DHL Presentation
Transcript: Our Interviewers are educated, highly articulate and easily engage with their research subject. They have the maturity, experience and life skills to hold credible peer-to-peer conversations with senior business professionals acting as excellent ambassadors on behalf of our research partners. We recruit interviewers with previous research experience and all applicants are interviewed and tested prior to being selected for full ISO20252 and IQCS (Interviewer Quality Control Scheme) accredited training. Quality Assurance In order to ensure we have measurable results across markets it’s important that we are confident that all the questions are being asked in the same way in each. An integral part of our Quality Assurance process is a thorough check of the English language questionnaire prior to translation by qualified linguists. This helps remove any semantic ambiguities, thereby ensuring that all translations closely follow the original meanings and intentions of the research brief. The respondents we targeted were people responsible for running family businesses. To qualify for inclusion in the research, the business needs to have a turnover of between US$5m – US$500m and the business needed to be ‘family owned’, defined as follows: • The majority of votes are held by the person who established or acquired the firm (or their spouses, parents, child or child’s direct heirs); • At least one representative of the family is involved in the management or administration of the company; • In the case of a listed company, the person who established or acquired the firm (or their families) possesses 25% of the right to vote through their share capital and there is at least one family member on the board of the company. We conducted 1951 overall across 28 countries using 16 languages. We completed 177 interviews in North America; 977 in Western Europe; 179 in Eastern Europe incl. Turkey; 164 in Middle East & Africa; 150 in Latin America and 304 in Asia Pacific. Languages used were English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Korean, traditional and simplified Mandarin. 70% of the completed interviews came from companies with a turnover of $5 to $100 and 30% from $100 plus million. 32% of the interviews were in the Manufacturing industry, 13% Wholesales, 10% Retail, 9% Construction, 6% Business Activity, 6% Automotive & Repairs, the remaining 14% split in all other sectors. The average interview length was 30 minutes. Global Ultimates were defined as headquarters of global companies. The aim here was to target the largest in each market as follows: In the countries outside Europe, our primary targets were Global Ultimates with a revenue of at least US$1 billion and with affiliates / subsidiaries on at least two other continents. Once we exhausted the sample of companies with revenue over US$1 billion, we moved down to the next largest. In the European countries, our primary targets were Global Ultimates with revenue of at least US$1 billion and with affiliates / subsidiaries in at least 5 other countries. Again, once we exhausted the sample of companies with revenue over US$1 billion, we moved down to the next turnover band. Where we were interviewing subsidiaries, we did not impose any revenue threshold to qualify for the interview, but prioritised companies with a turnover of $250 million or more. Questionnaire Interviewers utilise social media such as LinkedIn to research profiles, key facts and vocabulary to help demonstrate synergy with respondents How we helped PwC create value through the process On-going trouble shooting We ensure that the questionnaire is logically structured to assist the interviewer in identifying the target respondent and takes the respondent through the questions in a logical way Where possible a letter on headed paper introducing the research is always a useful tool Our specialist team of professional interviewers is expert in conducting high profile research amongst C-Suites and Key Decision Makers within global multi-nationals, Key Account Customers, Leading Opinion Formers, Policy Makers, Academics, Brokers, Specialists and High Net Worth Individuals. 500 interviews in the Middle East & Africa Key markets: South Africa, Nigeria, UAE, Saudi Arabia 2010 3. The research generates a sample of people who PwC can contact for follow-up - 5 mins + Agile Thinking and Intelligent Interviewing Insight into differing cultural rating habits and attitudes to numeric responses – for example, in Northern Europe and North America respondents tend to give more conservative scores. In Southern Europe and Latin America respondents tend to be more generous with ratings. Ensure that the fieldwork period is sufficiently long to maximise the sample conversion rate The challenge with any research project which continues into the New Year is that, due to the December holidays you lose a certain degree of momentum. Willingness to be flexible