEO. She also discusses the step-by-step transformation of Gongos and explains what they do to meet their clients’ needs in a world of big data.

How Gongos came about 

While she was doing an internship at an automotive group for a research company, John Gongos asked Camille and three others to join him when he decided to go out on his own and do a startup. Camille was young and had no commitments at the time, so she took a leap of faith and agreed.

A great experience

Camille found getting thrown in at the deep end a good learning experience! From the get-go, she loved being part of Gongos because she was with a group of smart people with whom she enjoyed doing things.

Restless dissatisfaction

Part of the DNA of Gongos is continuous improvement. Every year since she started working at Gongos, Camille has continued to learn, grow, and become better than she was before. At Gongos, they call never resting on their laurels restless dissatisfaction.

Seeding the future of the organization

As the company grew, Camille started to interview people, recruit talent, and place the right people in the appropriate positions. She always kept her eye on the future and where the organization was going. She made sure that she always took on board the kind of talent that would seed the future of the organization.

Camille’s path to becoming CEO

Throughout her years at Gongos, Camille always took on new challenges and opportunities. Early on, she became a member of the leadership or strategy team that determined the key direction of the company. She took on many different roles and learned as much as possible about the organization. She also stayed at the forefront with all her client interactions. She listened carefully to what her clients needed and brought back what she learned and fused it into all the areas of the organization. That primed her well to become CEO.

Camille never aspired to be CEO 

In 2012, John Gongos passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Camille was COO and a minority shareholder at the time. When John passed, she became the controlling shareholder. It was natural that she also became the CEO because she honored John and felt that he would have wanted her to do it.

A new vision

After John passed away, Camille and the other leaders in the organization rallied together to prove to the world that they could carry on running Gongos in the same successful way as before. Big data was coming onto the scene at the time, so they also took the opportunity to create a new vision for the organization.

Customer-centricity

At Gongos, they have always been into customer-centricity and helping their clients make good decisions. When their clients started to rely on data that was not created by them, they started looking at their capabilities beyond qualitative and quantitative research that could help them to help their clients thrive in a world where data is abundant.

Challenging data

The most challenging data for them to work with was big, messy sets of enterprise data. They soon learned that they needed to structure that data to work with it. They also needed to have data engineers on their team in addition to data scientists, to structure the messy data.

New talent

They started bringing into the organization people who are potentially good researchers with business acumen who could also consult well with the clients. Gongos now has a great combination of talent that includes researchers, data scientists, consultants, strategists from various walks of life, and creatives who take all the information and put it in a simple format that executives can easily consume.

Great partners

Gongos has relied on great advocates, partners, and consultants outside of the organization for much of its journey.

The next step

Camille sold Gongos to InSites Consulting at the beginning of 2022. She sees the sale as the next step in transforming the company and feels excited about having expanded capabilities to help their customers thrive!

 

Bio:

Camille Nicita, Managing Director North America and Managing Partner of Gongos: part of InSites Consulting

Camille is currently InSites Consulting’s Managing Director North America and, as a Managing Partner will contribute to the global strategy formulation process by joining its global Partner Board. Building on the experience that her former company, Gongos, has built over the years, she plays an instrumental role evangelizing customer-centricity to clients and the industry as well as setting up a global expert team around internal transformation, intended to activate business stakeholders around consumers.

As former CEO of Gongos, Camille understands what it takes to make business decisions while operating in volatile environments and building strong cultural buy-in. She believes operationalizing consumer centricity as a strategy will have a harmonizing effect on decision-makers. As such, Gongos’ mission is to reorient the relationship between corporations and consumers to be mutually beneficial. Camille is on the board of directors for the Insights Association and Forgotten Harvest, a contributing member of the Forbes Agency Council, and is an official judge of the North American Customer Centricity awards. She is the former sole owner of Gongos, Inc., a WBENC company that was named a Forbes “Small Giant” in 2020.

 

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Welcome to another interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast!

Sima is excited to have Vin DeRobertis, the CEO of Savanta, joining her on the show today!

In this episode, Vin shares his career journey and talks about building Savanta. He discusses acquisitions, gives his perspective on the research industry, and talks about the challenges he experienced with doing a UK startup on American soil.

Vin’s career journey

Vin spent about three years working as a programmer for the NPD Group before moving on to their Online Operations. He left the NPD Group to work for Carbonview and later joined e-Rewards, where he remained for the next eleven years.

Vin started working for MIG Global in 2017. They needed to create an economy of scale, so in February of 2019, they built a house of brands that comes together under the research umbrella of Savanta at Next 15 Communications.

