Information Resources Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Good work life balance.
Eventually get the opportunity to work on some top CPG companies.
Learn nearly everything about market research and decide your career path.
Technology department thinks big and works to push out cutting edge solutions/software.

Cons

Salaries are relatively low which is a trade for work/life balance.
Roles can be tedious if you don't have support staff (GOC/India or Service level help)

Advice to Senior Management

Management already knows they need to focus on perfecting the latest technology (ILD/Advantage solutions).
Stop dishing out high salaries to outsiders who have "consulting" experience and focus on developing your existing talent.
Eliminate sales force redundancy. There's no reason to have four dogs fighting over one bone.

Pros

Some of the most creative analytical people work here. A sincere attempt was made to help people balance work and home life.

Cons

IT organization was completely outsourced to India and eventually the company was sold to a multi-national from India. What is left is just their sales force. All reporting, database information and tracking resides overseas.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Location, IRI has a great location near west loop that is easy to access. The building on Clinton is a restored building makes it a a nice setting to work in.

Cons

Not focused on the big picture and building lasting relationships with customers for years to come, by outsourcing support and engineering IRI are allowing someone else to take care of their customer.

Pros

SymphonyIRI has a fast paced culture with opporutnities to learn. The people who work here are bright and can be considered industry experts.

Cons

At SymphonyIRI, different areas of the company don't communicate well. It would be nice for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing.

Advice to Senior Management

I would advise the leadership team to communicate better with each other, which will influence their staff, encouraging them to work better together.

Pros

The experience and category knowledge of their employees are their greatest asset.
Salaries are comparable to those within the industry

Cons

Management does not have any focus.
Goal of company is to outsource all positions in the Chicago office.
Massive layoffs have resulted in a staff that is no longer engaged.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on improving content quality. If the basics are bad the greatest add ons will not be able to improve them.

Pros

Working at IRI provides you exposure to many great clients and provides a great opportunity to build a career in the CPG industry.

Cons

Lack of effective IRI related, professional and industry training. Professional growth and value of employees and retaining employees doesn't reflect as a priority. Work/life balance is also not something that is seen as important in the corporate culture.

Advice to Senior Management

Make employees more of a focus as they are the life blood of our business. There are many qualified and amazing individuals that are truly not valued more by our clients than various levels of our management at IRI.

Pros

There are some great people there and there are very few places where you will get a better foundation in syndicated research experience. Some departments let you work from home but Client Service usually requires some if not all time is spent at the client.

Cons

IRI lives by client facing revenue and is moving to a consulting model. If you do not fit that model, you will not be on the fast track.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in training.

Pros

The remaining people at the company are their biggest asset.
Compensation/Benefits are comparable to others in this Recession.

Cons

No chance for advancement.
Experienced/Long term employees are being laid off to bring in new "cheaper" help.
Management has no vision.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees need to be re-engaged and empowered. Clients are noticing the continued decline in the company performance.

Pros

Great opportunity to work with leading CPG companies
You learn how to analyze data and make recommendations

Cons

Lack of constancy of purpose
Very political, you have to have a champion or you're out in the next layoff
Management wants to charge Accenture/BCG rates for people who have neither the training nor the knowledge management resources to perform at that level

Advice to Senior Management

Build a knowledge management system that ensures information sharing across the company; the company doesn't know what it knows

Pros

location - Chicago loop
opportunity to work with top CPG manufacturers
opportunity to impact client business decisions
opportunity to learn from colleagues who have been in the industry for 10+ years

Cons

little or no mentoring
continued layoffs and merit increase/401k match freezes despite strong company performance
little concern for work/life balance and stress management (on some teams)
much work is outsourced to India, but they are not trained properly, and retention is a huge issue

Advice to Senior Management

More emphasis on career development
Improve GOC training which should lead to higher quality deliverables and better retention