FEATURE27 December 2019

Preview 2020: new year resolutions

Features UK

With a new decade starting, our contributors have an eclectic mix of resolutions they’re intending to stick to throughout 2020 but improving diversity gets the most mentions.

Diversity

Nick Baker, UK chief executive, Savanta
Build further diversity in every way we can.

Jane Frost, chief executive, Market Research Society
It’s to embed these three principles into our industry: standards and professionalism; a core narrative; diversity and inclusivity – to be a workforce which attracts the best talent.

Laura Ratcliffe, managing director, Flamingo 
To be a champion – in our agency and in our industry – of making flexible working work. I’ve recently returned to work from maternity leave, but I think it’s something we should offer to all and should be embracing the positive power this has for our workforce.

Babita Earle, executive vice-president, strategic and industry partnerships, ZappiStore
To consolidate the work we have started with our strategic partners on their digitisation journey. I want to nail behaviour change and build confidence among clientside teams.

Also to continue playing a significant role within the industry at large, pushing progress on inclusion, diversity of thought and empathy. Growing the European WiRexec forum will form part of this and we will hold another Summit in 2020.

Market research 

Jane Rudling, managing director, Walnut Unlimited
To bring real and tangible human understanding to brands and clients, blending methodologies and helping them to humanise their offer and optimise their demand.

Deborah Mattinson, founding partner, BritainThinks
Viki Cooke, my BritainThinks co-founder, and I were early pioneers of deliberative approaches back in the 90s. People thought we were mad, but now it seems that their time has come. I am determined to play my part in showcasing these brilliant methods more.

Peter Totman, head of qualitative, Jigsaw
To keep fighting the fight for ‘proper qual’ of course – against the combined and massing forces of technology, backroom viewing facility ‘culture’ and agility (superficiality).

Ryan Howard, director, advanced analytics, Simpson Carpenter
Software developers have a principle called DRY (aka ‘Don’t Repeat Yourself’) and it is my team’s new religion. It’s too easy to start projects from scratch every time but, with a little forethought, one can write reusable, abstracted code. Admittedly, I have been WET my entire life (‘Write Every Time’). WET is the toughest habit to break, especially when working under pressure.

Jane Bloomfield, chief growth officer UK, Kantar
Reinvent some of my established ways of working and rules of thumb – with the accelerating change around us (demographic, technological or economical) we need to figure out the new questions to ask, as some of the old questions no longer work.

Sabine Stork, founding partner, Thinktank
Make more time for ‘extracurricular’ debate with my team!  It’s so easy to be overly focused on project work – but as qual researchers we obviously must be in touch with what’s going on in global and UK culture and society in a more general way too.

Sinead Jefferies, consultant, Watermelon
I want to learn a new skill or technique that I’ve not worked with before. We can only give the best to our clients when we are pushing to be the best ourselves. I just now need to decide what that is –if anyone has a great new development they’d like to share, I am all ears!

And the others…

Ben Page, chief executive, Ipsos Mori
As always – spend more time with clients

Anna Cliffe, joint managing director, Trinity McQueen
Be your best; not somebody else’s

Ben Hogg, managing director EMEA and APAC, Lucid
To waste less time and energy on things that don’t matter

Joe Staton, client strategy director, GfK
I’m still working on my 2018 resolution! (finding time for fun – both personally and professionally).

Ray Poynter, chief executive, The Future Place
Learn to speak some Russian before my keynote presentation in Moscow in April – not much Russian, but some.

0 Comments