Lessons Learned: A Life in Insights with Stan Sthanunathan

[00:00:00] Stan Sthanunathan: Very often we swing to an extreme where we say, oh, you know what? I have done so much of analysis, so much of data collection, so much of looking at the data I need to show them how smart I am. It’s not about how smart you are, it’s about what decisions you can actually influence. The simple rule that I have always followed, particularly in the last 10, 15 years is do presentations that are fact based.

[00:00:25] Stan Sthanunathan: But not fact filled. 

[00:00:27] MRII Announcer: Welcome to MRII’s Insights and Innovators podcast, where we talk to top market research professionals to get their inside stories about innovative and enduring best practices. Now here’s your host for today’s episode.

[00:00:40] MRII Announcer: Welcome to today’s 

[00:00:41] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Episode, letters to the Next Generation, letters from a Life and Insights.

[00:00:46] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: I’m your host, z Johnson. Our guest, Stan Sthanunathan, has spent his storied c career at the helm of insights functions at companies like Unilever. Before that Coca-Cola shaping not just business strategy, [00:01:00] but the entire field of consumer insights. Today, he joins us to reflect on the lessons he’s learned and what he hopes to pass on to the next generation of insights leaders.

[00:01:11] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: We are confident that you, our listeners, will benefit from Stan’s perspective. Welcome Stan, and thanks for being with us today for what Promises to be a terrific podcast episode. 

[00:01:22] Stan Sthanunathan: Thank you, Z. Really looking forward to it. 

[00:01:26] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: So you’ve had an extraordinary 40 year career. Looking back, what were a few moments or decisions that shaped your path most significantly?

[00:01:38] Stan Sthanunathan: It’s one thing that, uh, I learned pretty early on in my life is to capitalize on nothing, to lose moments, you know, uh, very early on. I can give you an example of one moment, you know, where, uh, I was in the agency side of the business and we were pitching for a very large usage [00:02:00] and attitude study, which was probably one of the biggest projects going on in that year.

[00:02:06] Stan Sthanunathan: I was up against some of the real luminaries of the insights industry at that point of time. Mm-hmm. And my boss was not in town and my title was a Princely Senior Research Executive. And when I was pitching with the prospective client, the client obviously got offended by the fact that, you know, my agency did not send their managing director or CEO.

[00:02:29] Stan Sthanunathan: To pitch for that project. But instead they sent me and all the other agencies were represented by the CEOs and managing directors. So the client asked me, don’t you have any senior people in your company? And I looked at him for a minute and I said, wow, that’s a good nothing to lose moment because I’ve lost the project, because he’s got this thing that we don’t take him seriously.

[00:02:51] Stan Sthanunathan: I said, let me roll the dice and take a big risk. And I told him, that’s a great question, Mr. So and so. But have you asked the [00:03:00] other agencies who’s actually going to do the work if you commission them? Do you know who’s going to do it? In our agency, our philosophy is to send the person who’s going to do the work.

[00:03:11] Stan Sthanunathan: If you’re like me, you’re gonna see me for the rest of the project. If you don’t like me, then don’t give it to me. But do you know who you’re going to be working with in the other agencies? He looked at me like that for some time and he said, okay, that’s a fair point, and I’ll come back to you. And then that afternoon we got a call from that client saying that we’ve been awarded the project.

[00:03:29] Stan Sthanunathan: And that was probably the single largest project that we got from that. From from that agency. That’s what I mean by identifying a nothing to lose moment and leveraging it, because if the payoff is there, it’s gonna be huge, but it is not there. In any case, you have nothing to lose. 

[00:03:50] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: I love that. That’s fantastic.

[00:03:54] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Was there someone along the way who made a particular impact on you as a mentor or a guide? [00:04:00] 

[00:04:00] Stan Sthanunathan: Oh, there are lots of people. I think, uh, you know, uh, the one person, uh, when after I joined Koch, uh, this person made uh, an incredible impact on me. He was my line manager, uh, in the Middle East. Uh, that’s where I started my career with Coke.

[00:04:19] Stan Sthanunathan: He had a very disarming way of telling you that you have not done enough thinking, and your story is not very well researched, but the way he used to say. It, you know, you, you used to feel good about the fact that he’s actually finding fault with you. It’s only later on you realize that actually he called you an idiot, but you didn’t feel that way at that point of time.

