News From July 2022
Dear TCF friends,
The Tony Cowling Foundation (TCF) was created in late 2020 to honour the legacy of the man who founded TNS and was so influential in the market-research industry and to the lives of many of us. The aim of the Foundation is to bring benefits to the industry and the people working in it, cultivating a better understanding of human behaviour that will also bring benefits to our global society.
We are now at the end of the first half of 2022, and we are very pleased to report progress on projects we are developing in the areas of Research, Education and Recognition.
Research
Cambridge Judge Business School Research Projects (CJBS)
Our first round of research funding began in 2021 and is supporting three exploratory projects looking at pricing dynamics, evolving food choices and design configurations in digital worlds. .
These projects will continue for 12-18 months and currently all of them are in testing stages. TCF funds are being used to buy equipment, fund students and access data sets. The funding means the research teams can adopt their preferred analytic and design techniques and progress testing their hypotheses more quickly.
Over the next month you’ll get a chance to hear about the projects from industry colleagues who will be in conversation with the project teams. The aim is to share thoughts on how industry and academics can mutually support one another and make better use of each other’s ideas and knowledge.
Our relationship with Cambridge Judge Business School is developing well and we are pleased to let you know we’re now looking for a new round of projects to support. We’ll have news on that at the start of the next academic year.
Recognition
Industry Innovation Award - Tony Cowling Foundation & ESOMAR
In March we put out a call for entries to our inaugural Industry Innovation Award In collaboration with ESOMAR we are looking to find ideas that could make a difference to the vitality of the industry if they were more widely adopted. We were thrilled to get entries from 5 out of 6 continents - we need to work harder to reach colleagues in South America next year!
We weren’t looking for moonshot ideas, though we were delighted to get a couple of those. We were looking for ideas that could work anywhere in the world and immediately make a difference. We achieved this goal across a wide range of subjects from analytic platforms to hard to reach samples and from new approaches to old topics to old approaches adapted to new challenges. And many more.
A panel of 5 judges, chaired by our colleague Judith Passingham, reviewed all the entries and had a series of conversations with potential winners. We believed we would find passion and ingenuity, and these conversations gave us huge confidence that the industry will continue to contribute to some of the biggest challenges governments and businesses face today. We look forward to sharing some of the ideas with you throughout the rest of the year and welcoming the entrants to collaborate in future TCF activities.
The winner will be announced early in August and will also present their winning idea at the ESOMAR Congress in Toronto in September. We’ll have a special update dedicated to them.
Education
Future Leaders Programme - Tony Cowling Foundation & 4Twenty2
In founding TNS Tony placed education high on the list of priorities, ensuring that opportunities for promising researchers to develop their talents were always accessible. Following his lead, the TCF has teamed up with 4Twenty2, a well-established market-research training provider. Together we have created a programme focussed on developing the next generation of leaders within the market research sector. In particular, we are aiming to support small and medium sized agencies by co-creating an affordable leadership development programme that encourages sponsorship of delegates by senior staff and provides insights and quality often available only to agencies with substantial L&D budgets.
We were delighted by the positive response to our consultative survey with the industry and as a result, TCF will be launching a pilot programme later this year to include modules in leading teams, optimising profit, strategic client engagement and managing change. In short, how to think like a leader. 2023 will see a wider roll out of this lively and highly motivating customised programme.
We would like to thank everyone who is supporting the Foundation from our partners CJBS, ESOMAR and 4Twenty2, to market-research professionals and colleagues supporting the various projects, participants in the research projects and the Innovation Award. Thanks especially to our donors who have made this possible, and the entire community around the Foundation.
The Tony Cowling Foundation Team
Interested in learning more about the Foundation and its work? Visit our info pages where you can also support our activities with a donation or you can donate directly below.