Influence, independence and impact
Good post from Jon on the influence, independence and impact of analysts. It comes spookily hot on the heels of Alan PS's note on the independence of analysts. That this issue still pops up decades after it was first raised undermines the credibility of the analyst industry. When I was at Ovum, we declined to take money from vendors for white papers, but changed our minds several times during my time there (1995-2004). At IDC (2004-2006) we happily and regularly took money from vendors for white papers. At both organisations we claimed independence.
At Influencer50 we are, not surprisingly, focused on influence. But it's always important to say what we mean when we try to identify and measure it. We think independence and impact are constituents of influence. A lack of independence erodes influence, but doesn't eliminated it. There are plenty of folks working at vendor firms that are themselves influential, but you wouldn't expect them to be independent. Vested interest, as long as it's declared, is the key issue.
The main issue is, then, transparency. So, come on analysts. Why not declare the extent of revenue from vendors. Name your clients and the proportion of revenues they contribute.
Perhaps the IIAR could define (or rate?) analyst firms on their independence...
At Influencer50 we are, not surprisingly, focused on influence. But it's always important to say what we mean when we try to identify and measure it. We think independence and impact are constituents of influence. A lack of independence erodes influence, but doesn't eliminated it. There are plenty of folks working at vendor firms that are themselves influential, but you wouldn't expect them to be independent. Vested interest, as long as it's declared, is the key issue.
The main issue is, then, transparency. So, come on analysts. Why not declare the extent of revenue from vendors. Name your clients and the proportion of revenues they contribute.
Perhaps the IIAR could define (or rate?) analyst firms on their independence...
Labels: independence, influence
posted by Duncan Brown at 2:32 pm
3 Comments:
Thanks Duncan, and yes indeed, why not to your last point! As for the second to last point, last year it was divided between vendors, research partners and other publications - though it could be argued that the IT press also gets the majority of its revenues from the vendors through advertising!
We are in conversations with a number of end-user organisations, but its probably true to say we're not yet established enough to offer enough credibility to be used as consultants, particularly given that they have generally worked with analysts through buying report subscriptions in the past. I spent 10 years of my career advising organisations such as these and I would be delighted to do so again - absolutely not so I could pay lip service to some general notion of independence, but absolutely to make a real difference where the real action is. Of course it would be counterproductive in the extreme to jump into bed with any one vendor.
I must stop banging on but I do find this whole area quite fascinating :)
Should read - "Of course it would be counterproductive in the extreme to jump into bed with any one vendor, in teh meantime."
or even, "in the meantime" - think I should log off now!!
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