[00:04:42] Stan Sthanunathan: But because he does it so beautifully, I used to come back home and say, I have to not prove that he’s right and uh, and he’s wrong. So, and I used to come back and do a really, really thorough analysis, go tele. And he used to be equally effusive in the way he praises you. And that’s [00:05:00] when I realized that, you know, look, you know, you can give negative feedback, but you can do it in a way in which you don’t destroy someone, but you actually build that person’s, uh, confidence.

[00:05:10] Stan Sthanunathan: And this person forever change my life in terms of how much I started trusting myself. And that’s very important. 

[00:05:19] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: I love that. If you could go back to the beginning. What’s one thing you wish someone had told you about a career in insights? 

[00:05:30] Stan Sthanunathan: Hmm, that’s an interesting one. I wish, uh, somebody had told me that you should take pride in the function.

[00:05:42] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Hmm. 

[00:05:43] Stan Sthanunathan: The. Mindset was, you know, you are in service business. You’re supposed to answer clients’ questions and keep clients happy and get more and more business from them. 

[00:05:55] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah, 

[00:05:56] Stan Sthanunathan: somewhere down the line. You know, all that is important, but you’ve [00:06:00] gotta have pride in what you do. You know, if you don’t have pride in what you do, you don’t know.

[00:06:07] Stan Sthanunathan: When you are in a servicing mode and when you are in a subservient mode and very easily, you can move from service mode to a subservient mode. And that is a confidence trial. Yeah. And the only thing that prevents you from getting into that transition is pride in the function. You got to. You know, happy about the fact that you are doing one of the most intellectual jobs.

[00:06:32] Stan Sthanunathan: You are doing one of the most critical jobs. You are putting consumer. At the end of all the business decisions that are being taken by businesses, there is nothing that is more important. How do you have pride in that, and how do you wake up every day in the morning and say that I am so glad I’m in the insights function.

[00:06:50] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: That’s great. Yeah. We have a really cool function and it’s a very important function. It’s, we should give more pride in that. Yeah. It’s, 

[00:06:58] Stan Sthanunathan: it is. And we sometimes forget that. [00:07:00] We ourselves forget that. And then how do you expect somebody else to, you know, uh, give you respect you, when you yourself don’t have pride in your own function.

[00:07:08] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. What’s a lesson you had to learn the hard way? 

[00:07:14] Stan Sthanunathan: What’s a lesson that I had to learn the hard way? Again, I can bring it to life in the form of a really, uh, interesting story. Uh, the one lesson that I have to learn the hard way is how do you develop a backbone? Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, and how do you, you know, master up, know guts to say what is right?

[00:07:36] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah. And that’s not easy because you know when the client pays you money, and if the news is not good, it’s very difficult to actually deliver the bad news. Um, and, and still get the money back, money from the client for that. Yeah. So, uh, so it is, it is actually very, and the client could be an internal stakeholder or it could be your research agency client or whatever it is, you know.

[00:07:57] Stan Sthanunathan: So yeah, for me, the best example that comes to my mind is, [00:08:00] you know, but again, I leverage that nothing to lose moment, so to say. Yeah. Uh, I presented a, a massive customer satisfaction study. You know, those are the days when. You know, things are, uh, physical questionnaires and you are to fill it out with hand and stuff like that.

[00:08:15] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah. They were not TATed interview or computerated interview. Yeah. And we finished the whole study, presented the whole findings. So that client, the client really loved the findings and they said, well done, Sam. Great job. Thank you so much. You know, I came back to the office and my data analysis manager turned around and told me hoops, I think I made a small mistake.

[00:08:34] Stan Sthanunathan: I said, what is it? I said, I reverse the scale at the time of analysis. So that one to five scale, one being very dissatisfied. Actually, I, in his analysis it actually stood for one being very satisfied. 

[00:08:46] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Oh, no. So 

[00:08:48] Stan Sthanunathan: the whole findings are exactly the opposite. Oh, now this is, this is, uh, you know, uh, come to Jesus moment.

[00:08:55] Stan Sthanunathan: Right? Yeah. I sat there and thought for a while and I said, okay, what do I [00:09:00] do? You know, I can keep quiet and if the client, uh, takes addition and things don’t go right, you can always say, you know, your execution is bad. And, uh, you know, you gotta, you know, uh, Glip out their way out of it. But I felt that that is not the right thing to do and that’s when, you know, I must up guts and call the client and said, Hey.

