Why bees don’t make stupid decisions, and people do

5th October, 2011 - Posted by Paul Kavanagh - No Comments

How to keep bad decisions in check.

When we observe financial meltdowns or environmental debacles, often behind each were people who exercised very poor judgment. What’s more, step back from the decisions that were made and it is easy to conclude that the decisions were suspect from the start and should have been called out at the time options were being considered. Since bees can’t afford to be wrong (since it may cost them their lives), they protect themselves against decisions that can spiral out of control in wrong-headed directions. They do this in a number of ways.

Briefly, bees avoid going off course by listening to what other bees have to say; exploring contrary facts; changing their minds when better alternatives appear; and making judgments for themselves without the undue influence of others. When bees advertise an unlikely spot to find nectar, what do the other bees do? They check the place out. Some researchers think that bees lack certain cognitive-perceptual abilities that prevent them from visiting implausible locations, but another, equally likely explanation is that bees have no reason to suspect their sisters of deceiving them. Given that all members of the hive want the same things, when a bee is advocating for something that will potentially help the colony, why not listen?

Additionally, honeybees do not prematurely close off discourse when presented with facts in opposition to their recent experiences. For example, after the bees have fully exploited the nectar of a flower patch, they abandon the patch, checking back periodically to make sure that circumstances have not changed. Later, however, they may observe a scout bee directing them back to the very place that they have previously abandoned. Still, the bees do not gaze incredulously at the scout as if to suggest, “We’ve been to that spot, and there is nothing there,” the organizational equivalent to, “We’ve tried that before, and it doesn’t work.” What do they do instead? They visit the site to see for themselves, knowing that their prior assessment may no longer apply.

Bees also give up on their initial positions and yield to other, better alternatives. This ability is most striking during the bees’ swarming process. When hives get too large in numbers, they divest themselves of little less than half their members. The swarm then sends out a couple hundred scout bees to search for a new home. Most scouts return to the swarm without having found a site that satisfies minimum requirements. A dozen or so return with good news. This news is expressed through the bees’ dance language. The higher the quality of the site, the more enthusiastic the dance. The ultimate purpose of this dance is to recruit uncommitted scouts to the targeted site for a showing. Scout bees repeatedly return to their chosen sites for additional assessments, but their enthusiasm for each site declines at a relatively fixed rate with each visit. This means that bees’ attraction to lower-quality hives extinguishes first, creating the opportunity for them to find and settle on higher-quality spots. In effect, bees may abandon their initial positions and “reset” their commitment levels as they become open to new possibilities. What is most illustrative of this decision process is the trust placed in the independent assessments of evaluators. This independence prevents bad decisions from proliferating. A decision is finalized only after every bee with something to say (communicate) has said it, and the other bees have individually made their choices. The result? Bees find a new home that won’t be the death of them.

How do we apply this in research or online panels and research communities? Well, by merely having a research panel or community an organisation is already tapping into the ‘hive consensus’ and learning from their customers. By listening to the ‘buzz’ they are making enables the marketer to make more informed decisions, which is an effective way to keep bad decisions in check!

This is an extract from an article in Psychology Today by Michael O’Malley, who is a social psychologist and best-selling author of The Wisdom of the Bees.

 

UK’s coolest brand*, Aston Martin, selects Beehive for its global market research programme…

22nd August, 2011 - Posted by Paul Kavanagh - No Comments

Aston Martin has selected online and research consultancy specialist, Beehive, to help define and implement a research framework for its global customer satisfaction and insight programme.

Beehive started the initial phase of the programme in October 2010 which involved a group wide consultation exercise of workshops and interviews with key stakeholders. The objective was to fully understand the requirements for market intelligence across the business and to define a 3 year learning plan that could be prioritised and then implemented.

Following the presentation of the plan, Beehive’s first task was to undertake a customer understanding research project in some key territories worldwide and this has already provided some very interesting insight and customer learning which is being applied within several areas of the business.

Full contracts were signed in May and implementation of the research programme is now well underway.

