Making research relevant
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard executives ask for something different in research. No one really knows exactly what’s wrong with what they’re getting, but they do know that it isn’t hitting the mark. There are lots of reasons to do research, and some of those might call for broad-reaching environment sweeps. In many cases, executives are inundated with information. Aside from their own methods of staying on top of the environment, they sit on multiple boards, and all of them provide 100 page long research reports. A lot of effort gets wasted here because little to no guidance is provided to Research departments on where to focus.
An idea: Your planning and risk management practices should be scanning the environment to determine what is happening out there that has the greatest potential to impact your ability to implement strategy. Tie your main research to these critical issues / critical opportunities. Aside from helping your company better understand what is most likely to impact them and in arenas where a prepared mind would go a long way, you’re delivering on a topic they have already told you was foremost in their minds.
You’ll never hear someone tell you it’s not relevant ever again.