Episodes

Welcome to Season 4 of our podcast and a quick reminder that you can download all 27 episodes from our first 3 seasons free of charge from your favourite podcast platform. I think most of us would agree that demand for insights is rising as senior managers increasingly acknowledge the importance of customer-centricity and see research and analytics as a potential source of competitive advantage. At the same time, the proliferation of digital transactions and data sources has increased the complexity of managing Insight activity. As the potential for Insight to make a difference keeps growing, and as the practicalities of making it make a difference get more complicated, I think there’s a critical need for us to define a strategy for Insight.

In our last episode, I explained why it is so important for Insight leaders to develop a strategy for Insight in their organisations.In today’s episode, we explore the first step that we can all take, and a 6-point process for assessing the lie of the land.I’m joined by Jane Woolley, former Head of Insight at London Underground and now a senior adviser at the IMA.

In the first 2 episodes of this season, I’ve set out why I think it’s so important for Insight leaders and senior Insight managers to think about an Insight strategy for their organisation. And then how to take the first steps.But is that all we need to do before we define our vision for Insight, and maybe set about crafting a mission statement that can act as a reference point for our team this year?I think there’s another step we need to take first.

In every organisation, someone is making a decision about which business issues the Insight team will inform; whether researchers and analysts will work in the same function; what the headcount, structure and budget of the team will look like; and how the team’s performance will be measured.But in many organisations, it doesn’t feel like these decisions are deliberate. Many Insight teams carry on doing what they did the year before by default, with a bit more focus on projects that mean a lot to a new senior stakeholder. And budgets roll on from one year to the next, cut when business is not going well, sometimes increased when the organisation has a burst of enthusiasm for taking evidence-based decisions.But successful Insight teams take decisions about their scope, scale, structure, outputs and budgets in a way that is consistent with their stated vision for Insight. Day to day activity is shaped by strategic decisions about Insight’s purpose and role.In this 21-minute…

In the first four episodes of our podcast this season we’ve explored the key steps involved in developing an Insight strategy.We should start by looking at all the ways in which Insight could make a difference to our organisation’s success and our ambition for taking advantage of those opportunities. We should then think through the logical consequences of our vision for Insight on the key choices we make – often implicitly – about our function’s scope, scale, outputs, structure, budgets and measure of success.However, you can formulate the most brilliant strategy, but if you can’t implement the recommendations, you might as well not have bothered. So in this episode we look at how to execute our strategy, and indeed why the implementation phase has to be seen as integral to the whole strategy.Please listen to find out more!

Episode 33 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this episode, James talks to Nick Rich about his experience Transforming Insight at Carlsberg.Nick gives an overview of his career in Insight roles, from Intercontinental Hotels Group in the UK to Carlsberg in Copenhagen, to his transition returning to the UK and looking for the next chapter in his Insight career.

In this, the final episode in season 4, James is joined by Emma and Lisa to explore some of the hot topics discussed at recent Insight forums.What have IMA members and guests been discussing at the Insight forums? Who’s been making progress working on an Insight strategy for their organisation? Who’s trying to move from being reactive service providers to strategic drivers?How might AI effect Insight teams, beyond its impact on market research surveys?Please listen to find out more!