Beehive managing director, Paul Kavanagh said “Aston Martin is an iconic brand and was UK’s coolest brand* last year so this is a fantastic project for us to be working on. There will be some difficult research challenges ahead but we are working with a great team, a great product and are looking forward to implementing the plan over the next 3 years.”

Beehive managed to secure the business in a competitive pitch against several other agencies. The main reasons for being chosen were because of the fresh and creative approach to Aston Martin’s specific requirements, its ideas led proposal and its value for money solutions.

 

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

28th April, 2011 - Posted by Tom Raybould - No Comments

Beehive’s workers have flown the old hive and moved to new offices. The new colony has been set up just a stone’s throw away from Tower Hill and Fenchurch Street Station at 3 Lloyd’s Avenue. Not only has the building been recently refurbished in a cool, contemporary style, it also boasts a great roof terrace. So keep an eye out for a Beehive gathering later in the year, when the weather is a bit more conducive to an alfresco tipple or two.

Paul Kavanagh, Beehive’s Head Bee and MD, said “after a good end to 2010 and an even better start to 2011 we felt it was the right time to be relocating closer to our clients and establishing our ‘hive’ within the City. We look forward to welcoming our clients and prospects to our new office over the next year.”

Please make a note of our new address and telephone number:

Beehive Research
3 Lloyd’s Avenue
London
EC3N 3DS
Tel: +44 (0) 203 036 0551
Email: info@beehiveresearch.co.uk

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Secrets of the beehive

27th April, 2011 - Posted by Tom Raybould - No Comments

Management consultant Michael O’Malley took up beekeeping as hobby, but he soon realised that the way hives work can teach us many lessons in business. After studying their behaviour he began to understand that bees perform extremely complex tasks within their communities by working together and achieving goals.

They rely on coordination, efficiency and productivity from many different sets of workers within the hive. In short, the hive is an ever evolving organisation that often behaves in similar ways to successful businesses. Michael O’Malley recently published a book “The Wisdom of Bees” – here are some of his observations. See which ones could apply to you!

Protecting the future

Colonies do not look to maximise return in the short term. If bees find a rich vein of nectar in a given patch of flowers they don’t all rush off to mine it immediately, despite the enticing short term gains.

They also maintain their “R&D” in the form of scout bees always looking further afield for richer pickings. Opposite to most businesses, the worse conditions get, the more they invest in exploring new areas by sending more scouts.

Distributing Authority

It’s a common misconception that the queen bee does all the work and dominates all activities in the hive. In reality she delegates relentlessly, and worker bees make daily decisions based on local stimulus and requirements. The most important decisions are those made by the bees closest to the action who have the best information.

Safeguarding against destruction

Genetically diverse hives are more productive – having “different” bees enables the hive to be more sensitive to a wider range of environmental stimuli and prevents it from responding in unison to a narrow set of similar cues.

The hive can never lose essential functions otherwise it breaks down and will cease to exist. For example too few foragers or too few nurse bees to nurture the young will put the hive’s future in serious jeopardy. If something breaks down the hive has a resource of precocious “cross-trained” bees that can be fast tracked into filling the needed roles quickly.

Bees do make mistakes in that they often over-adjust to outside supply conditions. When building a comb (which is very expensive to manufacture) they under-build when nectar resources are low, but over-build when it is abundant. Interestingly though, they don’t do the opposite: over-build when times are hard or under-build in times of plenty, thus safeguarding the long term prospects of the hive.

Hives are also socially responsible organisations. When pollinating, they replenish the nectar they extract. When harvesting they don’t take all the pollen or nectar from flowers because plants recover faster when they are not completely depleted.

It would appear that everything bees do is geared toward sustaining personal well being and in doing so, the ongoing life of the hive; this is the ethos we strive to achieve at Beehive Research . The Wisdom of Bees is an interesting and entertaining guide for any manager looking to get the most out of his or her organisation . To find out more click here http://www.thewisdomofbees.com/

 

Add value and thought leadership

15th September, 2010 - Posted by Tom Raybould - No Comments

From conversations we have had recently with numerous insight managers, add-value and thought leadership is not a service that all clients are receiving across the board, which is a pity.

