When business strategy is shaped by others we don’t control, we need to involve them.
Insight harnesses the power of customer, employee and market knowledge and applies it to shape strategy. It often addresses a specific business need and is used to accelerate critical decision making. The insight process challenges preconceptions, elicits opinion and uncovers business truths that are difficult to extract using traditional ‘tick-box’ survey-style methods.
So, can insight be undertaken in-house?
Robust and meaningful insight relies on objectivity, impartiality and rigour. It can be difficult, if not impossible for an in-house approach to be objective and impartial. For example, your customers might be reluctant to criticise you, your employees might fear speaking openly on sensitive issues, or other stakeholders might just tell you what they think you want to hear! Combined with these challenges, robust insight requires a high level of expertise and rigour. Choice of research method, question design and accurate collection, analysis and interpretation of data are all considerations.
What are the benefits of outsourcing strategic insight to an experienced consultancy?
A specialist external consultancy provides the high level of objectivity and impartiality (lack of bias) required to achieve robust and meaningful results. This combined with third-party anonymity encourages freedom of expression on sensitive topics. In summary, externally driven insight is more likely to deliver sound results with intellectual rigour and to defined timescales. It can also be a great PR exercise for your business, positioning you as an organisation that listens and cares, encouraging customer and employee retention for competitive advantage and long-term sustainability.
Distinction Consulting’s strategic insight delivers compelling evidence-based results that challenge assumptions and accelerate strategic decisions.