The Institute for Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR), specifically David Rossiter who has many links to those who have written on this subject.

He points out some indiscretions here:

• the UK company that publishes a company profile - but gives no indication that the piece was commissioned by the vendor (and for which the vendor was effectively given copy approval)
• the analyst that writes blog posts promoting a project that his consultancy is involved in - without disclosing his connection
• the division of a large group that prioritises briefings based on the likelihood of selling reprints of the resulting company profile
• the analysts that use a briefing as an opportunity to pitch their own services
• the global company that says its analysts are more likely to recommend vendor clients to prospective buyers (because the analysts know clients better than those that are non-clients)
• the vertical firm that refuses to take briefings with non-clients because it’s so busy doing consulting work it can only handle briefing requests from clients
• and what about this experience highlighted by the corporate AR team at HP?

I’ve worked in the A/R field for a few years now, so I’ve seen some of these pop up, and in some cases had to deal with it. One must always be wary if there is money on the table to keep independence in the forefront. Conversely, if there wasn’t money on the table, the analyst wouldn’t be able to stay in business, so it’s a bit of a dichotomy.

My .02
For the record, there are those on the vendor side who also take advantage of the relationship also. Like calling a consulting a briefing to get out of paying. Trying to get something for nothing, also done but should be. That swims in the pool of un-ethics (sic) also.

What about when the analyst firm comes calling?

Here’s the first clue, the account representative is on the call or initiates it. You know there is a fee or it is a paid study. That should be a clue that money is on the table and you can’t be surprised when it comes up. I’m not knocking the Account Reps. Heck, in a way, I’m the analogous person from the vendor at times. They help me get a lot of work done, but when they are there, money is on the table.

What is the A/R responsibility?

Well, it isn’t that tough to know how much you have for a budget, what’s the priority for your company or group, and what you can or can not do. What if it’s in that nebulous area or the HP example ?.  That was underhanded.  The Aberdeen example is shady, but it was paid.

You better have a good working relationship with the analyst firm to know when you are about to be asked for money, or know that you are not on good terms….. or your product is suspect and will be called out. Then you have to know how to defend and deflect.

On non paid reports, can you be caught blindsided? Yes, in fact we had a recent report published that we weren’t sent a draft for fact checking, to our detriment. We met after it was published to correct the facts and to make sure that it didn’t happen in the future, but sometimes it does slip through the cracks.

You can work through the issues of the big groups who feel the opportunity to sell is greater with another company. Yes I work for a big company, but I (l)earned my lessons at a small firm when IBM was the competition, and was the big dog during the mainframe and very early PC days. To be successful and weed through the process, you have to have a compelling reason to talk, pick and choose your openings, not be willing to settle for the brush off and don’t lie. When you promise the universe and deliver a pebble, your cover is blown as are your chances of a next briefing.

So I’m not excusing the behavior of the above listed offenses, but there are ways of dealing with it, like looking out for and beware of what the situation is before it happens.

For the most part, almost all of my dealings to the 99th percentile are ethical and even enjoyable. There are always a few bad apples, but it doesn’t spoil the whole bunch.

At least in the realm of this discussion, nothing is as bad as this.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 9:51 am and is filed under Analyst Relations, analyst. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.