Ludovic Leforestier

The use of the tiering of analyst firms, and of specific analysts, is one of the more controversial yet basic and widely used tools by AR teams and professionals. While no analyst or firm likes to be relegated to “Tier 2” or, God forbid, “Tier 3,” no vendor can devote enough resources, budget and access to treat all analysts the same. Some analyst firms may not publicly recognize this fact, but, vendor AR teams provide analysts a free service to help analysts develop research. This includes… Show more

The use of the tiering of analyst firms, and of specific analysts, is one of the more controversial yet basic and widely used tools by AR teams and professionals. While no analyst or firm likes to be relegated to “Tier 2” or, God forbid, “Tier 3,” no vendor can devote enough resources, budget and access to treat all analysts the same. Some analyst firms may not publicly recognize this fact, but, vendor AR teams provide analysts a free service to help analysts develop research. This includes providing vendor and market information, free access to knowledgeable executives and often, perhaps ironically, pay for subscriptions and additional services with analysts. In short, analyst firms outsource, at no cost and even often at a profit, research activities to AR. Clearly, therefore, AR teams need to prioritise which firms and analyst to invest in, and tiering is a common technique.

But how best to perform tiering? A simple but often wrong answer is to classify evaluative research lead analysts as Tier 1 and relegate everyone else to Tier 3. “Not so fast” according to the IIAR team who is updateding the IIAR best practice paper on tiering and hosting this Zoom event. While analysts authoring Gartner Magic Quadrants, Forrester Waves, IDC MarketScapes and other evaluative methodologies such as the Omdia Decision Matrices and GigaOM Radars are often key to an AR program, it’s not always the case that these analysts and firms should be considered “Tier 1;” it depends on AR priorities. In the soon to be published paper, the IIAR> Editorial Committee shows how tiering aligns with the AR Compass to help establish a baseline for AR programs. Show less

This IIAR> Best Practices Paper covers planning an inquiry session, understanding the different types of inquiry, navigating the inquiry guidelines for specific analyst firms, using inquiry time to maximum effect, and internalising the insights gained from an inquiry to benefit your organisation. In addition to the vast experience of Robin, Sarita and Ludovic, the paper draws upon inputs from a wide range of IIAR> members who have shared their tips and best practices for getting the most… Show more

This IIAR> Best Practices Paper covers planning an inquiry session, understanding the different types of inquiry, navigating the inquiry guidelines for specific analyst firms, using inquiry time to maximum effect, and internalising the insights gained from an inquiry to benefit your organisation. In addition to the vast experience of Robin, Sarita and Ludovic, the paper draws upon inputs from a wide range of IIAR> members who have shared their tips and best practices for getting the most out of the inquiry process and the following contributors. This paper concludes with actionable advice for all AR pros including how to review their contractual inquiry time, analyse inquiry usage, draw up an inquiry template, drive action on insights that can be incorporated into the business and much more. Appendices includes a table of analyst firms’ inquiry policies, and a template for an inquiry request.

Key learnings and best practices

Why AR managers should know the different types of inquiry
What the different inquiry rules are for each analyst firm
How to identify the best analyst for each inquiry
How to plan the inquiry objectives and agenda in advance
When to synchronise inquiries with your business calendar
How to maximise the value of inquiry time
How best to internalise inquiries within your organisation
Why it’s important to be proactive with inquiries Show less

This IIAR> Best Practices Paper signposts how to design and execute analyst relations campaigns, aligned with business objectives, that lead to successful outcomes for companies, products and services, AR teams and target analysts.

This IIAR> Best Practice Paper by AR professionals and for AR professionals paper provides a comprehensive overview of the briefing process, from planning to execution, and will be an invaluable resource for less experienced AR managers, and a useful refresher for senior professionals.

This how-to paper by AR professionals for AR professionals details best-practice strategies for building effective AR plans by aligning analysts with business goals, including: Start with the business priorities
Build your AR plan, layering campaigns and tactics ; Balance your ambitions with the company’s appetite for investment in the AR program ; Modulate your tactics throughout the year ; Creating your AR plan
Creating an analyst engagement plan ; Recommendations for AR professionals.

Key takeaways
- Buyers seek a range of opinions and you need to be talking to those who express them, wherever they are
- Building and maintaining relationships with long-tail influencers should be a key part of AR strategy
- Design an influencer engagement strategy that matches your desired outcomes
- Peer review sites call for a dedicated strategy
- Use content to engage with long-tail influencers
- Creating a dedicated platform or information hub can be a good strategy if… Show more

Key takeaways
- Buyers seek a range of opinions and you need to be talking to those who express them, wherever they are
- Building and maintaining relationships with long-tail influencers should be a key part of AR strategy
- Design an influencer engagement strategy that matches your desired outcomes
- Peer review sites call for a dedicated strategy
- Use content to engage with long-tail influencers
- Creating a dedicated platform or information hub can be a good strategy if you have scale and resources
- Develop a range of engagement tactics to cover all your bases
- Optimise your ROI

Table of contents
- The influencer landscape is changing
- Understand the characteristics of key influencer personas
- Map influencers to your customer personas
- Start your scale strategy by defining engagement tactics for each influencer group
- Plan for challenges outside the AR comfort zone
- Recommendations for AR professionals

Appendix 1: Oracle case study

Appendix 2: Criteo case study Show less

The IIAR> Best Practice Paper on The Future of AR by Gerry Van Zandt / Oracle AR Director and Ludovic Leforestier / Criteo Global Influencer Relations Director provides fresh insights and information into how the field of Analyst Relations will evolve and change over the coming 5-10 years.
It takes a quick look backward to review how Analyst Relations has evolved to its current point over the past 30+ years.

