This paper is based on over 15 years of experience in carrying out multinational projects in CEE countries and spans from technical solutions going through facilities and ending with methodological background. The main focus is to show what kind of methodological circumstances should be taken into consideration in carrying out CEE research projects, while avoiding thinking about the region as a group of similar countries.
Probably 95% or more of all NPD in the durables sector is associated with product evolution and range extension. Once in a while, with luck, the NPD marketer gets the opportunity to substantially innovate a product category. The process isn't that different from managing an evolutionary development, but the risks involved tend to be much higher. No comforting files of historical data plotting the market development and the company's performance against that of its competitors. No carefully structured segmentation or price point analysis. Just an idea, and a belief that it can be turned into a commercial success. This paper outlines one such idea and how that idea was nurtured and finally brought to market with the help, or in spite of the many hurdles and procedures bound up with the product development process in a large company. The paper does not seek to preach any doctrine, merely to illustrate how one project was successfully completed.
Key variations in international research management are encountered in the extent of central control exerted and in the function of the group chosen to manage the project (usually either research or marketing). Centrally controlled projects tend to be well managed and co-ordinated for comparability, but often lack sensitivity to important local issues. Locally controlled projects gain the active involvement of local management but fail to deliver a valid picture of the international situation as a whole. Projects managed by researchers tend to be technically well organised but not always sufficiently well geared to the needs of ultimate users. In projects managed by marketing people the briefing and use made of the research tend to be of a high standard, but the political aspects of the marketing role can sometimes threaten the neutrality necessary in the research process. The key recommendation for ensuring good international research management is to appoint from the start a team involving all parties - users, client researchers and local suppliers - at both central and local levels. Lines of authority and communication should be clarified to all concerned. Sufficient time should be allowed for full consultation at the planning stage, and the user team should insist not only on comparability of approach but also on being shown a synthesis of findings from all countries. Commissioning organisations should make use of the unique opportunities afforded by the research process to involve and motivate their international management teams.
Coordinating international research projects is not really easy. But it becomes much easier if and only if - the coordinating executives have the appropriate personality and culture - the sub-contractors react like partners, put their heads together and show solidarity.
When reflecting on organising an opinion and market research company, the first difficulty is the necessity not to find a good organisation but to find a good organisation convenient for the men who put it into practice. The problem is that of being able to adapt the structure not only to problems resulting from size, market or nature of survey launched but at the same time to men who work together in the company: this relation between organisation and men appears clearly through the past evolution of SOFRES: During the fifteen years of the company's life, its organisation has evolved considerably and each step is coincidental with arrival or departure of the level of their competence and consequently of their demands. The best way to introduce the description of this solution we put in practice to solve this problem, is to give a summary of the evolution of SOFRES organisation with a brief description of the various solutions used one after the other, their advantages, their drawbacks and their consequences.
Fuller's comment on the paper "Organising an opinion and market research company" by J. Fuller.