Insight - a term thats widely used but rarely mastered. IO Consulting help businesses get greater return from their investment in market research and insight. We are an experienced team of insight professionals, providing a range of services that can compliment an existing insight department or bring capability where none already exists. Our approach is unique and highly flexible; we can be available to you for a few hours, a few days or as part of a longer term partnership. Our business allows you to access the skills you need at the times you need them

1. Insight Generation:
Creating insight from
knowledge
IO Consulting

2. Insight; widely used, rarely mastered
The statistics* for insight aren’t great:
Stage 4
Stage 3
The
Foresight
o 60% of companies don’t see their insight as a source
Stage 2
The Strategic Leader
of competitive advantage
Influencer
Stage 1
The Business
Contributor
o 54% don’t agree it provides good return on
The tactical investment
order taker
o Only 28% feel their company provides sufficient
funds for insight
o 90% of companies fail to move beyond using insight
as a ‘manager rather than a leader’
90% of businesses fall in stages 1 & 2*
• The reasons why so many companies struggle with insight
are complex – but we found internal factors play a
significant role
“Our understanding of consumers was
insufficiently deep, so the opportunities
created from insight weren’t large • 15 years ago knowledge was power, transforming
enough” VP, Unilever knowledge into ‘insight’ is now the name of the game
* Sources: Boston Consulting Group & IO benchmarking

3. But what actually is insight?
• The debate over how you define “an insight” has gone on (and on, and on and on) for many years. Quite
frankly spending time debating its definition can be a waste of time.
• For what its worth, most businesses end up with a definition that is interesting but hard to do much with such
as: “A penetrating discovery that gets to the heart of customers’ and consumers’ motivations and behaviours
and/or market trends and dynamics that translates into business opportunities”
• We prefer to define insight slightly differently and instead think about three criteria;
1 2 3
It’s built on solid It excites people and It inspires
foundations goes beyond the (profitable) action
obvious

4. So how do you get to insight?
One way to
develop solutions • When thinking about how you develop insight its
important to remember why you are wanting to
generate insight in the first place – it is often in
The Challenge
response to an issue or challenge your business
faces
The Solution
• As a result, insight is there to stimulate our thinking,
drive our direction and avoid us leaping to the same
old solutions you, and probably your competitors,
have reached many times before.
The better way to develop solutions • That is why it is usually helpful to have a tool, or at
least a framework for thinking to guide insight
development in the context of the challenge you’re
The Challenge
Key Questions
trying to address.
Data
Understanding &
Solutions
Insight

5. The principles of insight generation tools
• There are probably more trademarked insight processes than there are great insights. Whether they come
from a marketing consultant, an ideas generation company or an internal corporate training program they
all generally do the same thing:
• They get you to think in a dive rg ent way and then think in a converge nt way
• In sum, you start focused, making sure you understand your issue. Throw open the flood gates to all
possible information that could help and stimulate. Then interrogate and connect that data, getting under its
skin until you find real nuggets you can hone into insight and use to inspire action
• Our experience in a variety of businesses allows us to tailor an approach to insight generation drawing on
best practice from a variety of B2C and B2B environments

6. How can we help?
• We’ve already helped a number of diverse B2C and B2B businesses develop and embed their own
approaches to insight generation
• We would be happy to be involved in any aspect of making insight work better in your business. The
following three areas summarise where we feel we can add most value:
1 2 3
Diagnosis Development Delivery
• Determining the current • Creation of a tailored • Application of our own
approach to insight approach to insight bespoke approach to
generation in your generation for your insight generation to your
business and how this business business challenges
could be optimised
• Development of the
• Is there a consistent necessary tools as well as
• Facilitating the generation
understanding of what an an approach to rolling out
of insight against live
insight is, are they being and embedding best
business issues
used and, if so, how good practice within your
are they? business

7. IO Consulting: a unique perspective
• IO Consulting specialise in helping businesses maximise return
from their investment in consumer and customer understanding.
We either work alongside existing client side insight teams or
bring capability where none already exists
• Our team have lived through the challenges of insight generation
from both sides of the fence as ex-heads of client-side insight and
as founders of successful research and innovation agencies.
• We believe in tailoring our approach to our clients and avoid ‘off
the shelf’ solutions. The diverse backgrounds of our team mean
“Before you become someone's that we have a strong appreciation of the varying insight
consultant, make sure you walk a mile in challenges across different markets and sectors
their shoes. That way, if they don’t like
what you say, you're a mile away from
them and you've got their shoes”
• Our experience of both leading insight projects for clients as well
as reviewing and optimising their insight infrastructure gives us a
unique perspective – understanding the needs and challenges of
insight practitioners and stakeholders alike

8. Three reasons to work with IO Consulting
We are able to bring you the insight capability you need in the form you need it. Our offering is unique, giving
companies a new way to access the skills needed to turn insight into profitable action
Responsive
• Our team is ready to go when you are, we are able to hit the
ground running
• No job is too large/ small. We’re available to you for a couple of
days, a couple of months or as part of a longer term relationship
Flexible
• Our support can evolve with the project. Unlike single freelancers
we can flex specific capability and experience in/out as needed
• Any individual can also draw on the wider experiences and best
practice developed within IO Consulting
Accountable
• Our team members are highly experienced with the skills
necessary to turn insight into impact
• In every project we hold ourselves accountable to that impact,
not simply the number of days worked
• A senior director will always be involved in a project and if our
team do not deliver, the buck stops with us.

9. Thank you
For more information please contact:
Morgan Arnell
morgan@i-out.co.uk
+44 7801 045864