Consulting and IT Firms Create Insights — and Opportunities — with Industry Studies
This Q&A with John R. Brandt, President and Founder of The MPI Group, delves into his experience working with leading global consulting and IT firms over the past 23 years.
MPI maintains one of the world’s largest databases of financial, operational, and strategic performance metrics collected from thousands of facilities and firms around the globe, and provides content, assessments, sponsorships, and other growth opportunities based on industry research studies.
Q: How does being affiliated with respected industry research studies benefit consulting and IT firms?
The studies provide deep insight into what’s happening within their clients’ industries, both now and — via longitudinal studies — how now compares with the past. When consultants and IT marketers share data from the studies with clients, they gain credibility as knowledge leaders and bolster their firms’ value propositions. We’ve also worked with clients to create study derivatives, such as benchmarking assessments and toolkits for both internal use and client use.
Q: During the 23 years that The MPI Group has been in business, you’ve worked with many leading consulting and IT firms. How do those relationships work?
There are different models depending on what the consulting or IT firm wants to accomplish. We have MPI-branded studies that we’re known for, such as the MPI Manufacturing Study, which we conduct regularly. We also conduct studies on important trends, such as Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence (AI). Consulting, IT, and other firms and organizations can co-sponsor these reports, and we can expand our data collection to include specific sets of respondents they want to add. They can also license the data for their own use.
We also develop bespoke studies, in which consulting and IT firms contract with us to conduct research unique to their markets. These studies, which MPI manages to research standards, are branded to the client, which owns and controls inputs (questionnaire development) and thought leadership deliverables.
Q: Can you describe The MPI Group’s proprietary research methodology?
When we work with a client, we first complete a White Space Review, in which we discuss what they want to accomplish, and then explore what research has already been done in that area. Our goal is to make sure that we create something new and exciting for the client, and not just revisit research or data previously developed by others.
Next, we jointly develop research hypotheses — every good study starts with a set of hypotheses to prove or disprove — and then draft a questionnaire to efficiently and cost-effectively collect the data our client needs.
Once the questionnaire is finalized and programmed for online fielding, we have a sourcing methodology that allows us to find survey respondents of interest to our clients — by industry, job title, location in the U.S. or elsewhere around the world, corporate revenue size, etc. This methodology allows us to complete survey fielding in no more than four weeks, but sometimes as little as a week or two.
Once we collect the data, we thoroughly cleanse it — e.g., including use of answer plausibility ranges; numerical and statistical checks; reviews of how long it took each respondent to complete the survey vs. average and median times; confirmations that each respondent has a unique IP address — to ensure that only valid responses are retained.
We then analyze the data and provide the client with a presentation of all findings, along with specific insights we’ve identified. After that, we work with the client on ways to promote and communicate the data to their customers via white papers, articles, blogs, infographics, webinars, keynote presentations, social media, and other thought leadership content.
Q: What upcoming co-sponsorship and licensing opportunities do you have that would be of interest to consulting and IT firms?
We’ve got some exciting studies coming up. Right now, we’re offering sponsorships for a study on AI use in supply chains. This will be foundational research, and we plan to build on the results with future studies that dive deeper into specific supply-chain AI practices. We’re also planning studies on next-generation energy-management practices and energy products and services made by and used by manufacturers. Then we plan to study new trends in customer value.
Q: How should interested consulting firms find out more?
They can reach out directly to me at jbrandt@mpi-group.com. We’re growing and are looking for partners that value quality research as much as we do — because they understand how it sets us (and them) apart.