A good analyst needs to know something that no one else does, such as sources of special information or expert opinions, and understands how to provide information to the right people in the most efficient way. The capability to get hold of a vast amount of data and analyze it with the most effective tools is the key to success for industry analysts in the Internet age. But it is more crucial to define the function and value of various data and transmit them to the right person at the right time and right place.
Everyone hopes to gain insights, but insights are not easy to come by. First of all, you need to understand the background of the inquirers, customer needs, and the purpose of their inquiry to deliver effective business prescription. It is impossible to give a solid answer without doing due diligence. A good industry consultant is not all-knowing; instead he or she is relatively good at observing the industry from horizontal perspectives. Once requested by the customer, the consultants must dig deep based on customers' needs to come up with solutions consistent with customers' interests. What industry consultants possess is methodology rather than answers off the top of their heads.
The client who consultants serve must be either a business leader, or a department head authorized to pay for the service. The information requested by these executives often justify how much he is willing to pay. What they would like to acquire is no more than new technology, new business models, new markets, or competitor analysis, all of which fall within the realm of insights.
To generate admirable insights, industry analysts should make all-out efforts to start with technical demonstration followed by basic information search, and further analysis of social needs, and finally expand and capitalize on business opportunities according to feedback from suppliers and customers.
This process of in-depth research finally leads to strategy correction plan and provides the customer profound consulting services and advice. Basically, industry analysts don't necessarily know more about the industry's domain knowledge than their customers. The extent to which companies know about domain knowledge is different in ability and experience. It is an important criterion for clients to choose consulting firms that they believe are well-versed in strategy analysis and industry research methods.
To give advice from the customers' perspective, I would suggest that once you choose a consulting firm, you should be "honest" in sharing your company's information with them. Otherwise they may provide wrong information as a result of misunderstanding, and finally the client will only get biased consulting services. Consequently, it takes mutual trust and close collaboration between customers and consulting firms to create values and make it a successful consulting project.
(Editor's note: This is part of a series by DIGITIMES Asia president Colley Hwang about industry research work.)
