Some lucky businesses are built on blind entry to a marketplace, but there are always far more failures than successes. A common theme that unites successful organizations and helps them create successful businesses is that their people share a high level of awareness of their external environment.

The Recipe for success? Take formal and informal research, add customer and prospect evaluation, and work on improving internal communications. Mix in great ideas from across--and outside--the organization, and you have the recipe for great strategy and execution.

My research and strategy work fits into four main categories

1) Broad investigations of emerging markets and opportunities that help people understand the waterfront of possible futures. At IFTF, for instance, I led a multi-client research project that used multiple research approaches to identify and quantify the emerging technologies that would influence health care in the next five to seven years, and forecast their impact. (For a sample report see here).

2) Specific research about one phenomenon or technology that directly impacts a particular market niche. For example, at Harris my survey research tracked the adoption of the Internet and computing by physicians in their practice. (For more about this study see here).

3) Detailed examinations of the business cases for specific market opportunities, or corporate strategies. For instance, for a major health plan my team conducted the research on local and regional market evolution, which led to the sales organization changing from a business-line to regional approach. For a pharmaceutical manufacturer, my team examined the potential for entering the physician services market (which we concluded was not a suitable idea!)

4) Facilitation and lectures for corporate strategy groups. I bring data and information to a corporate retreat or management strategy meeting, and help facilitate the team to build its own strategy. This can be a one-off event or a permanent "occasional retainer" arrangement.

If you have any questions please email me