Only last week in one meeting we heard from one prospect that an incumbent agency was considered ‘complacent’ but they hadn’t actually been told that. In another there was serious doubt as to whether the account director who had been wheeled in at the start had even been involved in their project.

In a recent Research Magazine article by Steve Gatt, Economic and Insight Manager at Volkswagen Group, complained that most of the research he sees is ‘not up to scratch’ http://www.research-live.com/multimedia/video/volkswagens-insight-boss-on-inadequate-research/4003273.article, that reports are too long and don’t deliver. The article is interesting, as are the comments afterwards; there is certainly an argument that many agencies aren’t delivering, as borne out by the conversations we highlighted earlier, but clients do need to shoulder some responsibility too, only too often briefs are vague and ill conceived.

Perhaps being a smaller research consultancy with senior staff helps us to be more focused on adding value and it is encouraging that the ethos that we set out on day 1 at Beehive is not always shared by some agencies we compete against. Certainly some of the comments in lieu of Steve’s article suggest that smaller boutique agencies should be considered more because of the add value they can bring and this certainly rings true with many organizations we have spoken with.

Maybe the current macro economic climate is a good thing for clients and agencies alike and will force the industry to deliver added value to our customers’ and make everyone take a more strategic approach. We strongly believe the industry as a whole should be striving even harder to go that extra mile, to over deliver not under deliver and that by understanding our clients and prospects better will help us to deliver:

• A more strategic approach – one where our solutions meet with the wider context of business objectives and research requirements
• Creativity in our research solutions
• A pro-active service where Account Directors remain involved and keep clients fully informed – sounds simple but not always done
• Better advise on mitigation of risks before they arise – and not being scared to raise them at proposal stage in case it puts the client off
• Solutions that are what a client needs and not what we want to sell them
• Forward thinking and innovative methods that are selectively used to enhance the recipe

What is good today may not be good enough tomorrow and perhaps we should just strive for excellent today, that way tomorrow has to be excellent too.

It’s certainly an ethos we will continue to strive for, but we also believe clients need to take responsibility more and reward agencies that go the extra mile.

 

Custom panel or ORC – managed in-house or fully outsourced?

13th July, 2010 - Posted by Paul Kavanagh - No Comments

There is plenty of debate over which is more appropriate a custom panel or an online research community (ORC), and the choice of one or other of these is very specific to an organisations business and research requirements and there are certainly merits for both.

This in isolation though is just one of the decisions an organisation has to make when considering the value a custom panel or ORC can bring to its business. One of the lesser discussed topics and one that can cause far more issues is whether the panel or ORC should be managed in-house or fully outsourced.

The benefits of management of any project in-house are that it gives the organisation greater control, means that cost becomes an internal one rather than external and enables the organisation to set its own agenda, processes and usage.

However the arguments for a fully outsourced solution are equally compelling, especially when considering a custom panel or ORC. The first is the benefit of wider experience and skills that an external organisation can provide. Many organisations are not able to recruit a specialist with relevant experience and more often than not will put “someone in the deep end” and leave them to make their own learning and mistakes.

In addition, managing a custom panel or ORC requires more than one skill set, for example a technical person to build and develop the solution; a campaign / project manager to build and manage the research studies or moderate the forum; a researcher to provide research know how and derived insight; a data processing specialist to manipulate data and manage CRM feeds; a compliance manager knowledgeable about Data Protection, MRS guidelines, Gaming and Prize Draw law;  an overall manager to give it direction and drive value into the business.

The issue for the organisation is whether to spread these requirements across a group of individuals, often not in the same team or division and with other duties to perform or to incur the cost of recruiting a specialist team which adds to overall cost. The advantage of the outsourced custom panel or approach is that all of these key skills are available on an “as needed” basis allowing an organisation to benefit from specialist knowledge as and when required and cutting internal salary and associated infrastructure costs.

Resource is a key factor and at a time when most organisations have recruitment freezes or policies for staff replacement only, the outsourced argument can look very favourable.