Vendors

Vendors at large research firms have a unique view of the field. Vin has sold sample and other research services to well over 1,000 agencies globally, so he had the opportunity to see how different businesses performed. Although he was surprised at times, most of his guesses were correct. That helped him make some of his deals.

Doing successful deals

In America, Savanta did three successful deals. Vin had to reach out to many different companies to achieve that.

Acquisitions

When looking at acquisitions, the most challenging part of Vin’s job is finding the right-sized company that wants to sell to him at the right time.

The ultimate success

For Vin, the ultimate success is offering someone 115% of what they thought they would get two years before.

Finding the right buyer

You need to know which approach to take with your buyers. Sometimes, you know that someone is 100% your buyer. When you really get into what you are doing, you start to see that someone who looks like they are only 50% of your buyer could also be your buyer, but you have to speak to them differently.

Vin’s his perspective of the industry

Vin feels that research has been a cottage industry for a long time, and it gets dwarfed by marketing and advertising. He believes that even though research is a slower-moving industry, it is still worth investing in because there is a lot of money to be made.

Research is getting more penetration within the brands

Sima has noticed that research is penetrating more departments, more people, and more functions within the brands, and it is enabling tools to get used on a broader scale, which is good for the industry. Research is no longer being held hostage in one group within an organization. Thoughtful, rigorous, and analytical research is still valued professionally, and research will continue to evolve.

DIY tools

Many of those who use DIY research tools think that anyone can be a researcher. However, what they put in shows that not everyone can be a researcher.

Doing a UK startup on American soil 

Vin has enjoyed coming from the headquarters in the UK and doing a startup on American soil. There is a cultural difference between British and American people, and he has found it amusing to see how much can get lost in an English-to-English translation. Some things work in the UK market, but not in the American market, and vice versa.

Cross-pollination

To integrate their UK and American businesses, Savanta sometimes cross-pollinates. They are not always successful in doing that, however. Their goal is to make businesses roll under Savanta.

A challenge

Certain parts of their UK/USA crossover, like health insurance, are challenging to make global. Although those things might appear trivial, they require a lot of work.

Hire your finance person sooner rather than later

Vin advises anyone starting a business to hire a finance person earlier than they think they need to.

The hardest part of Vin’s role 

The hardest part of Vin’s role right now is finding a pipeline of deals that fits what he wants.

 

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Vin DeRobertis on LinkedIn

Welcome back to another informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast!

Today, Sima is happy to have Elys Roberts, the Founder, and CEO of Beesy, joining her on the show.

In this episode, Elys discusses his career journey, describes conscious versus non-conscious behavior, and talks about the exciting things they are doing with behavioral science at Beesy.

Elys’s background

While with Eli Lilly in the UK, Eli joined a leadership program and did several different jobs. They included district sales management, marketing, market research, sales training, and sales. Then he moved to the US to join a small startup company where he did pharmaceutical market research online.

More recently, he became the CEO of Ipsos Healthcare. He then took on a broader role within Ipsos, managing six divisions in North America, with about 600 people reporting to him. After that, he established Beesy, a behavioral science insights agency.

A masterplan

Starting Beesy was part of Elys’s master plan. In 1997, while at Eli Lilly, he did an inspiring training course on mindset management called The Winning Edge. It was a game-changer for him. It forced him to get his act together and taught him to be purposeful when setting goals. After that, he wanted to start a company, but he had no experience. So he left the UK and went to the US to join an early-stage startup to expose himself to entrepreneurialism. From that time on, every role he took was to help him build a business.

Looking at risk from a behavioral science perspective

Some people find risk-taking and decision-making a lot tougher than others do. Much of it has to do with how people perceive it. For Elys, taking a risk made a lot of sense because he looked at it from a behavioral science perspective. He knew that he would either succeed or learn a lot by failing.

A regret aversion perspective 

Elys also looked at risk from a regret aversion perspective. So he considered whether he would regret doing what he did as an old man or whether he would regret not having done it. Starting a business was an easy decision because he knew he would regret not doing it.

About Beesy

Beesy is a behavioral-based insights agency, so they are in the business of understanding and impacting decision-making. They mainly help out many major pharma-biotech companies and consumer packaged goods companies.

Conscious versus non-conscious behavior

80-90% of all decision-making is reflexive, non-conscious, and effortless. That is known as System One or autopilot, and it is always on. To make a conscious decision that overrides the autopilot, the pilot brain needs to be proactively switched on. It takes effort and cognitive energy, so most humans do not like to do that.

