Michael
David – Week 04 – Application Assignment - Interview
Founded in 2008, uSamp creates online survey software and recruits
panelists to complete online surveys. The data collected is furnished to market
research firms and organizations desiring target specific data on consumer
habits and demographics. uSamp employs 145 people in 5 locations
worldwide. Annual revenues in 2010 were
over $22 million. For more information, visit www.usamp.com.
Rodney Lazar
Mr. Lazar is the vice-president of finance for uSamp at the
corporate office located in Encino, California. Mr. Lazar holds an MBA from
Pepperdine University and prior to working at uSamp was a consultant with DLC,
Inc. His extensive financial resume has included roles as analyst,
vice-president and business development.
1.
In today’s business world, strategic alliances
can make or break an organization. In your personal opinion, can you give us
some of the advantages of building an alliance?
“It’s
cheaper to find partners that bring to uSamp, those resources that would too
costly to do in-house. We can’t re-create
what they have already place. From a
financial perspective it makes more sense to partner up with an entity that can
reduce the cost of acquiring those resources.
Their C.O.A. (cost of acquisition) is lower than ours would be to
accomplish the same things. Some of them
have the reputation and name recognition that would be too costly for uSamp to
attempt.”
2.
What can be some of the drawbacks or destructive
aspects of an alliance?
“Sometimes
it just doesn’t work out. Our partners
need to drive panelists to our online surveys.
If you align with a partner that doesn’t fulfill their part of the
agreement, our clients will not get the information they pay us for, and that
can be a black eye for uSamp. It hurts
our credibility and could cost uSamp future business.”
3.
uSamp currently seeks to create alliances with
online publishers, what were some of the motivating factors for uSamp to seek
these alliances? Why was this necessary?
“They can
do something that uSamp can’t do efficiently.
Our partnerships with online publishers reduce the cost of our company
going out and sourcing a diverse base of panelists. It just didn’t make sense for us to start a
panel recruiting campaign. Partnerships
with online publishers made the best sense from a cost perspective.”
4.
How are these alliances structured?
“Market
research firms are hired by clients to discover strategic information about people. For example, a clothing company wants to
design a new style of jeans. They don’t
want to gamble with their designs and want to know what their perspective
customer base wants in a pair of jeans.
They hire a market research firm to discover the current trends in jean
fashion. When they approach uSamp for
panel responses, we turn to our partners and ask them to send us anyone who
wears jeans so we can survey them. I
can’t tell you who our publishers are for reasons of confidentiality, but I can
tell you that they can be social media sites, professional association sites
and niche sites like websites that cater to parents or college students.”
5.
Can you give a brief explanation of how uSamp
has benefited from these partnerships and also what limitations have been
experienced?
“A small
company needs many people to drive traffic and complete panels. Benefits of publisher ramps up the traffic
and cuts the time to get the accomplished result. A limitation is that it costs
money and there is an element of reduced control of the actual publisher”
6.
Alliances are dynamic in nature, can you explain
some of the ways the alliance had to change to adapt to changes that were not
present when the partnership was created?
“As uSamp
grew, the company yielded more power in the industry and had the reputation to
flex to it’s muscle and control publishers to force them to complete their
obligation and guarantee quality panels.”
7.
How has this partnership affected the human
factor for those involved? Was there a benefit or a loss associated
with it?
“The
partnerships we create are relatively free from human burden. In other words, people are not cut out of the
process and also there isn’t any extra work created for them. It benefits both sides which contributes to
our success.”
8.
How have government regulations impact the
alliances? Were they in uSamp’s favor or against?
“Because
some of the surveys can include minors and also since some of the surveys may
not be appropriate for minors, several steps had to be taken to protect minors
from things that are not appropriate. Also, the lack of enforcement always
draws the attention of regulation agencies and watch dog groups. uSamp operates
in accordance with the law and complies with the regulations as dictated by the
governments where we operate.”
9.
In your personal experience, how could this
alliance be improved for both sides?
“Publisher partnerships can always be improved
by increasing communication between the partner and all aspects of uSamp. Although uSamp is dedicated to employing the
latest technology, we can always benefit from a free-flowing line of
communication between our companies.”
Interview analysis:
In my interview with Mr. Lazar, I discovered that alliances
bridge the gap between the desired result and the cost associated in attaining
it. Clearly in this case, finding
partners that will continually source panelists is a cost-effective way of
keeping a fresh flow of survey takers. uSamp
has created a valuable component of market research and must continually source
new partnerships to stay competitive.
Drawing from the week 4 reading, it’s easy to see the
correlations of theory and practice. I
made every effort to try and incorporate some of the basic components of the
reading to the interview questions.
While I didn’t ask him to name the “key issues in alliance management,”
I tailored the questions as best as I could to pull from him the necessary
responses that would satisfy theory application.
His responses were consistent with the topics of the reading
with the exception of the international aspect since he would have little to
contribute with respects to overseas operations. In the questions asked, I attempted to
explore uSamp’s partnership philosophy with theory. The questions were designed to explore why
uSamp decided to create a strategic alliance, how they felt about it, how it
has affected the corporate culture and any drawbacks. His overall responses confirmed the
similarities that were covered in week 4.
References
Gomes-Casseres, B. (1993).
"Managing International Alliances: A Conceptual Framework." Harvard Business School. pp. 1-20.
Kanter, R. (2010).
"Collaborative Advantage: The Art of Alliances." Harvard Business Review. pp. 1-16.
(2011). “2011 America’s Most
Promising Companies.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/28/most-promising-companies-11_uSamp_CQWA.html
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