Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research™

Introducing NGMR’s Disruptive Innovator Award Finalists

As anyone who follows this blog already knows, at IIR’s The Market Research Event (TMRE) in San Diego next week on Tuesday November 9, NGMR will present the first annual “Disruptive Innovator” awards celebrating progress-by-force in research.

Disruptive innovation is a concept that sounds intimidating because it is intimidating.

Change isn’t easy for anyone, but researchers seem to have a particularly difficult time with it.

Let’s face it: for an industry and profession that purports to help clients achieve competitive advantage by enabling them to understand and anticipate unmet consumer needs, to change ahead of the times - not simply with them - and to move the needle proactively, market research often stumbles when it comes to walking the talk ourselves.

Research is obsessed with control; it’s in our DNA. But to paraphrase comments blogged by IIR’s Marc Dresner on Tuesday, to compete and stay relevant these days depends on how proficiently we can adapt when we’re forcibly removed from our comfort zone. Marc also noted that practice makes perfect, and in this respect, research needs a lot of practice.

I founded Next Gen Market Research because I truly believe that research needs to redefine and reinvent itself continuously, and this requires some significant changes to our industry’s culture.

So it made sense to me to celebrate those brash and brazen enough to challenge the status quo, those with the temerity to disrupt business as usual in the name of progress.

I’m talking about the people and organizations that the “establishment” often derides. The ones who break the rules, who aren’t “officially” recognized by and are denied entry into our “club” by organizations that fancy themselves the arbiters of legitimate research practice and policy.

Hence, with the support of like-minded, next generation market researchers, we established the NGMR Disruptive Innovator awards.

I knew this would ruffle a few feathers, and if it didn’t, then I would’ve considered it a failure. But I had no idea we would get so many nominations and that picking the winners would be so difficult. Apparently, there are many more revolutionaries in this industry than I thought.

In hindsight, I should’ve expected no less. Surely the self-imposed rulers with the megaphones don’t speak for everyone? In fact, I’m willing to bet they’re a very vocal minority. That’s why I’m grateful to have a true, egalitarian industry platform like TMRE to present this award for the first time - unencumbered by the politics of entrenched interests.

My thanks also to NGMR’s Global Advisory Board for winnowing down our finalists, who have been divided into three categories based on the number of nominations we received for each group. And for their help in the selection of our winners.

Without further ado, I’m deeply gratified and proud to present to you the new majority. Please join me in applauding the finalists for NGMR’s 1st annual Disruptive Innovator awards:

INDIVIDUAL (15)
Peter Corbett, iStrategy
Tom De Ruyck, InSites Consulting
Jeffrey Henning, Vovici
Diane Hessan, Communispace
AJ Johnson, Ipsos, and Sean Conry, Techneos
Joy Liuzzo, InsightExpress
Kevin Lonnie, KL Communications
Kristin Luck, Decipher
Bernie Malinoff, element54
Linda Mauro, Illume Market Research
Dr. Ros Picard, Affectiva
Jon Puleston, GMI
Steve Schwartz, Microsoft
Kelley Styring, Insightfarm

AGENCY (10)
Affectiva
ClearIdeas.com
Communispace
Converseon
EmSense
iModerate
Infosurv
Nielsen Media Research
RapLeaf
Tealeaf

CLIENT (5)
Facebook
LinkedIn
McDonald’s
Microsoft
3M

@TomHCAnderson