3. Gold lies in the detail! – Ms. Ria Patnaik
Ms Radhika had been running her research agency, The 7th Sense, successful for over 10 years now. Her company has helped various automobile brands launch successful brand campaigns by conducting a thorough a market research by way of a detailed focused group discussion (FGD). The strength of her company lied in the quality of researchers conducting the group discussion and their in-depth knowledge and expertise in the automobile sector. As the company grew bigger and started undertaking more research studies, they were in dire need of researchers. They were falling short of people going to the field and meeting consumers to get valuable insights. Where previously a single researcher would conduct only 3 FGDs in a day, now due to the increase in the number of research studies they had to conduct 6 in a day, each spanning for about 2 hours each.
In an attempt to solve this problem, The 7th Sense started hiring moderators to help the researchers conduct the FGD. The role of the moderator was to drive the conversation of the consumers towards getting answers for the research questions given to him/her through the discussion guidelines (DG). The DG was prepared by the researcher who met the client to understand his needs and frame the research objectives of the study. The moderators were hired their communication skills. In the screening process at no stage were they tested for their analytical ability nor were they tested on their knowledge of the automobile sector. Since, it was believed that the researcher back in the office would create the perfect DG that would allow the hired moderators to conduct the group discussions.
With this kind of an arrangement the studies at The 7th Sense continued for an year. At that time, the number of FGDs conducted by the company grew multifold. Previously a study consisted of say 5 FGD, now promised 10 to the clients. The turn around time for the study also reduced by nearly half, thereby allowing the firm to undertake more studies and get more business for the organization. All this was possible because the researchers did not go on field anymore. They would analyze the data given to them by the moderator.
More Details: Thakur Institute of Management Studies & Research