Deloitte – research of the biggest oil and mining companies
The research was focused on the largest oil and mining companies in the entire world (e.g. Exxon, Shell and BP). The aim was to identify decision makers who decide about new pipeline construction and choose valves for such projects, and our task was to conduct in-depth interviews with these people on this topic. Data collection was very difficult due to the size of these firms and their operations. Before we could find a suitable respondent, we often needed to speak with more than 20 different company employees in different parts of the world, including the USA, Ecuador, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. But this was not the only challenge we had to overcome. In these large companies, we used to hear the rule: “No transfer without a name”. This required highly creative and innovative interviewing techniques.
The assignment was completely fulfilled by obtaining and conducting 10 interviews with responsible senior managers at mining companies of about 25–30 minutes each.
Parker – research of market potential
Parker manufactures a wide range of technologies and control systems for industry. The task of this research contradicted every rule in interviewing, as the most difficult questions had to be placed at the beginning. The very first research question was whether the company was spending at least CZK 500,000 annually on five different components. If the answer was “no”, then the company was not qualified for the research. The main problem was to get suitable companies to interview, as such a company had to meet a number of requirements.
In the end, we successfully completed the questionnaire with 522 senior managers at qualified companies. Among these companies were firms such as Siemens, AGC Flat, ABB, Škoda, Bosch, Danone, Unipetrol, Nestlé, ČEZ and others. The assignment’s requirements were fully met.
VMware – IT research among top 100 Czech firms
This research was conducted for the biggest company dedicated to virtualization in the entire world. Its aim was to interview IT managers at top Czech companies. Building upon our methodology and thorough database work, we used all available resources to seek and update contacts at the largest selected Czech companies. We successfully conducted 87 interviews with the CIOs of 100 top Czech companies.
Air Products – loyalty research in Asia
Our client approached us with a request to conduct satisfaction research in Asia. The following countries were chosen for this research: China, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. The research was difficult mainly because of the language barrier and thus the complicated management of our interviewers. The completely different culture of these countries turned out to be another challenge. Nevertheless, the assignment was completed without any major setbacks. The quality of the data we collected surpassed that of data from local agencies that had previously carried out this research. Since that time, our company has successfully conducted this research several times.