QuMind sells a market research platform which provides consumer feedback to decision-makers quickly. It was founded in 1999 by the company’s CEO, Mark Ursell. He told Intelligent CXO about how the company’s offering has changed since it first started to meet the demand for faster consumer insights.
Tell us a bit more about your business and how it started.
Prior to the emergence of the Internet, market research had always mainly been conducted over the phone or face to face, which by its very nature was a slow and laborious process. But in the late 90s when the Internet was emerging, I recognised that the industry could be transformed by creating pre-recruited panels for online surveys that would get customer insights to decision-makers within organisations much more quickly.
Drawing on my years of experience working at Kantar, one of the largest market research agencies in the world, I saw this revolution in the industry start to take hold. I always had ambitions to be an entrepreneur, and this gave me the reason to launch QuMind in 1999 – literally starting off by working on a laptop in my kitchen.
Organisational decisions for marketing or product innovations, as just two examples, had always taken an age to get consumer feedback due to these traditional methods. This led organisations to often ignore consumer feedback and needs, basing decisions on the gut feel of senior leaders within a business. This narrow scope led to a high percentage of product failures and campaigns that were unable to deliver on objectives. The idea that you could get consumer feedback, almost in real-time to ideas, concepts and marketing material was the backbone of why I built QuMind to solve this critical business issue.
How has the business grown since it started and how did you ensure growth?
We started building platforms for social communities, online surveys and focus groups using our own technology from 2001, so we were able to turnaround projects quickly and easily and had complete control over the delivery process. One of our very first clients was Sainsbury’s, where we built a customer community from scratch for the company in 2002. We were one of the pioneers in creating client-specific customer panels and communities so that brands, such as Sainsbury’s could be even more in tune with the needs and changing habits of their customers and use this to make the right decisions.
Six years ago, we started selling an ‘always on’ platform directly to clients which has worked really well as the demand for faster consumer insights has only increased and is now a core part of decision-making in consumer-facing businesses.
So, gradually we’ve changed from being a full-service agency to a research technology business and now predominantly sell our platform with support rather than managing the whole process, so the business has changed quite radically since we started out. The original principle of QuMind still exists though – ensuring consumer feedback gets to decision-makers quickly and enabling them to get closer to their customers on a more frequent basis. Customers minds are always changing, and corporates now have the tools to enable consumer insight to drive most, if not all business decisions. In essence this is customer closeness.
What’s the business’ approach to management?
We have a senior leadership team who work very collaboratively, even though we all have distinct areas of focus within the business. This includes our Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Managing Director of Client Services, and I handle marketing and sales functions in my role as CEO. We all agree on the vision, purpose and goals of QuMind and take ownership of delivering against this across our respective areas of leadership. Our overall business plan goes hand in hand with our pillars for growth, which helps our senior leadership team understand how their role fits into the wider goals of QuMind.
What is your company’s vision and goal?
I’d describe QuMind’s main goal as enabling corporates to get closer to customers to spark opportunity and understand the human being behind the customer. That is what we set out to do when we first started 23 years ago. Our vision has never changed, we are now just articulating it in a more obvious way through our insights platform.
What kind of clients and market do you serve?
Many of our clients have businesses in consumer-facing industries such as fast-moving consumer goods, utilities and media. These industries have always relied quite heavily on insights as they are competitive spaces where understanding how they fit into consumer lifestyles is critical to drive sales and growth.
We never have expectations of what type of client or market we serve because industries are always changing, as well as their awareness of the benefits that consumer insights can bring to their business. For example, the adoption of insights has traditionally lagged behind in the B2B space but is rapidly growing. Also, as online surveys become much more sophisticated, there has been an uptake in the use of insights platforms in the employee engagement space and among higher education too.
What has your career looked like so far?
At the start of my career, I worked in a sales role for two years, but quickly realised that it wasn’t something that I wanted to do in the long-term. At the time, I was taking evening classes in marketing at the University of Westminster, and I happened to be studying with someone who worked at Kantar. He was moving on to a new role and needed a replacement, and asked if I would be interested, which I was and I joined Kantar shortly after. So, I would say I ‘fell into’ market research! Prior to joining Kantar, I didn’t know much about market research but the data analysis elements, the ability to build relationships with clients and the fact that it is a relatively stable industry all ticked the boxes of what I was looking for in a long-term career. I spent several years at Kantar, before moving on to launching QuMind.
How do you equip your staff with skills and knowledge?
Our pillars for growth align with career development so that all employees are empowered in our vision, purpose and goals as a company – essentially ensuring everyone is travelling in the same direction. At a personal level, we nurture talent in their current roles and outline what skills are needed to get to the next stage of their career. We provide formal training but also see real value in learning on the job, so a huge chunk of our approach to upskilling staff is in the day-to-day responsibilities of the role itself by providing continuous feedback.
How do you work with other executives within the C-suite to make sure your voice is heard?
Our senior leadership team meets monthly to discuss wider company goals, but also know that it’s important for us to communicate frequently. We have a weekly meeting that is used for checking in on objectives and sharing ideas on how to improve QuMind. Yes, it is important that my voice is heard, but it is equally important to bounce ideas of one another and create a business that encourages open communication.
How do you ensure different teams in your organisation work together?
Like most businesses, we use messaging apps like Slack, to keep everyone in the loop. On a Monday morning, we have an all company meeting to catch-up with each other and set out priorities for the week, so we all have a sense of what each member of staff has planned for the days ahead. It’s important to recognise the hard work of all our staff, so at the end of the week we have a shout-out, where each employee highlights the great work of another. It’s just a great way of showing the power of collaboration, and how we can all work together to grow QuMind and create better outcomes for our business and our customers.
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