Dipl.Wi.-Ing Dr. Gereon Friederes, Managing Director
1. Why does marketmind exist at all?
“For one thing, I was self-employed very early, as I already financed part of my position at the Vienna University of Economics and Business by means of research grants contributed by third parties. At that time also the important contact with Mercedes was forged. What is more, already during my time as a student, I really enjoyed working in teams with my fellow students and friends. I also wanted to realise an inspiring and amicable working environment in my professional life. This is one of the biggest advantages of being self-employed; being able to choose the people with whom one spends the largest portion of the day.“
2. At the beginning, one does not always know where the journey is headed. But did something like a vision exist at the time you founded the company?
"From day one we had a guiding idea: it is what we refer to as premium positioning today. Inspiring, developing, and changing this market, for which we saw so much potential for improvement in terms of quality, methodology, innovation, and inspiration from the university perspective which we had at the time.”
3. The start-up days have been over for some time now, owing to its quality positioning, the company has established itself very well among the major players on the market, and the team has grown to the number of almost 40 in the meantime. How do you see your role at marketmind today?
"It is a multi-faceted role that entails numerous tasks: company development, strategy, personnel development or training are important issues. On the other hand, the core tasks still include direct relations with clients in projects that entail consulting, or also permanent quality assurance – a necessary prerequisite for our premium positioning.”
4. The team is the basis for the success of marketmind. Leading employees is also an important aspect of company management. Is employee leadership something that can be learned through experience, or should a managing director be born with this ability, so to speak?
"I had to learn leadership. In my opinion, there is not ONE ideal leadership style. Rather, I consider it the secret to success if one manages to motivate every employee individually, to relate to the different characters, to encourage and to challenge every individual specifically, and to allow room for personal freedom. With us, every team member has a high degree of responsibility from the very beginning. Showing initiative is rewarded. The stronger the individual, the better the team. So it is my responsibility to make every single person here as strong as possible.”
5. What is your professional motto? Is there such a thing as a vision?
"By my desk, I keep a quote by the American actor Danny Kaye, which reads, „There are two possibilities of making a successful career. Either you really achieve something, or you claim to achieve something. I recommend the first method, because here the competition is much smaller.”
This is why we do not hold press conferences (laughs). No, to be serious: It reminds me that hard work and orientation towards the subject matter eventually always lead to success.”
6. Speaking of “no press conferences“. Market research is frequently associated with experts appearing in the media and explaining what is currently all the rage. Put provocatively: Why is it that you as one of the leading partners to Austrian top companies in issues of market research can only be seen somewhat rarely?
"We want to become even stronger from within. Consequently this is what our management focuses on. Our customers are kind enough to take over our “advertising”. We have not engaged in active acquisition for ages, and yet we have grown by an average of 20% per year for the past three years.
On the other hand, this may well also be due to the portfolio we offer. We do not engage in political opinion research, which achieves media attention very fast, neither do we work for political parties. Primarily we deal with issues related to company strategy. Our recommendations in this field do not belong in the media, at least not at the early stage at which we are involved. Frequently, we are also entrusted with very complex assignments, and the procedures we use to solve them are not always understandable to large publics.”
7. What could a scenario `market research in the year 2020´ look like?
“There will be two opposing trends. On the one hand, consequent standardisation, automation, and cost cutting through global sourcing. This is the road which the major international players, like GfK or Nielsen, have already taken today and will definitely pursue consistently until 2020. On the other hand, the opposite pole, the marketmind way, that is individual solutions to problems, diversity of methods, tailored collection of data, and blending market research with superior marketing know-how. This is data-based consulting in the best sense. But, it needs to be added, at corresponding prices, because it costs several times more to produce tailor-made designer products in comparison to “off-the-peg” products.
At the same time, analysing already existing secondary data will become ever more important until 2020: data sources like CRM tools, social networks, 1to1 communication with consumers (e.g. via the web) are only analysed to a very limited extent today. Intelligent analysis in combination with large marketing know-how can achieve much more. Already today, we provide international groups of companies with a basis for decision-making under the heading of “modeling” . We are currently expanding our team of “modelers” by recruiting additional technical mathematicians and statisticians who work in close co-operation with our marketing specialists.”
8. Let us turn to your private life, what about your sporting activities? Is there still any room for recreational sport in your leisure time?
"To me, sport primarily signifies interest in ball sports. I prefer sports which involve interacting with a partner or several team players. Endurance sports activities, like running or cycling on one´s own, do not suit me. I need somebody against whom I can pit. Grass hockey, tennis, soccer, or squash are my favourite sports. I like the “educational effect” of team sports – understanding that you win or lose as a team. This also applies to marketmind: either we all win together, or we all lose together.”
9. Which cultural interests do you prefer? Is the famous book on the nightstand an issue?
"I frequently travel by car on business. That's why I listen to audio books a lot to keep me entertained. The one that impressed me most was Khaled Hosseini's deeply touching 'The Kite-Runner'. It's a wonderful novel about an unlikely friendship between two Afghan boys, a complex father-son relationship and the attempted redemption of a betrayal. It's wonderfully constructed, stirringly written and, incidentally, it also offers a fascinating insight into the culture and recent history of Afghanistan."
10. What does luxury mean to you?
"To me, luxury means doing what you like to do. One half of society has the problem that it does not have the money necessary to do what it would like to do. For the other half, the challenge lies in finding the time to do what one likes to do. Luxury means having both.”
