Research is all about connecting lots and lots of little dots to find the answer.

People in business are often looking for granular information, which isn’t obvious or easy to find, to help to support or challenge their business ideas, strategies, or proposals.

They know that the internet is great for finding mountains of information, but difficult when looking for grains of information.

Business and industry researchers excel at finding granular information.

One of the highlights of the recent AIIP Conference held in Denver, CO was taking part in a collaborative workshop on industry research, led by Jan Davis from Blue Sage Research, and attended by experienced industry researchers from around the world.

Using the framework of Porter’s five industry forces as a model for researching and presenting industry research findings, Jan led a discussion on:

• the range of industry sources available for industry research
• how the industry research sources present their research findings
• the strengths and shortcomings of the various industry and company information sources
• roadblocks industry researchers encounter finding good, reliable comparative information
• ideas for presenting key insights uncovered using Porter’s 5 forces as a framework, together with other relevant analysis tools.

While sources, industries and countries of focus differed for the workshop attendees, what all of the industry researchers in the room had in common was a:

• deep understanding of a wide range of information sources
• healthy skepticism, combined with effective approaches to quickly assess, and verify company and industry information
• curiosity to constantly seek new information sources, coupled with an effective approach to know when to stop looking.

This industry knowledge combined with research skills help industry researchers to find granular information, and connect the dots.