Well of course I have my answer, but I’ve come to realize there’s a lot of misconception out in the market as to what we really do.
Rather than me tell you, I’d want to first learn what you think, so perhaps we, as an industry can better explain our value –and place in the market.
So give it a shot, try to first explain what you think our day job is, then explain the business model. I want open and candid responses, but please try to backup your assertion, so we can better learn. This should be interesting, I’m listening.
In the spirit of the internets, I’ll let wikipedia speak for me (I agree with it and those above):
“Industry analysts deliver a combination of market research, competitive intelligence, and management consulting to their clients. Analyst firms offer independent advice and research to businesses that are weighing up potential purchases and deployment strategies, public sector organisations, and suppliers. They deliver both research and advisory through their publications, events, private meetings, and/or custom research/consulting projects.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_analyst
Analysts….Ohhh analysts……
Great question.
Analysts get paid to do research. They get paid to visit technology and advertising blogs. They get paid for an opinion. They get paid to watch and to study industries and ultimately listen (most have a hard time since they are getting ready to deliver their opinion).
Most analysts think they know everything. They think because they are “book smart” or “web smart”. Most of them (almost all of them) have no experience in running a business. They have no idea how to start a company. They have no idea what it means to “network” or get to know there customers. They have no idea how to launch a product.
They simply know how to state an opinion and then defend it. To some extent some analysts are those that wanted to be lawyers but could not cut get through law school.
In my opinion analysts are not needed in the new web 2.0 space. It is easy to find relevant companies in your space, relevant bloggers and other entrepreneurs that can give you opinions and fill you in on the space.
Sorry this is not what you want to hear – but as the web evolves – so will the access to relevant and more affordable “analysts”.
You probably won’t post this – you might not want anyone else to “research this topic”…..
In addition to what has already been posted above, I believe analysts can influence/set the direction or future of a company/industry.
Jeremy – Great reply!
I appreciate the great feedback. I have a lot of respect for someone that wants to learn.
I just think that with the evolution of the web that many things are changing. Research and finding competitors and relevant competitors in your space is becoming much easier!
Thanks again.
There are some good analysts, and some of they data they produce is useful. By and large, though, I have little use for the industry. The vast majority of analysts are not immune to falling prey to conventional wisdom, groupthink, political considerations, and producing material that is tailored to makes the paying customer look good.
And I also well remember writing business cases in 1999-2001 backed by some very expensive research reports from top-ranked firms that were utterly and completely full of crap.
It’s a great question and most all of the comments here are very valid.
As with any industry or group of people, analysts run the gamut in terms of their value-add and ability. This IMHO is largely determined by their interests, knowledge-base, personality, connections/network, and style.
I like Yung-Hui Lim’s comment quoting Albert Szent-Gyorgi very much. IMO the “holy grail” of analysts is the ability to extract useful and unique insight from observations and research they make and do.
Thanks for asking the question.
Keep up to date with new research, doing interviews, participate in conferences, writing reports, blogging ;-). Actually – if I was an analyst, I think I would spend quite a lot of my time in the field – doing fieldstudies, interviews, qualitative and quantitative analysis.
You all seem to be at a different conference every week so I’d say travel, presentations and information gathering.
Honestly, it depends on the business model, but if I come at this literally and think about what analysts actually spend their time doing, rather than focussing on who they provide value to and how, I’d say analysts primarily listen and parse. Without doing those two things, it’d be impossible for them to do any of the things mentioned above – all of which are valid, e.g., interpret, synthesise, analyze, theorize, advize and postulate.
“Web strategy”, “social computing” – apparently part of the job is inventing or perpetuating useless buzzwords that only marketers bandy about. There are good reasons why marketing is the function that is the butt of most jokes about business people.
Understanding what is happening outside the firm and deciding what the firm should do is the job of management, especially executive and line management. Analysts tell the herd smart-sounding and sometimes smart things they can’t easily find on their own that may (or may not) be helpful. If managers are too stupid to tell the difference, they deserve what’s coming to them. Caveat emptor.
Jeremiah, sorry to be so cynical. I happen to like Forrester Research. Much of my criticism is more directed toward marketing and management (both of which I’m a part), especially when it comes to fads and useless buzzwords we use in tech. Analysts may come up with great pithy phrases to describe new trends, but over usage to the point of meaningless is our own fault – especially from us on the tech vendor side. We live in an over-marketed-to world. Why isn’t 1:1 marketing fixing that?
Business model – most of value creation in the “information age” is based on knowledge – those with more knowledge or skills selling or applying them in selling goods or services. Nothing wrong with that. It’s wonderful. Buyers (including myself) are willing to pay for good market research, trend analysis, analysis of vendors’ positions, and other advice. I happen to like Forrester. Really. Thanks for all the honest dialog.
An analyst’s role, from a vendor/solution provider’s perspective is to convert market data into information and present it to a client so that the client feels (and sometimes does) that they save a bundle while making a decision – regarding anything. Of course, this convincing of the client is done for a hefty fee under the pretext of saving big bucks down the road. Probably a narrow answer but think it can be expanded depending on perspective of the analyst.
Create never-ending problems, to solve, collect money for it, any perceived success is all credited (and broadcasted), any failure is a perfect opportunity to play the game again. Endless loops.
But really, human behavior is never rational, nor is it ever understandable, there is no perfect system, life is absurd, and even if something works once, that doesn’t mean it will work again, anyone telling you they have the perfect system or sure-fire stock market plan, is lying. Everything works, and nothing works.
So cue up the witchdoctors, everything is always and ever a crisis, the world will end if you don’t do this now, doom, gloom, you are stupid, you need us, we know the way out, save us all, the ship sinks, film at 11. Checks accepted here.