What's Inspiring about Market Research?
The upcoming ESOMAR 2014 Conference in Nice (http://bit.ly/Y3AqOc) has "Inspiration" as its topic. The question-cum-title - "What inspires?" - is a provocative one - many outside of Research probably wouldn't think of market research as a particularly inspiring career path.
But it is an immensely relevant topic for us - over the past 6 months the word "inspiration" has cropped up repeatedly in Clientside MR conversations as a mandate for insight delivery.
So what is "inspiration"? For market researchers there's a particular challenge: we are analysts, advisers - in an era characterised by enterpreneuers and doers, start-ups. We are product-free, so in a sense disadvantaged in the inspiration-stakes.
Here's my own personal take on what I find inspiring - and how it links to MR.
1. Jazz Musicians
I've been learning jazz trumpet for a couple of years, taking regular lessons. It's a very challenging activity - not least because a lot of jazz is about improvisation.
As anyone who plays jazz will tell you, being good at improvisation requires a very solid understanding of musical theory - chord progressions, harmony, syncopation, what makes a pentatonic minor scale "bluesy" for example. It's about mastering "the rules" or theory first, the excitement and inspiration comes by finding freedom and expressiveness within structural constraints. The art is based on the science, if you will.
Research is similar - our toolkit and skillset are based on solid social science theory and practice; the inspiration comes from what we do with that, how we give something a different twist, pull in different data sources, express something that hasn't been said in that way before. We need to get the balance right and focus on the performance, not the stuff that made that possible.
No-one will remember John Coltrane, Charlie Parker or Miles Davis for their mastery of music theory.
2. People Who Strive for Meaning
I am a little tired of being confronted with people - often in sports - who have won a Gold Medal somewhere. It's almost standard to learn from "the greats", but based on the concept of distant admiration rather than emulation and empathy. This arguably doesn't lead so strongly to imitation - we gaze from afar at the supremely talented and iron-willed and carry on our normal, error-prone lives.
An ex-colleague of mine gave up her career in marketing to becoming a teacher of the physically handicapped who wished to learn business skills. This involved a long period of re-training, risk, and financial adjustment. I didn't agree with her decision at the time, but increasingly I find it inspiring, the decision continues to reverberate positively - daring to try something different, that will make a difference to people's lives.
3. Entrepreneurs
Anyone who by choice steps outside of a salaried existence to set up a business, relying in their own ideas and energy , is doing something awesome - that's inspirational to me. We should celebrate and probably support entrepreneurs more vigorously, regardless of whether or not they are hugely successful - in many countries in Europe that is often not the case.
One of the most successful innovative Market Research companies in Germany was set up roughly 15 years ago as a start-up, currently employs more than 30 people, and is successfully working with many of the world's largest Global Corporations. Respect.
4. Artists
Business is often more simple than it's made out - understanding customer and consumer needs better than the competition, responding timely and in a way that makes sense economically. Maybe we need to turn our minds elsewhere for inspiration - to the world of arts and humanities.
How difficult is it to - say - write a novel that wins peer recognition in the form of a prize. Or many such books? How many millions of normal people do such artists inspire? Take the UK writer Hilary Mantel, who recently won the Booker Prize twice with two amazing novels.
Anyone wishing to write a better MR Executive Summary could do worse than pick up one of Dame Mantel's books - Wolf Hall (http://amzn.to/1vAwrX1) is a good one - and study her writing style, try to learn from it.
No doubt we all find different things inspiring, but maybe we need to re-think inspiration as a concept. My sense is that accepting and repeating a narrative shaped by MBAs and Business Schools - zooming in on "success-despite-obstacle" stories, setting and hitting stretch-objectives, performing volunteer activities that look good on the c.v - is slightly out of touch in a world where many try extremely hard but in extremely difficult circumstances, and don't necessarily "succeed".
Listening to an Olympic sportsperson tell about their path to success might be inspirational, or it might be a story that's been told once too often. Originality is arguably a strong component of inspiration
I will be curious to read how the ESOMAR Conference is received, read people's reactions, what they found inspiring.
Dare I ask it - what do you, reader, find inspiring and how does that relate to MR?