We fielded this wave of GRIT in Q1 of 2021 as the world (and the Insights and Analytics industry) began to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, resulting in a very robust global sample of 3,242 respondents from buyer, supplier, and other insights organizations. This phenomenal result was assisted by enlisting 200 buyer-side professionals through a partnership with NewtonX using their unique targeted recruiting methodology to ensure this wave of GRIT would be especially useful in understanding the buyer population during this era of rapid transformation. Also, as in 20W2, Tango Card supplied an incentive for respondents in the form of a $5 donation to a charity of their choice.

For the majority of the sample, GRIT respondents are recruited via GDPR compliant, opt-in email lists and a variety of social media channels by GreenBook and GRIT partners. These lists are comprised of both research suppliers and buyers. The vast majority of respondents come directly through GreenBook email invitations compared to all other sources combined. Our unique approach enables us to reach into many of the insights industry’s nooks and crannies without having to pre-define what they are. We do not simply fill a box of chocolates with candies that fit the shapes and match the labels of what we assume to be relevant; we collect anything that looks like a candy and then figure out how the box must be designed. In other words, GRIT adapts to the world around it; it doesn’t try to force the world to adapt to GRIT.

The sample size for this latest survey (and GRIT 50) is consistent with the wave-on-wave patterns we have observed over the last several years wherein the Business & Innovation study has greater participation than the Insights Practice iteration.

For a detailed breakdown of the sample composition, including regional representation, demographic and firmographics, please see the Methodology and Sample section in the Appendix. As in prior GRIT waves, respondents from the United States comprise the majority of all responses, so although the U.S. may be over-represented compared to share of global turn-over, we think this oversampling may be useful due to the outsized influence the U.S. industry has globally. This appendix can provide context around the results if you are curious about it.

Because of the unique sampling approach, we employ a rigorous cleaning process. Simply put, we drop surveys that are partially completed and delete ones that are clearly poor quality or just plain phony. We remove duplicates, surveys that show a distinct lack of true effort or too much coaching, and any other type of response that we determine to be less than a clear and honest opinion from someone legitimately in the insights industry. In each wave, we learn more and more about how to identify these and ensure the highest quality sample possible. People of a certain age and cultural background may appreciate how this quote reflects our mindset: “Sorry, Charlie. Only the best tasting tuna becomes Starkist.”

For this wave we eliminated over 13% of the initial completed interviews due to our flagging of them as not meeting the quality thresholds we have established internally.

For this wave we eliminated over 13% of the initial completed interviews due to our flagging of them as not meeting the quality thresholds we have established internally. Out of respect and appreciation for the people who make the effort to complete the survey, we take an “innocent until proven guilty” approach so that we do not systematically exclude legitimate opinions that may not be perfectly expressed.

This effort is especially important when we conduct the GRIT 50 wave as some overly enthusiastic companies attempt to “lobby” for themselves. While unfortunate, the trade-off is that it usually results in a larger sample size (which is useful for other areas of exploration). We have designed robust data cleaning approaches to mitigate against that impact which we describe in the Data Cleaning Appendix. We are thankful that this loud faction is also small, and we continue to be impressed with and grateful for the relatively silent majority who put the effort into thinking through each question.

For this edition, 72% of respondents identified themselves as being suppliers (n=2,325) and 27% identified themselves as buyers (n=875)

The mix of respondents has varied slightly wave on wave of this study, but within relatively narrow bands. For this edition, 72% of respondents identified themselves as being suppliers (n=2,325) and 27% identified themselves as buyers (n=875). We also captured a small number (n=42) who identified themselves as “providing other services” (e.g., publishing or hiring) or as otherwise associated with the industry (e.g., teachers), but we found little to comment on for these populations.

GRIT Sample Composition 21W1

There is little difference regionally between this mix and earlier waves and, as previously noted, North America represents the majority of the GRIT sample universe. In addition to North America, other regions, such as Europe and Asia, are sufficient to enable regional analyses when that is useful.

This edition of the GRIT Business and Innovation Report features one of the largest and most diverse sample sizes in the history of the GRIT program, enabling a deep dive into topics of importance to both buyers and suppliers with a high degree of confidence. While we still don’t claim absolute representativeness since we don’t think anyone can properly define what that would even mean for our industry. We believe our findings are broadly indicative of the current state of play for this industry, and should continue to be reliable as strategic planning tool based on the snapshot of the industry we have captured for early 2021.