Strauss Group, Israel’s largest Food & Beverage company, recently established an internal unit dedicated to research and insights. The unit's mission is to disseminate valuable information across the organization’s various business units.
Strauss engaged our team to develop the infrastructure of this new unit, with a particular focus on building mechanisms and processes. A critical part of our task was to define the role of the ‘Business Research Partner’, ensuring this role could maximize the unit's impact across the company.
We embarked on a comprehensive approach that included conducting qualitative interviews, analyzing a case study, and facilitating a workshop to tailor tools and processes for the newly created Business Partner Researcher role. This role was conceptualized with the understanding that the unit's colleagues are its customers, necessitating a solution-oriented approach from an organizational perspective. Using a human-centric methodology, we crafted a questionnaire and conducted interviews with five marketing managers from four different business units. These interviews aimed to capture their expectations and the ideal experience in interacting with the Business Partner Researcher. Armed with these insights, we crafted a roadmap for effectively managing and disseminating third-party research within the organization. We also utilized existing concept research results to simulate a real-time review process, creating a case study to examine this process critically. This culminated in a workshop with the Business Partner Researcher and their direct manager, where we collaboratively developed tools to bridge identified gaps.
Findings and Results:
Our analysis revealed a significant risk: the potential for the Business Partner role to devolve into a mere intermediary between external research firms and internal units. To avoid this, we emphasized a dynamic "push and pull" strategy where the Business Partner would proactively distribute external insights ("push") and gather real-time needs and strategic priorities from each unit ("pull").
By reviewing one of the company’s concept research results, we developed a case study that allowed us to outline both the business unit’s and Business Partner’s separate “journeys” and their touch points. In this case, the customer is the business unit which commissioned the research.
As a result of the workshop with the unit’s manager and Business Partner Researcher, we created a visual journey and defined the four main points where the Business Partner Researcher could use new tools to deliver the expected impact to their customers (Strauss’ business units). This provided the Business Partner Researcher with the structure they needs to operate on a daily basis.
With the customer journey outlined and her approach clearly detailed, we concluded with a major insight, namely: the role is viewed as a management role. This means that the Business Partner Researcher is expected to see any research from the unit’s point of view, while also serving as an outsider research unit member who is expected to integrate information from adjacent departments.
Impact
As a result of our comprehensive 'research on research,' the Business Partner in research now possesses a well-defined understanding and framework for her newly designed role. Additionally, the head and founder of the insights unit has gained a deeper insight into the optimal functioning of the unit. The success of this initiative has paved the way for the systematic integration of the remaining team members into the established operational model, ensuring consistent application and effectiveness across the unit
Insights
Strategic Role Perception: It became clear that the business units perceive the Business Partner's role not just as a facilitator but as a strategic management position. This role is expected to integrate and align research perspectives from within the unit and external sources, ensuring that insights are contextually relevant and strategically aligned with company objectives.
Integration Across Departments: The Business Partner is also expected to synthesize information from adjacent departments, reinforcing the role’s centrality in strategic decision-making processes.
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