There’s a lot of talk online today about an article in the Guardian about how Media execs at Morgan Stanley were rocked by a 15-year-old’s blunt, blistering analysis.
What’s the key learning here? When communicating to C-Level management, do so in the tone of a 15 year old???
Lets put aside the obvious sampling problems as well as the problems with this one UK teens views about Twitter possibly being applied in decisions in the US (Mobile phone and internet usage/behavior/costs have been rather different across the Atlantic).
I think the takeaway is that most reports are too verbous, boring and long. Also, perhaps just as importantly, too filtered by the research department which may think they have learned to “think” and anticipate what management wants, and therefore rarely comes up with anything earth shattering.
Researchers need to be less afraid to go against the grain. Keep things short. Don’t always deliver what you think is anticipated !
What do you think?
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Brian Hancock // Jul 16, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I agree with what you are saying, but this parallels many typical interactions within companies. It’s rare to find people that want to shake things up, because they are fearful of being rejected or even worse, sticking their neck out and having their head chopped off. However, as mentioned, market research is one area in particular where it is vital that the information does slap the reader and make them face reality.
2 Tom H. C. Anderson // Jul 20, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I suppose his memo/preso had the “Wow Factor” :http://www.theonion.com/content/news/wow_factor_added_to_corporate?utm_source=a-section
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