Outsourcing of a custom panel or ORC also provides the organisation greater flexibility in usage, is far more scalable and there is less of an issue when key staff are on leave or ill.

So are in-house or fully managed solutions the only options or are there any alternatives? One option is the “hybrid” management solution where certain key skills are retained in-house but the organisation works closely with a partner in a partially/shared managed custom panel or ORC. This approach has many of the benefits of the fully outsourced solution but also enables the organisation to utilise existing internal resource. Teamwork, definition of roles and responsibilities and a good working relationship are essential in such an approach but with trust and careful management can be an extremely effective option.

So the decision is not only a custom panel or an ORC, but also how it is managed.

We would be interested to hear your views on these issues and any key successes/challenges that you have experienced.

 

Research Community – benefits

9th June, 2010 - Posted by Paul Kavanagh - No Comments

A research community is a different proposition to a research panel and harnesses some of the newer tools that have evolved as peoples use of the Internet has changed; it offers an organisation a completely different  way of communicating and gathering feedback from customers and prospects. Many predict that it will be the way research will be carried out in the future. Certainly there are many benefits in creating one however, like the more traditional research panel care must be taken in its design and development if it is to yield a true return on investment.

Co-creation
The most significant benefit of a research community is its ability to enable community members to interact and communicate on specific subjects between each other; instead of just having a one way dialogue with the researcher they are able to discuss, collaborate, and coerce with others. This organic growth of conversation, similar to that seen in a focus group though on a wider scale, can take your research in directions that you never expected and reveal insight that would be harder to extract from traditional methods. With the careful moderation and administration this can deliver wider opportunities and information.

Continuous Feedback
Research community feedback is more continuous; the cycle of feedback is not restricted to when you want to ask a question but rather when a community member wants to be involved. This means a subject can remain open for a longer period of time enabling the conversation to evolve.  Multiple discussion strands allow many conversations to be going on at any one time enabling feedback on the same subject but looking at it from different angles. The continuous feedback enables your customers to tell you what they want to buy, how they think improvements can be made or products they would like to see without direct questioning; all you need to do is listen (and steer).

Word of mouth
Word of mouth is rapidly becoming a strong influencing factor when it comes to people investing in a brand. Some people don’t trust the word of corporations and are blind to the glossy advertisements on TV or in print preferring instead to follow the advice of their peers; having champions of your brand within these circles give you a voice where otherwise you might not be heard.

Loyalty
As a company, being seen to deal with any detractors or negative views about your brand swiftly and effectively can actually turn a potential pinch point into a demonstration of how well you treat your customers. Whatever the touch point with your organisation customers like to feel involved and listened to; the more positive a community member feels the more investment they have with your brand and, as has been clearly shown in many situations before, loyalty and their keenness to spread the good word of your company are linked. Thus a research community can influence behaviour and the way a member engages within their own social circle and how they champion your brand.

Research Benefits
As a versatile research platform a community can be linked to other survey methodologies enabling you to quantify ideas that are extracted from discussions. It can also spark new areas of research that previously may have been ignored or simply overlooked and enables a business to follow customer thoughts and really listen to customers rather than trying to steer them.

As with all research methodologies though there are pros and cons and like a research panel unless the right foundations are put in place in your community and the objectives fully understood before creating one it may not deliver its full return on investment.

Further information on foundations that underpin a research panel or community can be found at www.beehiveresearch.co.uk/members.

 

Research Panel – benefits

20th May, 2010 - Posted by Tom Raybould - No Comments

As business decisions become more and more significant, a company can live or die by misjudging its market. Does anyone remember when there was a Woolworths on every high street? The pervasive nature of the internet and tightening of budgets means there has never been a better time to set up an online Research Panel and tap into customer insight via the internet.

Engage your customers
By setting up a panel you can create engagement with your customers, giving them a voice in the development of your company and increasing their loyalty to your brand. Many customers are happy and willing to give feedback and like to know that their views are making a difference. Engaging with them in the online space allows you to make use of all the exciting multimedia tools available to improve participation and increase your response rates.

