Consultant
Title
Consultant
Start Date
Immediately
Location
US, wherever the candidate lives.
About the Company
Outsell is the only research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information, and education industries. Our international team provides independent, fact-based analysis and actionable advice about competitors, markets, operational benchmarks, and best practices, so our clients thrive and grow in today's fast-changing digital and global environment.
We offer a unique, virtual, yet highly collaborative work environment. We would like to speak with you if you enjoy being on, and driving, the cutting edge, and are an entrepreneur who will drive business and provide analytic thought-leadership to this exciting and dynamic industry.
Position Description
Outsell is seeking an experienced, technologically savvy, and energetic Consultant to join our global custom Research & Consultancy team to execute on custom research and consultancy projects. We undertake business-to-business research (qualitative and quantitative) and consultancy to support our clients in their acquisition activities, competitor monitoring, new product development, and strategic thinking. As a core member of our Custom Research & Consulting team, the successful candidate will work in a collaborative environment and deliver research and analysis to publisher and information provider company CEOs, COOs, and Marketing/Strategy executives and their teams, and to senior-level information management executives and members of their leadership teams. We are looking for a seasoned professional with information industry experience and library and enterprise market domain expertise, who has engaged in senior-level research, market analytics, and consulting and has worked closely with C-level clients, or has been employed by a commercial content vendor in a senior-level role, focused on marketing strategy, market analytics or product management.
Key Responsibilities
The primary task of this role is to lead, enable, and support the delivery of high-quality research and consultancy projects to client specifications. The key responsibilities are:
- Leading all aspects of custom research and consulting projects, including scoping and architecting proposals, designing research plans, managing project teams, collecting data, fully analyzing both qualitative and quantitative findings, and presenting findings to client (in both report and face-to-face formats).
- Conducting all forms of primary and secondary data collection, including desk research, interviewee recruitment, telephone interviewing, and face-to-face interviewing.
- Leading and contributing to team brainstorming, analysis work, and client meetings.
- Leading and managing senior-level research projects with timeliness and excellence. Analyzing problems and conducting analysis using one or more Outsell models, methodologies, frameworks, and solutions.
- Contributing regularly and collaboratively to colleagues’ research projects.
- Supervising, briefing, and coaching junior researchers and freelance associates as necessary.
Qualifications and Experience
We are looking for an organized individual with excellent communications skills, great initiative, and an eye for detail. We need a flexible team-player with lots of enthusiasm to extend and develop his or her research skills and apply them in a challenging, client-facing business environment. The ideal candidate will already have 10 years plus of experience in a similar analysis and research-intensive role.
Desirable business skills/experience:
- A minimum of 2-5 years of experience in analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data and research findings.
- At least 10 years of hands-on experience with a range of primary and secondary data collection techniques in a business/research environment.
- Report writing and client–facing presentations.
- Strong information industry, marketing, and technical knowledge, and the ability to analyze, identify, and forecast market trends, opportunity, and positioning. Must have excellent in-depth understanding and knowledge of the library market in corporate, academic, and government market segments and its players, issues, and trends.
- Excellent writing skills are critical, as are outstanding interpersonal and communication skills. Demonstrated ability to network and interact at all levels of information industry vendor organizations (director, VP, CIO, CEO). Ability to represent and defend analysis in client interactions. Must be able to facilitate and develop visual concepts suited to conveying ideas to an executive audience. High-level relationship management skills, especially for interviewing senior managers.
- Demonstrated critical thinking, analytical, and organizational skills are required, as is competency in challenging assumptions and developing opinions that are concise and complete in well-founded logic. Demonstrated track record in analyzing problems and developing models, methodologies, frameworks, and solutions at a senior level, both thinking creatively and delivering at a practical level.
- BA in business or marketing; graduate degree in business, finance, or marketing is preferred, and 10 years plus of experience as a senior-level executive in strategic marketing or business planning in the information industry, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Must be a proven leader – able to own a process, express ideas clearly and logically, meet deadlines, manage personal time successfully, deliver on an agreed timetable of commitments, manage multiple research and writing projects concurrently, deliver finished work on time, and work effectively under pressure. Creativity, curiosity, self-motivation, and perseverance are also essential.
- Candidate must be team-oriented, flexible, and able to work both independently and collaboratively in a firm whose team is largely based in home-office environments. Must have demonstrable contributing team-member skills and behaviors.
- Ability to travel up to 25% of the time.
- Ability to work in Microsoft Excel (proficient), Word, and PowerPoint essential, and experience in communicating knowledge through these programs is critical.
It is important that the successful candidate reflect our core values of:
- Honesty and integrity;
- Quality and excellence;
- Fun, freedom, and family;
- Collaboration and communication;
- Information, knowledge, and continuous learning;
- High-touch and high-service;
- Responsibility and accountability;
- Running a financially healthy business.
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation includes a combination of base salary and variable compensation. We offer health and life insurance, disability, and a 401(k) plan. Location is wherever the candidate lives, as the firm has a small headquarters in Burlingame, California, with the majority of employees in a home-based work environment.
Please e-mail, fax, or send resume to:
Leigh Watson Healy
Outsell, Inc.
330 Primrose Road, Suite 510
Burlingame, CA 94010
E-mail: lhealy@outsellinc.com
Fax: +1 650-342-7135
Outsell seeks to maintain a diverse and welcoming workplace; therefore, candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, ancestry, or national origin.