Cooks share recipes freely; and computer scientists design open-source software to be widely distributed. The open sharing of this content does not preclude a commercial model for either.
Open Content research is similar. Historically, the selling of research has been a small revenue stream for the more traditional analyst companies. Each are frozen in these more traditional models. A new analyst firm, like Supply Chain Insights, does not have these handcuffs. We are free to test new models and push the boundaries. We are having fun. Today, we published our 14th report in eight months.
Research is at the center of our model. Our studies are a combination of qualitative interviews, quantitative studies and analysis of supply chain ratios from financial balance sheets. We are having fun mining supply chain ratio data and getting input from supply chain leaders. We are attempting to combine the three sources of data to better understand the “so what” and “who cares” of supply chain excellence. Each day we make more progress and we are excited to share. We are committed to helping the larger community of supply chain professionals improve resiliency, agility and reliability. We strongly feel that supply chain processes are evolving. There is so much to learn.
When research is shared and distributed freely, it becomes marketing for an analyst firm to drive revenue for speaking engagements, webinars, advisory sessions, strategy days and custom research projects. With the evolution of social media, this becomes more possible, lowering the barriers to entry to start a new research firm.
So far so good. Each day, we check our readership statistics and smile when we see the numbers climbing. Nothing makes us happier than to sit in an audience and see someone use our materials. When we say that the research is designed to shared freely, we mean it. We love nothing better than to see it used. We thank you for your support.
How can you help? You help us and we’ll help you. If you fill out our open surveys, we will be glad to share the results. And if you have a research idea, let us know by entering the project on our Supply Chain Insights Community.