[00:09:17] Stan Sthanunathan: I want to come back and represent the whole thing. So, and gimme two days time. So the client said why it was very convincing. I mean, know we are very clear about what actions you want we want to take. I said, no, no, no. Please don’t take wait for me for two more days. And two days later I went and presented.

[00:09:31] Stan Sthanunathan: And the client obviously noticed that, you know, the, the whole story had got changed quite a bit. He asked me which one is, which one is right. So I said, obviously the second one, uh, then he said, why? I said, no, if it is not the right one, then I wouldn’t have come back. The first one or the right one, I would’ve told you.

[00:09:45] Stan Sthanunathan: Take decisions. Then he thought for a while and he said, listen, you know, for what you have done, I can not, uh, I can file your agency and not pay the balance 50%. And I said, absolutely right. You know, you’re well within your rights to do that. But also [00:10:00] remember that I could have kept quiet and you would’ve never known, and I did not do that.

[00:10:04] Stan Sthanunathan: So he thought for a while and he turned around and said, I really admire your honesty and directness. Thank you so much, and I trust you much more now because of what you have done the second time around, uh, than any, anything else. I said, okay, thank you so much. You shook can and you worked out. And the client subsequently became one of our top three clients in the, in that agency side.

[00:10:26] Stan Sthanunathan: So guts is something that, you know, you’ll have to really think about. You have to stand up for what is right and that can, you can never go wrong with that. So, you know, leverage nothing to lose moment. Display guts, um, and, and do it consistently and stand up for what is right. 

[00:10:43] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. So now we’re gonna pivot a little bit.

[00:10:50] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Mm-hmm. And what to you defines great insights work, and how has that definition evolved over time? 

[00:10:59] Stan Sthanunathan: Uh, my, [00:11:00] my definition, which I’ve been using for the last 10 years is, uh, it’s very simple. Insight is something that is retrospectively self-evident, and both the words are very critical. Retrospective. I’m self-evident.

[00:11:15] Stan Sthanunathan: So if I come and tell you, Z, this is an insight, you should turn around and tell me, duh, that’s obvious to me, Stan, then, then I ask you, was it obvious to you before I told you? And then you turn on, maybe not, then you know, you have a big insight because it, you know, you had that penny dropping aha moment.

[00:11:33] Stan Sthanunathan: So that’s what a good insight is. But an insight, you know, cannot be just an artifact, you know, which you get excited about. It has to have, you know, impact on changing the trajectory of a business. If it doesn’t do that, it’s a great information. Park it. Maybe at some point of time it might be useful, but always subjected to business relevance before you actually present it to a client.

[00:11:56] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah, that would be my definition of insight, but honestly, when I started [00:12:00] my career, I wish somebody had told me what an insight is because I was in search of an insight for a very long time. You know, I’m pretty sure I presented decent insights, but I did not know that they were insights at that point of time.

[00:12:12] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Right. You’ve long championed the power of storytelling. How did you learn to influence business decisions through insight and what advice would you give others trying to do the same? 

[00:12:27] Stan Sthanunathan: Well, you know, um, when I was born and brought up in Bombay, in India, yeah. And I have always remembered one thing. From my childhood, and that is some wonderful stories that my grandmom used to tell me.

[00:12:45] Stan Sthanunathan: Some mythological stories from Indian mythology. 

[00:12:49] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. 

[00:12:50] Stan Sthanunathan: These stories, you know, when she used to tell the stories, the characters used to be flashing in front of your eyes. Remember those days there was no television? Yeah. And she used [00:13:00] to tell it so beautifully. You should listen there and say, wow, you know, these things happened.

[00:13:04] Stan Sthanunathan: Now. Do we make that kind of thing happen for our clients when we tell a story? Imagine if we can do that consistently, that is when you know they would want to call you back again and again, again and again. Now, there are some simple ingredients of storytelling. You need some good, robust, um, sound bites, soundbites that people will remember much after you have left the room.

[00:13:31] Stan Sthanunathan: Mm-hmm. Soundbite that they will use. To, you know, justify some of their own actions. And all those soundbites should come from the stories that you have told them, and that is the reason why you exist. That is the only reason why you’ll be remembered. Otherwise, you are going to be wallpaper. But very often we swing to the other extreme.

