Ipsos in India is at an interesting juncture at this stage. They have delivered strong growth for the last 3 years and we are poised to leverage the potential that India offers, in future.
Amit Adarkar, Country Manager, Ipsos India & Operations Director, APEC(Asia Pacific excluding China) shares his most important points of Focus in 2020.
Knowledge orientation
Like any other market research organization, our business model is built around delivering research projects for our Clients. But, we don’t look at data or information across projects enough, to build and deliver transversal knowledge. We also talk the research language more rather than talking the knowledge and insight language. Apart from the surveys we conduct, we have access to secondary data, social data and observational data which could be connected much better. New age sciences such as neuro science and behavioral science will also to build on the knowledge.
My 2020 Focus would be around developing a knowledge culture across the organization so that Ipsos employees manage knowledge and not just projects. The knowledge could come across projects, across time or across different data sources. This knowledge could leverage elements of behavioral or neuro science. Our mission is to help clients in understanding consumers, categories and citizens. Driving a knowledge culture will go a long way in working towards our mission.
Technology
For the market research industry, India lags far behind other Asia Pacific markets in terms of technology usage. Driving online or mobile research, using technology to capture real time information, enhancing observational studies through technology usage, automating research processes, using AI for fast curation of information, are just some of the ways of driving technology usage in market research.
The benefits are manifold. Technology facilitates real time and in-the-content data capture. It allows us to arrive at a more holistic consumer understanding (an example- capture System 2 responses through traditional survey methods and supplement this with System 1 responses captured through technology such as facial coding, galvanic skin response)
I would be focused on driving technology usage across our organization. This would make us more future ready.
Develop predictive abilities
Classically, market research has been more diagnostic rather than predictive. As an industry, we do much less prediction despite access to much more data. One way to predict is through advanced statistical methods. Another way is to soft-predict using existing knowledge- how is the Indian notion of beauty or masculinity likely to change over the next decade.
We have enough data and smart people to do this, but we don’t actively focus on developing these skills.
We would like to develop these skills in 2020 and beyond.
Drive CSR efforts
Globally, Ipsos is committed to CSR. One of our largest businesses (Public Affairs) works with governments, NGOs and private trusts/ foundations on understanding social issues and driving behavioral change. Ipsos Foundation supports a lot of charities in the areas of education. Though Ipsos in India already is very active in the CSR arena, this is an area that is never enough!
Last year, all our employees signed a pledge to reduce single use plastics across the organization. We will drive many more such initiatives in 2020.
Talent development
It is an understatement to say that our business is all about people! Our intent would be to spend a significant amount of time and resources to keep our employees engaged, but also to make them future ready in terms of knowledge expertise, technology adoption & societal consciousness.
As a country manager, talent development has always been close to my heart. Seeing people who work with you get ahead in their careers and do things that spark joy, holds a special meaning to me. I will be involved much more, along with our HR team, in driving people development and also in mentoring some of our young talent.