Engage your business
Your research panel can make research more readily available to departments and encourages them to further learn from customers before making decisions. Also if the right hand is aware of what the left hand is doing they can work together to achieve common goals and this can encourage synergy between departments. With the cost efficient element of online research already taken into account a reduction in duplicated tasks will also save your company money.

Ensure productivity
Online research allows for more rapid turnaround of projects and having your own research panel only expedites this. The panel becomes an enabler and reduces timescales meaning the business is able to accelerate the research schedule and make more timely decisions.

Research benefits
Other than time savings there are also significant cost benefits in having your own panel (and these can easily amount to 30 to 50% over a year) which means your budget can be stretched further and you can in fact conduct more research. With a carefully managed research panel you can ensure that your base remains representative of your customer base, the UK population or some other pre-defined profile, giving you the confidence that any results or insight you derive will be robust. Being able to fuse panelist profile information, Recency/Frequency/Monetary data (RFM) data or a bespoke or commercially available segmentation system makes owning your own panel a very compelling proposition. Research is also not limited to just quantitative data, your panel can be used as a pool for qualitative discussion or for use in other methodologies, like telephone or mobile surveys.

Learn more about Benefits of a custom research panel

 

Is polling and election research better, more engaging and more robust?

14th May, 2010 - Posted by Tom Raybould - No Comments

The wait is over, the dust has settled and the UK General Election has drawn to a close. It has been a fascinating process on many levels and of very much so for the research industry; the daily polls tracking the ever changing mood of the population and quantifying public opinion into easily understandable, and on occasion headline grabbing, numbers; the political debates where the “worm of sentiment” showed clearly that what the politician said had significant impact on instant opinion; the analysis of marginal seats and the likely swings; and that exit poll, which early on raised a lot of eyebrows as commentators pondered the accuracy of the findings but in the fullness of time became clear just how close to the mark they really were.

An event like the general election epitomises the requirement for robust, insightful, relevant and rapid research in landscape that is constantly changing. It was therefore fascinating to see the ever changing pre-election polls and heartening to see the art of research during election night being applied in such a varied and engaging way. Yes the pre-election polls did get the final result wrong but were they wrong or were they actually monitoring the pulse of a nation that was so undecided. For my money it was the latter as you only had to see how the political debates impacted the mood of the nation to see the results change. Are pre-election polls a good barometer of what’s actually going to happen, perhaps not, but is that what they are really measuring? I say hats off to all the researchers involved, it was great to see not only data being presented in an interesting way, but also how research is able to deliver meaningful and understandable insight.

As researchers we can all learn from this election; we should continually strive to find more interesting ways of presenting data, to understand customer sentiment better and deliver insight to our clients in a way that really shows the ROI of good research. I still think we shouyld say well done the researchers involved and the UK research industry.

 

Firm foundations at the heart of any research panel

6th May, 2010 - Posted by Tom Raybould - No Comments

Recently I had the pleasure of listening to John Heffernan discussing MediaCo’s approach to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). The overriding lesson I took from his presentation was the importance of doing the basic things well. Ensuring the fundamentals are correct gives you a firm foundation to build a solid solution. It’s a simple premise but one that’s easily overlooked.

This principle stretches beyond the SEO work I am currently doing on our website and applies also to the research panels that we build. It’s easy to get distracted by the bells and whistles, the shiny new features or the newest technology, however without the fundamentals underpinning your research panel or community, the integrity of any of your research or feedback could be flawed.

For example focussing your budget on the appearance of a web portal such as a gimmicky flash animation at the expense of the basic cornerstones that underpin a quality research panel or community may be unwise. Likewise a failure to collect the right information on panellists could compromise bespoke segmentation systems and undermine the effectiveness of monitoring representation.

Jimi Hendrix once sang “And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually”. If your research panel is not solidly built on firm foundations it will fall apart when it comes under serious scrutiny. Without robust data any further interrogation could cause any research inferences you make to crumble as the shortcomings of its foundations are highlighted.

We really believe that foundations are fundamental and should be at the heart of any research panel or community otherwise budgets are being wasted. Why not refer to our 7 Key Principles of Best Practice Custom Panel Management.