11. Suppose you were presented with the gift of one day of extra time. How would you fill these 24 hours?
“For one thing, I was self-employed very early, as I already financed part of my position at the Vienna University of Economics and Business by means of research grants contributed by third parties. At that time also the important contact with Mercedes was forged. What is more, already during my time as a student, I really enjoyed working in teams with my fellow students and friends. I also wanted to realise an inspiring and amicable working environment in my professional life. This is one of the biggest advantages of being self-employed; being able to choose the people with whom one spends the largest portion of the day.“
2. At the beginning, one does not always know where the journey is headed. But did something like a vision exist at the time you founded the company?
"From day one we had a guiding idea: it is what we refer to as premium positioning today. Inspiring, developing, and changing this market, for which we saw so much potential for improvement in terms of quality, methodology, innovation, and inspiration from the university perspective which we had at the time.”
3. The start-up days have been over for some time now, owing to its quality positioning, the company has established itself very well among the major players on the market, and the team has grown to the number of almost 40 in the meantime. How do you see your role at marketmind today?
"It is a multi-faceted role that entails numerous tasks: company development, strategy, personnel development or training are important issues. On the other hand, the core tasks still include direct relations with clients in projects that entail consulting, or also permanent quality assurance – a necessary prerequisite for our premium positioning.”
4. The team is the basis for the success of marketmind. Leading employees is also an important aspect of company management. Is employee leadership something that can be learned through experience, or should a managing director be born with this ability, so to speak?
"I had to learn leadership. In my opinion, there is not ONE ideal leadership style. Rather, I consider it the secret to success if one manages to motivate every employee individually, to relate to the different characters, to encourage and to challenge every individual specifically, and to allow room for personal freedom. With us, every team member has a high degree of responsibility from the very beginning. Showing initiative is rewarded. The stronger the individual, the better the team. So it is my responsibility to make every single person here as strong as possible.”
5. What is your professional motto? Is there such a thing as a vision?
"By my desk, I keep a quote by the American actor Danny Kaye, which reads, „There are two possibilities of making a successful career. Either you really achieve something, or you claim to achieve something. I recommend the first method, because here the competition is much smaller.”
This is why we do not hold press conferences (laughs). No, to be serious: It reminds me that hard work and orientation towards the subject matter eventually always lead to success.”
6. Speaking of “no press conferences“. Market research is frequently associated with experts appearing in the media and explaining what is currently all the rage. Put provocatively: Why is it that you as one of the leading partners to Austrian top companies in issues of market research can only be seen somewhat rarely?
"We want to become even stronger from within. Consequently this is what our management focuses on. Our customers are kind enough to take over our “advertising”. We have not engaged in active acquisition for ages, and yet we have grown by an average of 20% per year for the past three years.
On the other hand, this may well also be due to the portfolio we offer. We do not engage in political opinion research, which achieves media attention very fast, neither do we work for political parties. Primarily we deal with issues related to company strategy. Our recommendations in this field do not belong in the media, at least not at the early stage at which we are involved. Frequently, we are also entrusted with very complex assignments, and the procedures we use to solve them are not always understandable to large publics.”
7. What could a scenario `market research in the year 2020´ look like?
“There will be two opposing trends. On the one hand, consequent standardisation, automation, and cost cutting through global sourcing. This is the road which the major international players, like GfK or Nielsen, have already taken today and will definitely pursue consistently until 2020. On the other hand, the opposite pole, the marketmind way, that is individual solutions to problems, diversity of methods, tailored collection of data, and blending market research with superior marketing know-how. This is data-based consulting in the best sense. But, it needs to be added, at corresponding prices, because it costs several times more to produce tailor-made designer products in comparison to “off-the-peg” products.
At the same time, analysing already existing secondary data will become ever more important until 2020: data sources like CRM tools, social networks, 1to1 communication with consumers (e.g. via the web) are only analysed to a very limited extent today. Intelligent analysis in combination with large marketing know-how can achieve much more. Already today, we provide international groups of companies with a basis for decision-making under the heading of “modeling” . We are currently expanding our team of “modelers” by recruiting additional technical mathematicians and statisticians who work in close co-operation with our marketing specialists.”
8. Let us turn to your private life, what about your sporting activities? Is there still any room for recreational sport in your leisure time?
"To me, sport primarily signifies interest in ball sports. I prefer sports which involve interacting with a partner or several team players. Endurance sports activities, like running or cycling on one´s own, do not suit me. I need somebody against whom I can pit. Grass hockey, tennis, soccer, or squash are my favourite sports. I like the “educational effect” of team sports – understanding that you win or lose as a team. This also applies to marketmind: either we all win together, or we all lose together.”
9. Which cultural interests do you prefer? Is the famous book on the nightstand an issue?
"I frequently travel by car on business. That's why I listen to audio books a lot to keep me entertained. The one that impressed me most was Khaled Hosseini's deeply touching 'The Kite-Runner'. It's a wonderful novel about an unlikely friendship between two Afghan boys, a complex father-son relationship and the attempted redemption of a betrayal. It's wonderfully constructed, stirringly written and, incidentally, it also offers a fascinating insight into the culture and recent history of Afghanistan."
10. What does luxury mean to you?
"To me, luxury means doing what you like to do. One half of society has the problem that it does not have the money necessary to do what it would like to do. For the other half, the challenge lies in finding the time to do what one likes to do. Luxury means having both.”
11. Suppose you were presented with the gift of one day of extra time. How would you fill these 24 hours?
"The day of my dreams would look like this: waking up, the sun is shining, brilliant weather, pristine snow, no short-term commitments, no appointments, no deadlines. I would bundle my family in the car, drive off to the nearest skiing region, and spend a wonderful day there.”