In our first blog on how to help SMEs to succeed,  we outlined some of the challenges of setting up a SME and pointed out that much of the support for SMEs does not recognise the massive variation in different types of SME owner, and their different emotional needs. Against this backdrop, in this second […]

In this post, we start by looking at the key drivers behind the transformation of the customer insight industry. We then look at what this means for the way customer insight professionals operate in this new environment. We conclude by outlining three core skillsets that customer insight professionals need to cultivate to make a success […]

In a series of three weekly blogs, David Smith of DVL Smith and Excellence Tools looks at the challenging issue of helping UK SMEs succeed in an increasingly competitive market place. In the first blog, we look at the challenges many SMEs face in getting underway and surviving that critical first year. In the second […]

In 1990, I wrote an article for the Journal of the Market Research Society entitled Small is beautiful but difficult: towards cost effective research for small businesses (JMRS Vol.32 No.1 January 1990). The paper caught everyone’s imagination at the time and won the MRS Silver Medal for the best article that year in the Journal. […]

In this blog, we start by looking at why the ability to influence and persuade a stakeholder audience is now one of the most important customer insight skillsets. We will then look at some of the barriers and resistances that some customer insight professionals face in being influential. Finally, we provide some guidance on how […]

The SME sector – defined as businesses who employ up to 250 employees – is the engine room of the UK economy. It holds the key to much of our future economic prosperity.  There are over five million SMEs in the UK compared to, amazingly, only 6,000 businesses which employ more than 250 employees. In […]