Shock of the New: An Interview with Jane Frost CBE, CEO of The UK Market Research Society
As some of you may know, this year’s UK Market Research Society Annual Conference* has the rather provocative title: “Shock of the New”.
A glance at the Agenda (http://bit.ly/VET7Pj) reveals a clear focus on areas outside of Research: keynote Speakers include luminaries from the world of sports, broadcasting, science, the arts. Fascinating stuff – but what exactly is the link to Research?
As I won’t be able to attend in person, I linked up with Jane Frost, the CEO of the Market Research Society, to better understand the thinking behind the Event.
For those of you who don’t know Jane, she’s not a Researcher by trade – which makes her view of our Industry particularly valuable. Coming from the outside, she has a fresh pair of eyes, and a mindset untainted by decades of MR debate and methodological discourse. She’s a distinguished Marketing professional, having worked for Unilever, Shell, the BBC and the Governmental Department HM Revenue and Customs. Her work for the latter was recognized with a CBE. Many thanks to Jane for taking the time to chat with me.
Edward: Jane, the 2013 MRS Conference is called “Shock of the New”. It clearly aims to break through traditional boundaries. Can you tell us a bit more about the thinking behind it?
Jane: The general public, our respondents, don’t play to our rules, clients and commissioners have their own definitions, new technologies too – all this combines to overturn established silos. The “Shock of the New “Conference is about what research is for. It has obviously struck a chord as it is engaging record numbers of clients.
Edward: You have invited all sorts of Keynote speakers that have nothing to do with Research to talk at the Event – physicists, journalists, sportspeople. What are you hoping to achieve?
Jane: Research is for the curious, it should be a magpie finding its new techniques from everywhere. The conference really is about curiosity, challenge and the serendipity* that helps us decode all those issues we face and inspiring us and refreshing us with a wider world view than day to day pressures may allow.
* Serendipity definition according to Wikipedia: “a happy accident or pleasant surprise”
Edward: More generally: since becoming CEO of the MRS in UK, are there things that you have discovered that have surprised you about our Industry?
Jane: I am constantly uplifted by the intellectual capacity of those I meet as CEO of MRs, but frequently left wondering why with all this transformative knowledge at its fingertips the industry is so self-effacing.
Edward: What are the major challenges you feel the Research industry faces, and what do you see as ways to address them?
Jane: In a macro economic sense it must be to stay relevant and absorb new methodologies and techniques, and to widen access in a wider community. There are significant threats from privacy and other regulation. I do not think we have made ourselves “important “enough to clients and with many other creative industries we would benefit from greater client understanding of the importance of supply chain quality. We need to improve awareness, and part of that is encouraging aspiration to engage clients with the limitless possibilities of good research. At MRS part of that is showcasing the excellent and reinforcing the need for standards and professionalism . Hence the launch of Fair Data (www.fairdata.org.uk) and the Fair Data mark, which helps consumers identify which organisations they can trust with their data.
Edward: Looking forward, what few things do you think Researchers need to do differently in order to succeed in future?
Jane: I think we need to reduce our internal obsession with silos, methodologies and differences and celebrate the industry as a major contributor to national intellectual capital, to clients’ ability to change and respond and to safeguarding healthy commercial markets and good public policy. That means we should celebrate serendipity and champion curiosity and the consumer
So – now we understand a bit more.
I personally find the idea of exploring the boundaries of research exciting – it encourages us to break out of our “Researchy” way of thinking which can easily become inward looking and out-of-touch.
The concept of serendipity – happy fortuitousness as I see it – is an interesting one, and perhaps not something that everyone in MR will feel comfortable with, trained as we are to be analytical and precise. Are we truly in a world of – to quote the economist John Kay – obliquity, where nothing is truly plannable because of incalculability and complexity? If you haven’t read his book on this subject, I can recommend it. (http://bit.ly/Acgl1J)
One thing I wholeheartedly agree with is that as Researchers we underplay our value in the larger debates. Correcting this imbalance begins with awareness raising, as Jane rightly points out. We urgently need to begin to update a broad array of stakeholders about who we are, and what exactly it is that we Researchers do in the 21st Century. Our image of bean-counters should be consigned to history.
My personal view is that our future is potentially bright - unlike other industries, we are more neglected than tarnished.
However, we definitely need to stop hiding our light under a bushel, and take our Destiny and Future into our own hands.
Curious, as ever, as to others’ views.
*For those of you interested: the MRS UK 2013 annual Event is in London, from 19 – 20 March. More details here: www.mrsannualconference.com. For those who can attend, I am informed there will be live coverage during the event via @tweetmrs and on #mrslive