Insight Generation: Creating insight from knowledge IO Consulting

Insight; widely used, rarely mastered

The statistics* for insight aren’t great:

o  60% of companies don’t see their insight as a source of competitive advantage

o  54% don’t agree it provides good return on investment

o  Only 28% feel their company provides sufficient funds for insight

o  90% of companies fail to move beyond using insight as a ‘manager rather than a leader’

•  The reasons why so many companies struggle with insight are complex – but we found internal factors play a significant role

•  15 years ago knowledge was power, transforming knowledge into ‘insight’ is now the name of the game

90% of businesses fall in stages 1 & 2*

* Sources: Boston Consulting Group & IO benchmarking

“Our understanding of consumers was insufficiently deep, so the opportunities

created from insight weren’t large enough” VP, Unilever

Stage 1

The tactical order taker

Stage 2

The Business Contributor

Stage 3

The Strategic Influencer

Stage 4

The Foresight

Leader

But what actually is insight? •  The debate over how you define “an insight” has gone on (and on, and on and on) for many years. Quite

frankly spending time debating its definition can be a waste of time.

•  For what its worth, most businesses end up with a definition that is interesting but hard to do much with such as: “A penetrating discovery that gets to the heart of customers’ and consumers’ motivations and behaviours and/or market trends and dynamics that translates into business opportunities”

•  We prefer to define insight slightly differently and instead think about three criteria;

It’s built on solid foundations

1

It excites people and goes beyond the

obvious

2

It inspires (profitable) action

3

So how do you get to insight?

•  When thinking about how you develop insight its important to remember why you are wanting to generate insight in the first place – it is often in response to an issue or challenge your business faces

•  As a result, insight is there to stimulate our thinking, drive our direction and avoid us leaping to the same old solutions you, and probably your competitors, have reached many times before.

•  That is why it is usually helpful to have a tool, or at least a framework for thinking to guide insight development in the context of the challenge you’re trying to address.

One way to develop solutions

The better way to develop solutions

The Challenge

The Solution

The Challenge Key Questions

Data

Understanding & Insight Solutions

The principles of insight generation tools

•  They get you to think in a divergent way and then think in a convergent way

•  In sum, you start focused, making sure you understand your issue. Throw open the flood gates to all possible information that could help and stimulate. Then interrogate and connect that data, getting under its skin until you find real nuggets you can hone into insight and use to inspire action

•  Our experience in a variety of businesses allows us to tailor an approach to insight generation drawing on best practice from a variety of B2C and B2B environments

•  There are probably more trademarked insight processes than there are great insights. Whether they come from a marketing consultant, an ideas generation company or an internal corporate training program they all generally do the same thing:

How can we help?

•  We’ve already helped a number of diverse B2C and B2B businesses develop and embed their own approaches to insight generation

•  We would be happy to be involved in any aspect of making insight work better in your business. The following three areas summarise where we feel we can add most value:

Diagnosis 1

•  Determining the current approach to insight generation in your business and how this could be optimised

•  Is there a consistent understanding of what an insight is, are they being used and, if so, how good are they?

Development 2

•  Creation of a tailored approach to insight generation for your business

•  Development of the necessary tools as well as an approach to rolling out and embedding best practice within your business

Delivery 3

•  Application of our own bespoke approach to insight generation to your business challenges

•  Facilitating the generation of insight against live business issues

IO Consulting: a unique perspective

•  IO Consulting specialise in helping businesses maximise return from their investment in consumer and customer understanding. We either work alongside existing client side insight teams or bring capability where none already exists

•  Our team have lived through the challenges of insight generation from both sides of the fence as ex-heads of client-side insight and as founders of successful research and innovation agencies.

•  We believe in tailoring our approach to our clients and avoid ‘off the shelf’ solutions. The diverse backgrounds of our team mean that we have a strong appreciation of the varying insight challenges across different markets and sectors

•  Our experience of both leading insight projects for clients as well as reviewing and optimising their insight infrastructure gives us a unique perspective – understanding the needs and challenges of insight practitioners and stakeholders alike

“Before you become someone's consultant, make sure you walk a mile in their shoes. That way, if they don’t like what you say, you're a mile away from

them and you've got their shoes”

Three reasons to work with IO Consulting

Responsive •  Our team is ready to go when you are, we are able to hit the

ground running •  No job is too large/ small. We’re available to you for a couple of

days, a couple of months or as part of a longer term relationship

Flexible •  Our support can evolve with the project. Unlike single freelancers

we can flex specific capability and experience in/out as needed •  Any individual can also draw on the wider experiences and best

practice developed within IO Consulting

Accountable •  Our team members are highly experienced with the skills

necessary to turn insight into impact •  In every project we hold ourselves accountable to that impact,

not simply the number of days worked •  A senior director will always be involved in a project and if our

team do not deliver, the buck stops with us.

We are able to bring you the insight capability you need in the form you need it. Our offering is unique, giving companies a new way to access the skills needed to turn insight into profitable action

Thank you

For more information please contact:

Morgan Arnell

morgan@i-out.co.uk

+44 7801 045864