Amit’s e-world

Having been through a gruelling MBA programme with a horde of written submissions, I think I now understand how to get ‘routinise’ a writing mission. My view of most research articles I read especially the commercially publicised ones, is now very reserved.

I suspect research companies are always vying to create an eye-catching analysis - as it directly enhances their popularity. From economics alone, if all researchers reached the same conclusions, who would pay a premium, say for Gartner’s research reports. However, reaching conclusions requires wading through a lot of complex data - not all of which can be captured by researchers. Further, many of the findings do not necessarily unanimously support one conclusion. Hence, there is a lot of subjectivity on the part of the researcher in determining the significance of individual findings. Of course, this can be partially mitigated through an "unbiased" survey.

Recently, there was a news byte that read "BDO Seidman foresees more potential opportunity for US based players work onshore". On the other hand, Gartner saw an increase in calls from clients looking for offshoring, with 20 percent to 30 percent of these from those offshoring for the first time. It is obvious that in times like these, people are looking at cutting costs, and it is a widely known fact that outsourcing is a common solution to this problem. Could Gartner have qualified what percentage of the calls it received were "fishing expeditions" versus "genuine enquiries". Chances are that if Gartner was called, it was a fishing expedition, as subscribers who genuinely wanted to outsource, would have floated RFPs in the supplier market. The RFP volume by itself is a better indicator of demand than are casual calls Gartner receives. Even the BDO Seidman analysis probably generalises what it heard from a few technology companies to a major market trend. If their source was press articles, there is a Deloitte research report that proves that negative outsourcing articles are more likely to attract press attention than positive ones. Further, extension or increase of outsourcing work from existing organisations is likely to be hidden news.. and repeat business is what most outsourcing suppliers thrive on.

There are severe flaws in an independent research model based on limited data. It is possible to flex the analysis and use facts to support conclusions one wants to reach. I can’t remember how many times I have read that "research proves that eating bananas is good for the heart", followed by another one that claims that the opposite.