How to use information for better business decisions, for creating strategic foresight and deriving business trends

1. Research should lead to knowledge. Knowledge leads to
learnings. Learnings are needed to craft effective business
strategies.With terrabytes of information being produced,
created and recreated everyday, one needs be able to comb
through all that is available, collect what is relevant, sort out and
sieve as per the query, make sense by connecting the dots and
make it actionable knowledge for the enquirer.
At Insights & More, we have evolved it into a fine art.
Test us with your most arduous business query !

2. Understanding
the
Context
of
Business
Context matters.
How you see a piece of
information depends on
which lens you use to
decode it.
At Insights & More, we
give you the view from
all possible lenses.
The social, the
economic, the cultural,
the political and the
technical lens.
Image
courtesy
:
h8p://www.adexchanger.com/comic-­‐
strip/adexchanger-­‐context-­‐ma8ers/

3. Some
Ques@ons
that
we
ask
on
your
behalf
in
Context
Research
POLITICAL
Is
the
place
of
ac@on
a
monarchy
or
democracy
?
Is
it
one
that
has
high
ins@tu@onal
trust
or
low
ins@tu@onal
trust
?
Is
there
corrup@on
?
Is
the
person
bigger
than
the
process
?
ECONOMICAL
What’s
the
level
of
income
of
people
?
Is
there
a
high
GINI
coefficient
?
Is
there
high
income
polarity
or
is
there
a
large
and
growing
middle
class
?
What
is
the
sizing
?
SOCIO-­‐CULTURAL
What
are
the
kind
of
interrela@ons
that
people
have
?
Hostede’s
model
?
Said
and
unsaid
cultural
norms
?
Symbolism
?
In
the
context
of
the
brand
and
category
what
are
the
acceptable
and
unacceptable
behaviours
?
Influences
of
poli@cs
?
Religion
?
Race
?
TECHNICAL
What’s
the
stage
of
the
country
in
its
technological
evolu@on
?
Is
it
dependant
on
a
single
set
of
technical
know
how
or
there
is
a
well
diversified
set
of
technical
know-­‐hows
?
DEMOGRAPHICAL
What’s
the
age
structure
–
young
or
aging
?
What’s
the
educa@on
level
?
Status
of
women
?
Literacy
and
quality
of
literacy
?
Quality
of
work-­‐force
?

4. Impact
of
this
Analysis..
AREAS
OF
UNDERSTANDING
IMPACT
POLITICAL
Is
it
s
monarchy
or
democracy
?
Is
it
one
that
has
high
ins@tu@onal
trust
or
low
ins@tu@onal
trust
?
Is
there
corrup@on
?
Is
the
person
bigger
than
the
process
?
What
are
the
religious,
ethnic
affilia@ons
of
people
and
how
does
that
impact
society
?
Ins@tu@onal
Trust
means
there
is
a
need
to
seek
ins@tu@onal
sanc@on
for
people
to
have
trust
in
your
brand.
Democracy
or
instances
of
uprising
means
people
have
low
trust
in
ins@tu@ons.
ECONOMICAL
What’s
the
level
of
income
of
people
?
Is
there
a
high
GINI
coefficient
?
Is
there
high
income
polarity
or
is
there
a
large
and
growing
middle
class
?
What
are
the
sources
of
wealth
?
Polarized
income
means
that
it
may
alienate
one
sec@on
of
the
popula@on
completely.
An
aspiring
middle
class
means
@ering
of
product
proposi@on
is
possible
–
there
will
be
value
seeking
behavior.
SOCIO
CULTURAL
What
are
the
kind
of
interrela@ons
that
people
have
?
Hostede’s
model
?
Said
and
unsaid
cultural
norms
?
Symbolism
?
In
the
context
of
the
brand
and
category
what
are
the
acceptable
and
unacceptable
behaviours
?
Highly
collec@ve
socie@es
means
there
is
a
high
scope
of
advocacy.
Highly
contextual
society
means
the
communica@on
has
to
be
contextual
and
not
direct.