[00:13:54] Stan Sthanunathan: Very often we swing to an extreme where we say, oh, you know what? I have done so much of analysis, so much of [00:14:00] data. Collection so much of, you know, looking at the data I need to show them how smart I am. It’s not about how smart you are, it’s about what decisions you can actually influence. The simple rule that I have always followed, particularly in the last, uh, you know, uh, 10, 15 years is do presentations that are fact based but not fact filled.

[00:14:25] Stan Sthanunathan: Because the moment you have fact filled presentations. You’re gonna lose the audience because they’re gonna be, you know, going all over the place on your chart and looking for data. You could be telling them whatever you want, but they’re not listening to you. They’re looking at all the data on the screen and trying to form their own conclusions if you want their attention.

[00:14:44] Stan Sthanunathan: Have fact-based presentation with minimal facts on the table, on the slide, so that they listen to you and not look at the screen up there and, uh, forming their own conclusion. So storytelling is the art of doing that [00:15:00] without too many props. You need to be able to do that. Uh, just standing up and talking ideally without even one slide.

[00:15:08] Stan Sthanunathan: But I understand we all need slides, but if you have slides. Make sure that you don’t collateral it up with thousands of words and hundreds of data points. So storytelling is not about showing how smart you are, it’s about how much you can inspire and provoke people to take actions based on whatever insight your delivery.

[00:15:28] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. So then how do you take those and make an insights leader not just effective, but impactful and valued by a C-Suite member? 

[00:15:42] Stan Sthanunathan: I’m gonna say something that is not politically right word to use in a podcast. Yeah. Uh, my, I would always tell my own people that, how often can you create Oh shit, moments for people.

[00:15:57] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Mm. 

[00:15:58] Stan Sthanunathan: It is mission [00:16:00] critical because, you know, the, the only reason why the C-Suite people would realize that you are valuable is if. You can bring to the table something that they did not know. They have not become C-suite level people for nothing. They’ve been there, they’ve done their work, they’ve earned their stripes.

[00:16:21] Stan Sthanunathan: So they’ve seen a lot of the world, the business world in particular, they’ve seen a lot of it. What can you bring to the table, which they look at it and say, oh shit. I did not think about it this way. Oh, I did not have this perspective. The more you do that, the more they want you by their side because they look good.

[00:16:42] Stan Sthanunathan: Uh, they are challenged and everybody loves to be challenged and a good successful C-suite leader. Knows that unless he or she’s challenged, they are not going to be the best that they’re capable of. The one who can do that on a regular basis, either one, they want, [00:17:00] uh, around them on an ongoing basis. So in summary, I would say create Oh shit moments.

[00:17:06] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. They’ll want you back. Yeah. They’ll want you 

[00:17:11] Stan Sthanunathan: back. They’ll want you back. Yeah. 

[00:17:15] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: So there are some skills in this field that. They seem timeless. Yeah, right. They, they never go out of style. Mm-hmm. In your view, what are some of those skills that every insights practitioner should hold onto no matter how the industry evolves?

[00:17:34] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah. I would say there’s one skill. We need to train that muscle on a regular basis, and that is all around the ability to connect the dots. Then you connect the dots. That’s when a pattern starts emerging. That’s when a painting gets completed. That is when a song is written. That is when people look at you and say, wow, I [00:18:00] understand exactly what you’re trying to say.

[00:18:02] Stan Sthanunathan: And when you connect the dots, especially some of the dots are things that people already had in their mind, and you connect that with some of the dots that you have with you and the third person has got when you put it all together. That’s when they look at it and say. Now I see the whole picture, but sometimes we tend to focus on just the dot that we have, IE the study that we have done, IE the specific project that we have done, and we talk about that one in great detail.

[00:18:30] Stan Sthanunathan: It’s important. To be an expert in what you have done, but ability to connect the.is the one that helps you to relate to people and make it useful and personable and impactful for the person who’s actually, uh, receiving that message. And when you, when you bring it all together, then they sit there and say that, ah, this person has got a business context and not just a research expertise context, and therefore connecting the dot.

