MRS launches new framework for businesses: Intelligence Capital™
21 March 2019

Today at the London Stock Exchange, MRS launches a new report to help businesses find growth in a world of constrained opportunities, disruptive forces and turbulent markets – The Responsive Business: Creating growth and value through Intelligence Capital. 

The full report, developed in partnership with Kantar, is available to download here.

Based on consultation with MRS members and the MRS Senior Client Council, and building on Kantar research, the report recommends a framework that puts research, insight and data analytics at the heart of business strategy and makes the case for investment in the function now.  

In a fast-moving world, companies need to evolve faster than their customer bases and Intelligence Capital^TM enables this responsiveness – allowing businesses to harness what they already know and use it to drive business growth.

MRS is the world’s oldest research association and launches this UK-led initiative in the world’s research capital. The UK is the largest supplier of market and social research in the EU, accounting for 43.2 per cent of total output – more than Germany and France combined. 

Jane Frost CBE, chief executive of MRS, comments: “Financial and human capital have long been the cornerstones of business growth strategies. But just because insight is more difficult to measure, it doesn’t mean it is less important. In fact, in our world of ever-advancing technologies, research, insight and data analytics should be centre stage as they hold the key to untapped assets and long-term growth.

“This report is a tool for businesses, providing a framework for how they can adapt and utilise what they already have – what they know about their customers and the business environment – and use it to differentiate themselves competitively.”

Julie Kollman, chief research officer at Kantar and co-author of the report, comments: “Intelligence Capital is the most important source of competitive advantage today. Small start-ups and disruptors succeed by exploiting undiscovered or unmet needs, not because they have greater financial assets.”

“The most valuable companies in the world today created their value through the strategic deployment of intelligence to adapt to their changing business environment better and earlier than anyone else. Those that have disappeared, simply didn’t understand what was happening around them until it was too late,” adds Andrew Curry, director at Kantar Consulting and co-author of the report.

Stan Sthanunathan, executive vice president of consumer & market insights at Unilever, comments: “A few years ago, when machines were driving growth, financial capital was incredibly important. Then, with the arrival of the internet, it became necessary to focus on human capital because people were powering that economy. Today we live in an era with an unprecedented amount of data – if we cannot figure out how to harness that data and create some intelligence out of it, we are in danger of getting left behind. That is why Intelligence Capital is mission critical.”

Unilever's Stan Stanunathan on Intelligence Capital and growth

Download the report 'The Responsive Business' here.

For media enquiries contact Harriet Crosby 
T: +44 (0) 207 636 7366
E: hcrosby@camargue.uk