FYI, I’ve just blogged on the subject of Analyst Ethics over at the IIAR blog - http://iiar.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/ethics-and-independence-among-industry-analysts/

Cheers
David

Thanks for your great comments. Aberdeen will always be in the unfortunate position in that they have been found guilty once. if anything they will need to be more open, honest and refuse any form of ‘research’ that could question their integrity,

The survey was pretty much set and we could only contribute a couple of questions. Maybe we were naive, but we did not try to slant the questions to make us shine. Rather we were thinking about the data we would get that would cement the relationship with field sales. Alas, the experiment was not successful as we got nearly no leads from the effort. We did not revew, but felt it was a good learning experience.

BTW, Aberdeen changed its business model before Harte-Hank bought it. In 2003 the then investors removed the CEO/Founder and hired Jamie Benard. Jamie got rid of more than half of the analysts — those wedded to the old business model. He then hired some experienced analysts, including some of my former Gartner colleagues. Aberdeen then focused on fact-based research (facts!, what a novel concept)

Great thoughts. While industry analysts play an IMPORTANT role, and can be very helpful to companies (like mine), they’re not the final mark of authority, fact or outcome (which a few would like to think). They’re one of many forces and voices that inform and shape market perception and decision. As you point out, there’s a wide spectrum to their integrity. In the case of Aberdeen, I’ve received for years solicitations to help with white-paper writing. Personally, I have no problem with commissioned work, so long as there is complete transparency. But Aberdeen was a special case in how they sold the (”wink” objective benefits upfront. I never hired them ESPECIALLY that reason, but also because they never convinced me on the intellectual value-add beyond our existing talent and resources at the time.

At the end of the day, I think the long-term business models of all the analyst firms are being challenged. For one, similar to the news media (which you PR guys also deal with a lot) the individual analyst voices often are becoming more important and credible than the very firms they affiliate themselves with. This will foster an industry-analyst landscape with many more, smaller players and analyst brands. This is my experience having worked at one of the most prominent, trusted industry analyst firms, as well as being a client and a collaborator (joint research/analysis). Some of the top industry analysts are also close friends of mine, and I’ve talked with them about this trend.

Secondly, industry analysts’ share of voice has much more competition thanks to a lower barrier to publishing — ahem, BLOGS, for example! There are more voices of authority. A smart individual NOT affiliated with an analyst firm can offer analysis equally as valuable as an individual WITH an analyst firm, and the market will rate their public authority accordingly.

Thirdly, as alluded to above, the value of most syndicated analyst products on the publishing end (reports, databases and programming) are becoming diluted thanks to smart people who self-publish their work for free online. Additionally, digital aggregators like Google and manual ones like eMarketer are lowering the price threshold (in many cases to free) and forcing industry analyst firms to redefine their core value proposition and subsequent monetization.

It’s important to note the recent Web and technology boom, because it is masking the long-term challenges facing the subscription-publishing side of the analyst business, while also bolstering the events and custom-consulting gigs. I suppose the custom-consulting side will tend to grow more, while the publishing side will become more of a marketing value, or even turn ad-supported. How many industry analysts give away massive value simply by openly publishing (again, blogs) or participating on the public speaking circuit (where value tends to get archived openly)? To maintain awareness and perceived credibility, I believe industry analysts have no choice but to openly publish value — and increasingly so. To not be visible is to not matter.

But to compensate and move toward higher-margin custom-consulting revenue streams — and away from the syndicated — is to make one’s self more susceptible to the special interest of individual, cash-in-hand masters. As a result, the bar for transparency will rise in analyst firms’ attempt to maintain their public “objective authority” personas.

Indeed, it will be interesting to see what becomes of the industry-analyst industry.