A guest blog by Finn Raben, MRII Board Member, Founder of Amplifi Consulting, and past General Director of ESOMAR
I have been a life-long practitioner of a profession which provides critical, evidence-based guidance to help design and support effective strategies. This guidance is predicated on understanding what data is required to address the business issue at hand; what method of collection and interrogation of the information is most appropriate for the business context, and what forms of onward communication/translation are needed to ensure the business can maximise the application of the intelligence gained and achieve the targeted objectives.
That profession—the one I signed up to—was called Market Research.
Nowadays, many would argue that we no longer conduct “research”; rather, we provide the evidentiary foundation for strategies that drive business impact. The attraction and inherent value of such a role has led many to believe that “insights” can be automated and commoditised, to allow more entrants into this sector. But the production of insights is a skill, honed by practice; just as a good Chief Legal Officer must be well-grounded in the Law, a good Strategy or Insights partner must be well grounded in the skills of market research.
Since my first involvement with MRII and their Principles of Market Research course(s) more than 14 years ago, this desire to provide the foundational knowledge to help grow effective researchers, strategy partners and insights advisors has lain at the core of their offering. As with all professions, new skills, tools and technologies appear every year, and so the opportunity to help guide such a worthy organisation in charting this essential, educational course through a time of accelerated change and across international borders—while recognising the foundational requirements—is a unique privilege.
The Board of MRII comprises a number of excellent practitioners and Thought Leaders in our sector; having the opportunity to work with them in ensuring the alignment of the relevant traditional tenets of research with their fit-for-purpose applications from the digital age—be that establishing simple respondent engagement principles or looking at the ethical ground rules of A.I.—is something I am really excited about, and is (I believe) essential to making the next generation of researcher just as excited about our profession, as I am!
