The Indiefield Blog

The thing about lionising successful people is that we only ever remember the successful things they did and completely forget all the ideas and ventures they had that failed. A great example of it is Oprah Winfrey who has a long history of failed shows, abandoned projects, and plans that never came to fruition. But we all know how well respected by the market and loved by society at large she is. We simply don't track any of the failures. And neither should you when you think about yourself.

These are the two options available to most of us:

1. You are ideal. Everything is always on time, your documents contain no typos, you deliver flawlessly and you complete every task efficiently.
2. You are fascinating. You shake things up and deliver outstanding products and services that blow people out of the water.

How many staff should answer their phone on a Saturday? What's the policy regarding postponement and cancellation? How quickly following the end of the fieldwork are the respondents paid? Can I contact the people who took part in my study? How many steps from the train station to the research venue?

Three quick tips for anyone who cares about this:

1. Think carefully about the individuals experience at every touch point.
2. Run through the process from the "other side" and call out what needs to improve.
3. Make it easy for feedback from every possible angle so that you can make things better for everyone you interact with.

Pine nuts are served by the handful and it's literally impossible to check everyone so a bad tasting pine nut can ruin a whole mouthful. A pineapple is different. You pick it up and smell it and if you don't like it you can simply choose another pineapple. If you are selling pineapples the goal is to make your pineapples the best that there is. If you are selling pine nuts the goal is to get a uniform size and shape and eliminate all defects. Pineapples are about looking and smelling great and appealing to the individual. Pineapple buyers get to choose! The pine nut producers needs to focus on statistical - and data-driven processes like Six Sigma to limit mistakes or defects.

From a very early age we are taught how to behave towards people in authority. By the time we get to school the emphasis is on being 'good student' and that translates into "being a good employee". But in many ways this can lead to being "safe" and never challenging the way things are done because a) you don't want to rock the boat and b) there is a risk of failure so all your "good employee" kudos is lost. But does this truly help your boss? Isn't the truth that maximising what you do as opposed to minimizing and being safe the only way you can raise the bar? You might fail, you might get reprimanded, but if you want real growth you need to see those in authority as resources not limits.

We either ignore brands or we judge them, and most of the time with hardly any information. A good brand has a laser like focus, knows exactly who its target audience is, has a clearly defined mission, knows its USP, can identify its key values, tell its story from the beginning and have a brand identity reflective of these goals, and does all of this consistently. Seems so obvious. What is less obvious is an in built ability to discipline, ostracise or even expel the negative within. A good brand will fight not to get hurt from both within and without. "You're hurting us, this is wrong, we are expelling you."

So what lessons have we learned along the way?

Lesson 1: In fact, you can make a difference, you can begin something from nothing and grow it without authority or permission. Passionate people on a mission make change happen.

Lesson 2: You must be prepared to stick at it, to push yourself, to last longer than you ever expected and to care so much it actually hurts you.

It's so easy to be disappointed that you are not a huge success. But what does huge success truly mean? In market research I suppose it means being known beyond the sector, having a swanky office in London (with a viewing studio attached!), maybe even multiple offices across the globe. All we've done is bring new staff into the sector, consistently deliver top class fieldwork and recruitment for our clients, and offer members of the public amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to take part in cutting edge market research that makes the world better for everyone. There will always be someone telling you that you're not cool enough, clever enough, business minded enough or whatever enough. That's their agenda. But what's yours? Always shun the non-believers.

It's all about efficient internal operations, true fieldwork knowledge, a positive attitude, creative problem solving skills, fast response times, a highly personalised service, full support to whatever level you need, a focus on wider trends so we can add value for clients over time, and above all else absolute ownership of the fieldwork.

I suppose what this really means is that the things that have the most value or quality cost nothing - in other words the price of something does not always properly indicate its value. The extra care, the extra love, the extra attention. It doesn't cost anything at all really.