Day 2 PM: CASRO International Conference

Back from lunch. CASRO conferences always seem to have great lunches!

There is just one session this afternoon that the co-chair promises will get us out of future pie-in-the-sky stuff and down to the basic blocking and tackling we need to know to do well in today's world.

The first presenter is Kate Southwood from Kantar Operations. Her presentation is titled, "Conducting Multi-National Research Operations on an International Scale." She wants to talk to the fundamental issues that have been with us a long time and they start with culture. Then there are the logistical challenges around time zones, holidays and seasonality and, of courses, translation and localization issues. Client structure—headquarters office versus in country local affiliates—can seriously complicate operations and introduce political issues the research company needs to learn to stay clear of.

But the world is changing and now there is a whole new set of challenges. Understanding and leveraging new technologies is one of them. Privacy regulation is another. In addition, clients want a single point of contact and a cohesive network to do work or even may want to dictate which vendors you use and manage, some of whom may have back-channel communications with the client that bring those politics into play again. Increasingly companies are turning to "offshore hubs" to take advantage of lower cost countries (like India) and managing them can be difficult.

Some keys:

1. Know your client, their structure, expectations and experience with global research.
2. Use experienced project managers with good organizational skills and knowledge of the pitfalls of global research.
3. Understand and manage the risks.
4. Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! Never assume anything.
5. Use common platforms, where possible.
6. Be flexible and expect the unexpected. One size does not always fit all.
7. Be bold. Collaborate with in-country experts and don't always bow to "what the client wants." This is often more about the client service people than the client.

Good solid presentation.

Next up is Tara Hutton from a smaller company—Consumer Electronics Association-- to talk about the pitfalls of international research. She has started by stressing how critical global research is to consumer electronics companies. Now she's moving to the pitfalls and, to be honest, not adding a whole lot to what the previous speaker presented.

Finally, we have Holly Jarrell from GfK and Allyson Clarke from MS&L Worldwide. Their topic is, "Taking Data to New Places: How Syndicated Insights can Shape Global Communications Strategy." They are going to talk about syndicated rather than custom. Their argument is that you have to do all of the same things you have to do with custom, but this is harder because you are serving multiple masters and analysis is more difficult. But some of what she is talking about—like difficulty of changes—is really about tracking rather than syndicated per se. And I must say, that the more I listen the more I question the basic premise that syndicated is harder. Seems to me, once you get the vendors lined up and the relationships in place it's actually a little easier from an operational perspective.

Now, unfortunately, I have a plane to catch. This has been a pretty good conference as these things go. Some good nuts and bolts stuff by people with the experience to speak to the issues. This is about the fourth one of these I've been to and this one was probably the best. I'm glad I came. But at the end of the day the real secret to doing good global work well is in the experience of doing lots of it. It's like anything else in that regard. The more you do the better you get. There are no magic bullets.

Comments

[R Bruce Williamson, PhD]

Having worked to develop and then sell syndicated telecommunications research studies to both state run and private international telecom operators and equipment manufacturers, the secrets are (1) timing (2) the offer (3) smarts of the research team in identifying and anticipating both client and market nuance (4) solid, collaborative international team. The problem is that you never have all four working for you. One of the more troublesome (and the one most in control by the research company, oddly) is the churn in experienced staff in country offices, so even if you have a team that kicks off a great product, it's guaranteed you won't have the same team available to you in the next big selling cycle. Reg, it's great fun while it lasts, and profitable, but don't underestimate the internal company challenges that have to be overcome to operationalize a multi-year syndicated international study