Use Research to Make Strategic Decisions with Confidence
Contributor:
Laurie Hredzak
Posted: 09/09/2008 11:24:00 AM EDT | 0
As business leaders we are faced with many important decisions everyday. These decisions affect not only ourselves, but our business and everyone involved with our business—our customers, associates, partners, suppliers and community. So how do we make those difficult or complex decisions? Oftentimes, they require a great deal of analysis and discussion. Research tools and techniques provide important data for our decision-making analysis.
We ask ourselves the following questions to help us determine if using research will help us make the best decisions for our organization.
The Importance of Research
Understanding the needs and wants of our customers is critical for strategic business planning; and research provides direct access to our customers. Therefore, using research is vital to making informed decisions.
When thinking about who our customer is, we may first think of a purchaser of our products and/or services. Yet our customer can also be an employee, a partner or any other business stakeholder. Research can be tailored to any specific customer audience.
Our customers are directly influenced by the decisions we make. Conversely, our business is directly influenced by, and would not exist without, our customers. This makes it imperative that we use the insights and feedback we receive from our customers in our strategic planning.
Learn and Discover
The powerful aspect of research is that it encompasses a vast array of information waiting to be discovered. When thinking about our strategic business plan, what are the gray areas? Where do we need further information that will help us accomplish our goals? Some typical areas of focus could be:
Primary research, or information that is collected or tested for the first time, can be largely categorized as being either quantitative or qualitative.
Quantitative research is a statistical method of data collection. A large number of responses are collected in order to represent the population as a whole. This may be necessary when measuring things such as customer satisfaction, brand awareness, product usage or any other context in which a numerical result is desired. Common techniques used to conduct quantitative research include computer-assisted telephone interviews, online surveys and mail-in surveys.
Qualitative research is used when a statistical result is not required, for example, if the intent is to examine behavioral patterns, advertising preferences, product concept development or taste testing. Common techniques used for performing qualitative research include focus groups, in-depth interviewing and in-store intercepts.
Getting Usable Results
While our first instinct may be to try to learn everything we can right away, it is wise to concentrate our line of questioning around one or two specific focus areas. Too much data will be difficult to digest and use effectively.
Getting usable results is the key to conducting research that will help us discover opportunities for improvement and make decisions that will lead to organizational change.
Accept the Need to Change
Once our research is completed and we have the results, now what? Mission accomplished? Not quite. Chances are we have positive feedback as well as negative feedback.
Positive feedback should be celebrated. It is evidence of happy customers and good business practices. We should use it to recognize or establish our core competencies and to congratulate our team on our great accomplishments.
While our first reaction might be to just rationalize any criticism, it is important to use those negative comments as opportunities for advancement and perhaps further study. After all, there are reasons why our customers feel the way they do. And negative feedback, while painful to receive, can be turned into a positive. For example, it may identify the areas that our competitors prevail and our customers find important. Thus, it can be used to strengthen our critical success factors for future planning.
It is important to accept negative feedback graciously for what it is—a candid suggestion—and not to condemn those providing the information we asked for. Doing so could frustrate those giving the feedback, as well as discourage them from providing more feedback in the future.
Making important decisions effectively and confidently can easily be accomplished by using research as an integral part of our ongoing strategic planning efforts. If our customers feel like they have played a role in our decision making, their loyalty will grow with us as we move into the future.
Originally Published in the Sequent Advantage newsletter, February 2008.
Posted: 09/09/2008 11:24:00 AM EDT | 0
|
|
We ask ourselves the following questions to help us determine if using research will help us make the best decisions for our organization.
The Importance of Research
Understanding the needs and wants of our customers is critical for strategic business planning; and research provides direct access to our customers. Therefore, using research is vital to making informed decisions.
When thinking about who our customer is, we may first think of a purchaser of our products and/or services. Yet our customer can also be an employee, a partner or any other business stakeholder. Research can be tailored to any specific customer audience.
Our customers are directly influenced by the decisions we make. Conversely, our business is directly influenced by, and would not exist without, our customers. This makes it imperative that we use the insights and feedback we receive from our customers in our strategic planning.