[00:18:56] Stan Sthanunathan: It super, super, super important. Uh, [00:19:00] and we have to help people to see the patterns. It’s the patterns that actually make people dream about big things. It’s not those dots. Dots are, you know, if you look at the dots, you go crossey after some time, but we see a pattern. Your mind actually start. 

[00:19:17] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. So the pace of change right now is, I mean, it’s faster than ever.

[00:19:25] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: It keeps getting faster. Mm, new tech, new tools, new expectations. How can the next generation of insights practitioners stay relevant? And what skills do you think need to evolve or even be let go of? 

[00:19:43] Stan Sthanunathan: Uh, I think the letting go part is probably more important. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Uh, because, you know, we are all accumulators, so we gotta figure out, uh, whether it is at home or wherever it is, we tend to accumulate things.

[00:19:55] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah. So letting go is, is very, very critical. Uh, but that’s a [00:20:00] separate conversation altogether. But I think, you know, to stay. Uh, you got to keep yourself one step ahead, if not, uh, at least in pace with the evolution. The best way to get that going is through reverse mentoring for me to assume that I know everything about ai.

[00:20:19] Stan Sthanunathan: I know everything about everything else that is going on and are likely to go on tomorrow. I’m kidding myself here. Uh. I have certain areas of expertise and I’m pretty good at that. That’s okay. But then am I the best future proofed individual going around? Probably not. But there are lots and lots of young people who are really at the cutting edge.

[00:20:41] Stan Sthanunathan: But maybe I can look, look at what they do, and I can figure out application for that better because I’ve been on the block for a long time. But to be able to do that, you need to have. A reverse mentoring, uh, formal process whereby you [00:21:00] spend time with the youngsters and learn from them what is coming down the pike.

[00:21:04] Stan Sthanunathan: It could be something as simple as, you know how to use, you know, blah, some new technology and you will be surprised, you know, how many times you can learn something new now that keeps you. Young, number one. Number two, it keeps you abreast of what is going on in the marketplace. Number three, it makes you a lot more effective in terms of, you know, what uh, you can do to do your current job even better than what you’re doing today.

[00:21:30] Stan Sthanunathan: So reverse mentoring. Never, ever undergraduate. People generally think that, oh, am I exposing my vulnerability by saying that I want to be mentored by a junior person? No, you’re not. You’re actually telling people that, listen, I’m open enough to learn. Right. And learning the day it stops, you know? You cease to exist as a successful profession.

[00:21:54] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. Is that how you stayed sharp and ahead of the curve as the industry continues to evolve? 

[00:21:59] Stan Sthanunathan: [00:22:00] I, I have, you know, I mean, you know, uh, in my current business, uh, uh, our head of data scientist, a young lady, yeah. And, and she was with me in Unilever too, just sitting and talking to her. Every time I sit and spend, uh, half an hour with her, I come away feeling that.

[00:22:18] Stan Sthanunathan: I don’t know most of the things that she’s talking about. And that’s okay. Yeah. Uh, but she’s teaching me and that’s okay too. Uh, and I’m learning. That’s great. What more do I want? But being humble about that is the most important thing because if you walk in with the mindset Yeah, I know everything, then the other person is going to turn around and say, okay, you know what?

[00:22:38] Stan Sthanunathan: You know everything. Why should I even bother spending time with you? Yeah. But when you encourage them, I learned so much from her that I would always say, listen. Uh, Linda, if you, uh, have half an hour spare me the time. 

[00:22:52] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah, yeah. If you were literally writing a letter to the next generation of Insights professionals mm-hmm.

[00:22:59] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: [00:23:00] What would the first sentence say and what would the last sentence say? 

[00:23:04] Stan Sthanunathan: Wow. Write the letter to the future generation. And I’m gonna say something a little bit controversial here. Don’t try to predict the future. 

[00:23:17] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Hmm. 

[00:23:18] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah. Help people to dream up a future. There is a big difference between the two. If you’re trying to predict the future, you have a certain mindset, and that mindset usually starts with using the past to predict the future.

[00:23:38] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah. In a world that is changing exponentially, help people to dream. You know, when people dream, they actually come up with great ideas. Particularly, you know, the senior leaders, the C-suite level people, they, they’re visionaries. Most of them are big visionaries. Yeah. [00:24:00] But if you can show them, you know, a dream, they know how to take the dream and convert that into reality.