An effective marketing campaign

Beesy has to understand and know how to impact people's behavior to execute an effective marketing campaign. So they tell their clients that when trying to persuade people, they can get an incremental benefit by tapping into the other side of the brain and nudging their customers appropriately towards the desired behavior.

Behavioral science

Behavioral science is serious and meaningful science. Beesy has some smart, top-notch behavioral scientists who analyze customer behavior. They do a lot of primary market research to understand what is going on beneath the surface with their respondents and learn what drives their behavior.

Beesy’s approaches

Beesy works with three broad approaches:

They do behavioral audits based on prior research and external empirical research in the public domain.

They do qualitative research.

They do quantitative research.

Everything they do has a foundation in behavioral science.

Factors that drive people’s behavior 

Behavioral science allows us to understand why people behave the way they do. The factors outside of people’s attitudes that impact and drive their behavior include their habits, biases, beliefs, sense of identity, and the context in which they make decisions.

Elys’s role

When on projects, Elys’s role is to ensure that the rigorous science gets pulled through to practical guidance and recommendations to help their clients make stronger business decisions.

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Welcome to another interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast!

Sima is happy to have Lilah Raynor, the Founder, and CEO of Logica Research joining her today!

In this episode, Lilah talks about the research project she did with a team from the IDEA Council and the ongoing study she is involved in, called The Future of Money.

Lilah’s background

Lilah comes from a financial services background. Before founding Logica Research, she managed the research team at Charles Schwab.

Founding Logica Research

Lilah founded Logica Research about fifteen years ago. It was initially called Koski Research. She started her company to provide excellent client service for clients who preferred working with small boutique research firms. Over time, they have become more niche-focused on financial services and fintech.

Making a change 

Owning her own business allowed Lilah to have more flexibility while raising her two young children. It also allowed her to work on different projects and do different types of research.

Research around hot topics

Lilah participated in and conducted some research to help the research industry understand how to ask questions around ethnicity, race, and gender.

The IDEA Council

The Insights Association has a group called the IDEA Council that has within it two working groups. One does research on research, and the other focuses more on the profession and talent.

The IDEA Council’s research on research group

Lilah got involved in the IDEA Council’s research on research group because the purpose of her company is to provide insights for organizations to help improve people’s financial lives. After the murder of George Floyd, and with more focus on inclusion and diversity within the research industry, she wanted to be in a position to provide sample and participants that were both inclusive and diverse.

A white paper

Lilah and the team at the IDEA Council created a white paper on having more inclusive demographic questions. They focused on race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.

The first step

The white paper is the first step in an ongoing series of research studies. It was done to provide a perspective and recommendations on how to ask demographic questions, how to be more sensitive and inclusive when asking demographic questions, and how to use new questions in their sample design.

A three-tiered approach recommendation

They came up with a three-tiered approach recommendation for asking questions about gender and sex.

Non-binary

Non-binary has not yet been properly defined or researched, so it might not be clear to older generations.

Caution and encouragement

Caution has been recommended when using terms that might not have universal definitions. The option for self-identification with an open end is encouraged.

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation needs to be differentiated from gender. So they offer suggestions for different ways to ask questions about sexual orientation.

Demographic questions

Demographic questions should be handled in a sensitive way, similar to questions about household income, assets, or money.

Race and ethnicity

There is a large section in the white paper on asking questions about race and ethnicity. It has recommendations for different ways in which those questions can be asked. The white paper also identifies terms for race and ethnicity, country of origin, ancestry, culture.

USA

The recommendations in the white paper are based on and geared for the United States.

Race

Questions about race should be asked in a sensitive and open-ended way. Having an inclusive and sensitive coding framework is also recommended.

Multiple selection and self-identification

Allowing for multiple selection and self-identification are also recommended.

Where do you find the white paper?

The white paper can be found on the Insights Association IDEA Council website.

The Future of Money

Lilah is also involved with an ongoing study on the financial and economic uncertainty and stress caused by the pandemic called The Future of Money. Since the pandemic, people have become much more open to talking about money.

Employees are looking for guidance from their employers

Right now, employers are in a place where they need to look at different ways to help their employees. Insights show that people want more than just a 401K, health care insurance, and competitive compensation. They also require investment and financial advice, an emergency savings fund, and help with budgeting.

Are we heading for a cashless society?

People have been using less cash since the start of the pandemic, and also different forms of payments like peer-to-peer, in-app payment options, and autofill payments at online checkouts. We will most likely only go cashless in the distant future, however.

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Logica Research