5. Impact
of
this
Analysis
AREAS
OF
UNDERSTANDING
IMPACT
TECHNICAL
What’s
the
stage
of
the
country
in
its
technological
evolu@on
?
Is
it
dependant
on
a
single
set
of
technical
know
how
or
there
is
a
well
diversified
set
of
technical
know-­‐hows
?
Indicates
use
of
technology
in
brand
communica@on.
Mobile,
Search,
Social
Media
all
start
to
play
an
important
role.
Also
a
popula@on
with
high
technical
educa@on
will
tend
to
evaluate
brands
more
ra@onally
vs
emo@onally.
DEMOGRAPHICAL
What’s
the
age
structure
–
young
or
aging
?
What’s
the
educa@on
level
?
Quality
of
educa@on
?
Status
of
women
?
Quality
of
work-­‐force
?
Sex
ra@o
?
Young
means
new
hopes
and
aspira@ons,
explora@on,
how
to
live
with
the
conflict.
Brand
has
to
cater
to
this
image.
Aging
means
reconciling
with
new
trends,
health-­‐friendly,
food,
leisure
etc
have
to
customized.
Status
of
women
is
cri@cal.
Women
are
the
advocates
of
brands.
If
the
TFR
is
high,
child
friendly
products
have
a
large
market.
Connec@ng
the
dots
reveals
new
insights
and
meaning...

6. ENQUIRY
Demographic
truths
Poli@cal
governance
and
Ins@tu@onal
landscape
Social
codes
of
conduct
,
Religion
and
symbolism
History
and
evolu@onary
truths
Economic
evolu@on
and
economic
infrastructure
Psychological
and
Neurosciences
Based
truths
Literature
and
Contemporary
Films
The
Pinwheel
Model
of
EnquiryTM
Technology

7. Category
Landscape
Demographic
truths
Poli@cal
governance
and
Ins@tu@onal
landscape
Social
codes
of
conduct
,
Religion
and
symbolism
History
and
evolu@onary
truths
Economic
evolu@on
and
economic
infrastructure
Psychologica
l
and
Neuroscienc
es
Based
truths
Literature
and
Contempora
ry
Films
What's
the
poli@cal
system
and
how
is
it
evolved
?
Therefore
do
people
trust
ins@tu@ons
?
Or
they
engage
in
more
primi@ve
forms
of
societal
conduct
?
What
are
the
social
codes
of
conduct
?
Any
info
from
Hofstede’s
model
?
Impact
of
religion
on
community
?
What
are
the
popular
symbols
and
their
meaning
?
Unsaid
norms
?
Evolu@on
of
the
community
or
society
in
context
?
What
are
unsaid,
cultural
norms
and
impact
on
the
category
under
study
?
Evolu@on
of
country’s
economy
?
Key
indicators
like
GDP
per
capita,
GINI
coefficient
rela@ve
to
more
developed
or
less
developed
countries
?
Source
of
wealth
?
Propor@on
of
youth
in
work
force,
status
of
women
and
TFR,
literacy
and
quality
of
literacy
and
current
demographic
trends,
genera@onal
issues
if
any.
Contemporary
literature
and
films
are
talking
about
which
issues
?
What
themes
are
resona@ng
with
the
target
audience
?
Check
psychographics,
psychological
truths
about
the
target
audience
and
how
it
can
be
explained
using
neurosciences
theories
Technology
Impact
of
technology
on
that
category
in
that
country
?
A
typical
inves@ga@on
plan
for
a
category
using
the
Pinwheel
ModelTM

8. Category
Landscape
Demographic
truths
Poli@cal
governance
and
Ins@tu@onal
landscape
Social
codes
of
conduct
,
Religion
and
symbolism
History
and
evolu@onary
truths
Economic
evolu@on
and
economic
infrastructure
Psychologica
l
and
Neuroscienc
es
Based
truths
Literature
and
Contempora
ry
Films
Technology
A
typical
inves@ga@on
plan
for
a
category
using
the
Pinwheel
ModelTM
Look for key trends – it should
borrow from more than one
pinwheel.The ones with conflict
are the richest insights for
communication and marketing.
Opposing forces fan that insight
or trend and make it stronger.
Try to construct the following
sentences to predict trends..
“If x and y are true, its likely to
…..“
“While X is true, the opposite
side of X is this..”
Look for stories…

9. Demographi
c
truths
Poli@cal
governance
and
Ins@tu@onal
landscape
Social
codes
of
conduct
,
Religion
and
symbolism
History
and
evolu@onary
truths
Economic
evolu6on
and
economic
infrastructur
e
Psychologica
l
and
Neuroscienc
es
Based
truths
Literature
and
Contempora
ry
Films
Connect the dots to reveal trends.
Check hypotheses with consumer data.
TREND
1
TREND
2
TREND
3

10. Stories
to
Look
for..
Ø The evolution story
Ø The conflict or dilemma story
Ø The resolution story
Ø The what’s common story
Ø The compare and contrast story

11. We
present
the
stories
to
our
clients
as

12. If you believe in leveraging
information to arrive at
better business decisions,
contact Insights & More
chat@insightsandmore.com
137
Market
Street,
#06-­‐00,
Singapore
048943
www.insightsandmore.com