Learn and Discover
The powerful aspect of research is that it encompasses a vast array of information waiting to be discovered. When thinking about our strategic business plan, what are the gray areas? Where do we need further information that will help us accomplish our goals? Some typical areas of focus could be:
- Customer satisfaction or employee engagement
- Advertising awareness
- Competitive analysis and perceptual mapping
- Product concept design and acceptability
- Usability testing
Primary research, or information that is collected or tested for the first time, can be largely categorized as being either quantitative or qualitative.
Quantitative research is a statistical method of data collection. A large number of responses are collected in order to represent the population as a whole. This may be necessary when measuring things such as customer satisfaction, brand awareness, product usage or any other context in which a numerical result is desired. Common techniques used to conduct quantitative research include computer-assisted telephone interviews, online surveys and mail-in surveys.
Qualitative research is used when a statistical result is not required, for example, if the intent is to examine behavioral patterns, advertising preferences, product concept development or taste testing. Common techniques used for performing qualitative research include focus groups, in-depth interviewing and in-store intercepts.
Getting Usable Results
While our first instinct may be to try to learn everything we can right away, it is wise to concentrate our line of questioning around one or two specific focus areas. Too much data will be difficult to digest and use effectively.
Getting usable results is the key to conducting research that will help us discover opportunities for improvement and make decisions that will lead to organizational change.
Accept the Need to Change
Once our research is completed and we have the results, now what? Mission accomplished? Not quite. Chances are we have positive feedback as well as negative feedback.
Positive feedback should be celebrated. It is evidence of happy customers and good business practices. We should use it to recognize or establish our core competencies and to congratulate our team on our great accomplishments.
While our first reaction might be to just rationalize any criticism, it is important to use those negative comments as opportunities for advancement and perhaps further study. After all, there are reasons why our customers feel the way they do. And negative feedback, while painful to receive, can be turned into a positive. For example, it may identify the areas that our competitors prevail and our customers find important. Thus, it can be used to strengthen our critical success factors for future planning.
It is important to accept negative feedback graciously for what it is—a candid suggestion—and not to condemn those providing the information we asked for. Doing so could frustrate those giving the feedback, as well as discourage them from providing more feedback in the future.
Making important decisions effectively and confidently can easily be accomplished by using research as an integral part of our ongoing strategic planning efforts. If our customers feel like they have played a role in our decision making, their loyalty will grow with us as we move into the future.
Originally Published in the Sequent Advantage newsletter, February 2008.
|
Contributor:
Laurie Hredzak |
-
All Aboard: Embarking Employees On the Flight of Their Life -
Calibration: The Hottest New Trend in Performance Management -
The Real OC: Five Ways to Make Organizational Culture Work for You! -
Team Building: Leadership Strategies To Address Today's Most Common Team Building Problems -
Don’t Solve the Wrong Problems Precisely! -
Creeping Credentialism and Credential Inflation -
Centralize or Decentralize Recruiting? The Answer is Neither…and Both -
Talent Management Outsourcing: A Win or Loss? -
Human Resources IQ Miniseries: The Upside of a Downturn: How Smart “Investors” Find Bargains During a Business Slowdown -
Money as a De-Motivator
* = required.
Not a member yet? Sign up
You Should Check Out:
Advertisement
Events of Interest
-
Reducing Nursing Turnover by Controlling Stress & Burnout
December 14, 2009
Register Now -
Talent Management & Succession Planning in Healthcare
January 4, 2010
Register Now -
More Than Meets the Eye: Age Really Does Matter
December 17, 2009
Register Now -
Making Training More Effective via Virtual Worlds
March 12, 2010
Register Now
Advertisement
|
Reach Human Resource professionals through cost-effective marketing opportunities to deliver your message, position yourself as a thought leader, and introduce new products, techniques and strategies to the market.
Learn More >> Join today and interact with a vibrant network of human resource professionals, keeping up to date with the human resources industry by accessing our wealth of HR articles, videos, online seminars, live conferences and more. Sign Up Today! |
| Human Resources IQ, a division of IQPC 2013 All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Careers With IQPC | Contact Us | About Us | Cookie Policy |
|
Not a member? Sign Up
Reasons for Joining
Address your challenges through knowledge sharing with peers from our global network of specialists.
Benchmark your business initiatives with the who's who in the field.
Hear from industry pioneers how to maximize ROI in today's challenging economy.
And best of all It's FREE!