While this might not be “news” for those analyst relations (AR) professionals who had one of these analysts on their analyst list, the totality of the departures is worthy of note. Also, for those who are not doing periodic reviews of their lists this news might come as a surprise.
Update: Added job titles (analyst or researcher) for each of the Forrester analysts in the list below.
Quietly in the last couple of months, Forrester Research has lost a number of analysts and researchers that focused on the Marketing and Strategy client group. These include:
- Lisa Bradner, analyst (CMOs and interactive marketing, Twitter) to a vendor (pending announcement)
- David Card, analyst (media, social computing, consumer trends, Twitter) to Analyst in Transit
- Tom Cummings, researcher (interactive marketing, Twitter) to Dachis Group
- Julie Katz, analyst (interactive marketing, Twitter) to Lego
- Cynthia Pflaum, researcher (interactive marketing, Twitter) to Dachis Group
Of course, these departures happened only months after Forrester lost another top interactive marketing analyst, Jeremiah Owyang (see this post).
In addition, Paul Jackson (digital consumer product strategy) left for Microsoft.
There does not appear to be a common thread in the departures except for the research coverage. This could be the typical turnover associated with the attractive job opportunities in an area moving from emerging to early mainstream (see Bursts of analyst departures in a hot research area is not unusual). This turnover might also represent what SageCircle calls Altimeter Envy.
However, it is also possible these departures could be a sign of discontent in the analyst ranks due to policy (e.g., reaction to the Forrester ban on personally-branded research blogs even if most recent departures did not have personal blogs) or compensation. Of course, Forrester has not made any public statements about these departures and probably is not concerned because of the nature of its personnel retention strategy as we pointed out in why large advisory analyst firms don’t seem to mind losing superstar analysts.
Two of the analysts listed above went to the Dachis Group (social business design), which has picked up a number of former analysts lately. This started with the hiring of Peter Kim (Twitter) from Forrester in July 2008 (see this post). In the month of January 2010, Dachis added:
- Caroline Dangson, IDC (social media, Twitter)
- Brian Kotlyar, Yankee (technology media and telecommunications, Twitter)
- Cummings, Forrester
- Pflaum, Forrester
Dachis Group is not an analyst firm, but does competes for budget with a traditional firm like Forrester or a new style firm like Altimeter Group.
SageCircle Technique:
- AR should start monitoring the morale and career musings of their most relevant Forrester analysts, regardless of research coverage
- AR should have a standard process for reacting when any relevant analyst leaves their current employer
- AR should ensure that their analyst list management process is up-to-date and able to react quickly when analysts depart or new analysts are hired
Bottom Line: Analyst turnover is a natural part of business and in general AR teams should not be too concerned when it happens. However, mass departures in a single research coverage can signal serious problems at the analyst firm including the loss of intellectual property (most IP is between the ears of the departing analysts) and credibility. AR needs to carefully monitor firms with high turnover to determine whether or not they deserve outreach and budget investments.
Question: Do you think these departures are the normal turnover that any employer experiences or represent a deeper problem at Forrester Research?
Tags: Altimeter Group, analyst, analyst relations, AR, Cynthia Pflaum, Dachis Group, departures, Forrester, Forrester Research, interactive marketing, Jeremiah Owyang, Julie Katz, Lisa Bradner, Peter Kim, Tom Cummings