[00:24:07] Stan Sthanunathan: You know, I don’t, I, I’ll give some. You know, examples that are quoted very often by very many people, whether it is iPhone or um, Google Search or whatever, any of the big technological things, those are not incremental ideas that were based on taking the past and predicting it out to the future. Yeah, they were big, bold idea that somebody sat and dreamt up.

[00:24:33] Stan Sthanunathan: Now, how can we inspire that dream so that when they go and sleep at night, you know, they’re. Tossing and turning in their bed and they said, ah, you know what? I heard this today. That’s what this means for the business. And when they wake up in the morning, the first thing they should be doing is, you know, pick up the phone and say, Hey, listen, you came and spoke to me yesterday.

[00:24:53] Stan Sthanunathan: Walk me through why you went through that process. What was the reason why you told me this? Because they’re trying to [00:25:00] validate whether the dream that they came up with. Can be made reality or not, but the process of making them come up with a dream is something that you initiated. Help them to come up with a dream.

[00:25:11] Stan Sthanunathan: That would be the first, uh, statement I would write in that letter. The last thing that I would say, you know, the closing line would be, be brave. Now be brave is easier said than done. You know, particularly, you know, I, I can say that. Okay. You know, at my stage in life I can say that I’ll be brave. Um, because I might have nothing to lose.

[00:25:33] Stan Sthanunathan: You know, I, I had a, a great career and I have nothing to lose, so I can be brave. But when you’re starting your career, it is always risky to be brave because you, you, if you stick your neck out, sometimes it could get chopped off. So you have to be choiceful about how you, how, uh, display your bravery. And therefore, what I would say is, you know, listen, poke the horse.

[00:25:59] Stan Sthanunathan: I’ll poke the [00:26:00] giant slowly and see how it reacts if, and that’s where you learn your muscle in terms of you know how to be brave. You learn it. And then also remember the first thing I started out by saying nothing to lose. Moment. Yeah. Practice your bravery at scale in nothing to lose moments because.

[00:26:20] Stan Sthanunathan: The only thing that can happen is you can come out on top. Uh, but if you lose, people know that there, it was nothing to lose movement. And the third thing is when you are brave, please align with your, you know, immediate manager or somebody so that you have somebody to back you up. And there is somebody else who has actually gone through the thought process to say, you know what?

[00:26:41] Stan Sthanunathan: Being brave on this situation is actually worth it. Go for it. Yes, at least you feel have the confidence that somebody has got a little bit more experience. But bravery is not an option. You have to do it because the one who exhibit bravery are the ones who go further in career. The earlier you start, [00:27:00] the earlier you train your muscle, the better you would be and the faster your career growth would be because there are lots and lots of people.

[00:27:09] Stan Sthanunathan: The ones who are remembered are the brave ones, not the ones who came and timidly presented something and went away and people would say, you know, Stan, who they should turn and say, oh, Stan. That’s a reaction you need to create. 

[00:27:25] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Yeah. So closing out, is there one value or principle that has guided you through your career and that you’d want others to carry forward?

[00:27:38] Stan Sthanunathan: Passion. Passion that, you know, I, I wouldn’t have spent 40 years in this industry if I was not passionate about this industry, and I have more passion today than I ever had before. Passion is something that needs to be nurtured. [00:28:00] Passion is something that needs to be fed. Passion is something that you need to feel good about on a daily basis, and passion is something that should guide every action that you take on a daily basis.

[00:28:12] Stan Sthanunathan: I genuinely believe that insight function is a really high order, intellectually stimulating profession. There is no reason why one should not be passionate about this profession. If we lose faith in this profession. Of course, it’ll degenerate into a non-existing function. Yeah, but it is our passion that will make it absolutely great to turn up in the morning, put on your running shoes, show the passion, and make the insights world run faster than ever before.

[00:28:48] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Stan, thank you for sharing such thoughtful reflections and for your generosity in passing on what you’ve learned. Thank you. Thank it’s clear that the next generation of insights professionals will benefit not just from [00:29:00] your wisdom, but from the example you’ve set throughout your career. And to our listeners, if you found value in today’s conversation, I hope you’ll share it with someone else in their journey and keep these lessons moving forward.

[00:29:14] Zontziry ‘Z’ Johnson: Thanks for listening. 

[00:29:15] Stan Sthanunathan: Thank you, z. 

 

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