Why is a 15 Year Old’s Insights More Interesting Than a Market Researchers?

There’s a lot of talk online today about an article in the Guardian about how Media execs at Morgan Stanley were rocked by a 15-year-old’s blunt, blistering analysis.

What’s the key learning here? When communicating to C-Level management, do so in the tone of a 15 year old???

Lets put aside the obvious sampling problems as well as the problems with this one UK teens views about Twitter possibly being applied in decisions in the US (Mobile phone and internet usage/behavior/costs have been rather different across the Atlantic).

I think the takeaway is that most reports are too verbous, boring and long. Also, perhaps just as importantly, too filtered by the research department which may think they have learned to “think” and anticipate what management wants, and therefore rarely comes up with anything earth shattering.

Researchers need to be less afraid to go…

There’s a lot of talk online today about an article in the Guardian about how Media execs at Morgan Stanley were rocked by a 15-year-old’s blunt, blistering analysis.

What’s the key learning here? When communicating to C-Level management, do so in the tone of a 15 year old???

Lets put aside the obvious sampling problems as well as the problems with this one UK teens views about Twitter possibly being applied in decisions in the US (Mobile phone and internet usage/behavior/costs have been rather different across the Atlantic).

I think the takeaway is that most reports are too verbous, boring and long. Also, perhaps just as importantly, too filtered by the research department which may think they have learned to “think” and anticipate what management wants, and therefore rarely comes up with anything earth shattering.

Researchers need to be less afraid to go against the grain. Keep things short. Don’t always deliver what you think is anticipated !
What do you think?

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Link to original postTom H. C. Anderson – Anderson Analytics