Datamonitor Reviews

Pros

diverse responsibilities, growth focus and fun environment

Cons

growth was perhaps to fast as structure was challenged

Advice to Senior Management

focus on management structure to allow for growth

Pros

Gives junior people a start
Learn hard-nosed selling
Reasonable flexibility if you survive
Potential to be exposed to a decent range of disciplines
Some good pockets of business (usually under different brands)

Cons

Poor brand
Below-average compensation
Not best quality products
Had tons of restructuring; never steady ground
No infrastructure (though improving under Informa)
Too chaotic and uncommitted to any real growth strategy
Kind of a long list really..

Advice to Senior Management

Eliminate as much as possible from the apparatus that used to be Datamonitor. Just call it Informa and get on with it. Datamonitor was a cash-generating machine that was designed to be acquired, makes it founder wealth, and then should have been gutted.

Pros

Quality global company providing market research.

Cons

Global research products are lacking for the United States very Euro focused which makes it difficult to sell research products in the US. There are other market research companies that provide US based research that buries DM.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit sending up trial balloons in the US by hire and fire employees on a whim.

Pros

Good opportunities for young people looking for a break

Cons

The same middle managers with a history of failure are repeatedly given new positions, allowed to destroy the brands/businesses they work with and then rewarded witha a new business to play with.

The senior managers are utterly uninspiring and have no idea what is going on. They are content to sit around allowing those below them to do a mediocre job and concentrate on building up their own little empires.

For all its faults, Datamonitor used to be entrepenurial and aggressive. Now it is overly corporate and there is no innovation or understanding of how markets and customer needs are evolving. All the decisions are made top down, by bureaucrats, networkers and administrators with absolutely no understanding of the real needs of the business.

Advice to Senior Management

Start talking to the analysts and sales people on the front line and encourage them to be honest about the state of the company. Remove the systems, processes and bureucracy that are inhibiting them and allow them to get on with their jobs and provide what people really want.

Remove the same old middle managers that have achieved nothing and give more responsibilty to people who understand their businesses.

Pros

Very talented staff; great place to start your career.

Cons

horrible senior management who do not communication changes and have no clue about business strategy

Advice to Senior Management

Stop assuming that you know how to do everything better than we do.

Pros

The Management consulting (healthcare) group is small enough to gain a lot of experience and knowledge while still large enough to benefit from its size.

Cons

The only downside is the below average salary and low-tech kit. The company could also use with re-branding. Their slide deck templates could use some improvement.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be smart to increase pay and grow into health economics consulting as well. It would also be avante guarde to use propriety software.

Pros

The people and culture is what makes the working environment fun.

Cons

Senior management before the Informa Acquisition and after dont care about employees and personal development.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop training and a career path for employees. And realize its the people that make the company run.

Pros

Datamonitor is home to some very bright people, it also produces some pretty good content. While the sales environment is high pressure, it is a great place to learn and to develop, provided you are a self-starter.

Cons

The problems with Datamonitor begin and end with the senior management, and by senior I mean those who in essence run the company through the Informa/IBI management board, and the level just below them. The large majority of these individuals are pretty talentless and have only got to where they are through their sycophantic and fawning attitudes to those higher up. It's a real cabal! That would be fine in itself if they left everyone else to get on with the job, but they don't. The level of interference, constant reorganisation and management 'strategising' is only outweighed by the sheer incompetence of the decisions that are made. If they listened more and pontificated and dictated less, they might get somewhere.

Unfortunately, things only seem to be getting worse. Informa, the parent company of Datamonitor, are not a great firm to work for. The care only about the 'corporate image' they present to investors and very little for their staff.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen, actually get to know people, understand the businesses you are running. Above all, don't assume you know better than everyone on the ground: you don't.

Pros

In the past the special ingredients were the people, the push to continually improve the product and the drive to be the best in the world.

Cons

Lacking global cohesion and discipline

Advice to Senior Management

Give a reason for staff to believe in the brand again to stand out from the crowd and give people a reason to want to stay.

Pros

the company is a good paymaster
flexible approach to work including work from home
understanding management. good hr. can get support in need.

Cons

uncertain roles
the annual salary hikes is low compared to other companies. gratuity is also low.
will be in a research profile forever...

Advice to Senior Management

good company. just increase annual hikes.