More importantly, the paper gathers and analyzes the impact of… Show more

The IIAR> Best Practice Paper on The Future of AR by Gerry Van Zandt / Oracle AR Director and Ludovic Leforestier / Criteo Global Influencer Relations Director provides fresh insights and information into how the field of Analyst Relations will evolve and change over the coming 5-10 years.
It takes a quick look backward to review how Analyst Relations has evolved to its current point over the past 30+ years.

More importantly, the paper gathers and analyzes the impact of current trends and activities in the industry to help inform AR leaders as to what will be important in the coming years, and key considerations and strategic actions they should pursue to stay on top of their craft in the future. Quotes and observations from AR practitioners worldwide are used throughout to reinforce and provoke new thinking on salient points.

The paper ends with actionable advice for all AR pros as to how analyst firms, analyst research, analyst research consumers, and the analyst role itself is and will change, and how AR needs to adapt to stay relevant and “on top” of these changes.

Key topics:
- How major analyst industry changes are driving evolution and at the same time, broadening the scope of Analyst Relations
- The impact of crowdsourced research both on customer influence, and on traditional syndicated research
- The evolving role of AR measurement, and how it contributes to making the AR field more strategic and impactful
- How to magnify and scale AR beyond the largest firms and their “quadrant” style evaluations Show less

Co-author in this research paper by Neil Pollock, et al.

Pollock, N, D'Adderio, L, Williams, R & Leforestier, L 2018, 'Conforming or transforming? How organizations
respond to multiple rankings', Accounting, Organizations and Society, vol. 64, pp. 55-68.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2017.11.003

The dominant theme within extant research on performance and ranking conceptualises the organisational response to a ranking as one where it responds by ‘conforming’ to the measure… Show more

Co-author in this research paper by Neil Pollock, et al.

Pollock, N, D'Adderio, L, Williams, R & Leforestier, L 2018, 'Conforming or transforming? How organizations
respond to multiple rankings', Accounting, Organizations and Society, vol. 64, pp. 55-68.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2017.11.003

The dominant theme within extant research on performance and ranking conceptualises the organisational response to a ranking as one where it responds by ‘conforming’ to the measure (Korberger and Carter 2010, Scott and Orlikowski 2012, Shore and Wright 2015). This process of ‘reactivity’ (Espeland and Sauder 2007), however, is not always possible, especially in the complex and rapidly - changing settings described in this paper. In cer tain contexts organisations are typically surrounded by multiple measures, raising the question as to which they should align. Drawing on an ethnographic study across a number of sites, we show how some organisations instead of conforming to a single measu re are ‘transforming’ to respond to the challenge of multiple rankings, by constructing and elaborating new forms of expertise, knowledge and connection with rankers. Unlike prior research that presents organisations as constrained by systems of measuring (which we name ‘reactive conformance’), we examine how they are becoming more proactive towards this challenge (described as ‘reflexive transformation’). Specifically, building on themes from accounting and the ‘sociology of worth', we present evidence tha t organisations exercise greater choice than expected about which rankings they respond to, shape their ranked positions, as well as wield influence over assessment criteria and the wider evaluative ecosystem. Show less

Corporations increasingly rely on a global network of external decision-makers and ecosystem partners, customer relationships are flipping from passive to highly interactive, and technology increasingly informs and empowers our business and daily lives. While the term ‘digital’ may be over-used, the resulting transformation is very real for many organizations.

With these digitally driven shifts transforming the business landscape, can strategic decision-making keep up? Research shows us… Show more

Corporations increasingly rely on a global network of external decision-makers and ecosystem partners, customer relationships are flipping from passive to highly interactive, and technology increasingly informs and empowers our business and daily lives. While the term ‘digital’ may be over-used, the resulting transformation is very real for many organizations.

With these digitally driven shifts transforming the business landscape, can strategic decision-making keep up? Research shows us that organizations are not always structuring themselves in the right way to respond to the changes, either organizationally or in how they adopt digital technologies.

To achieve a breakthrough, organizations need to enable the ultimate tool – the empowerment of staff, customers and other stakeholders to make smarter decisions. From this starting point, they can determine how to adapt and benefit from the unprecedented opportunity to drive a competitive wedge against both incumbents and new competitors. Show less

The relationship between industry analysts and technology companies is built upon a notion of trust. Specifically, Analyst Relations professionals and analysts work on the basis of undocumented principles, which sometimes only become apparent when they are broken or abused. In this best practice paper, we present a starting point for understanding how AR pros and analysts can best engage, to the benefit of both sides.

Businesses live and die by their ecosystem in today's global economy. The fourth BearingPoint Institute Report features the following papers:
- Utilities x.0: energy companies prepare for a reboot
- Will your suppliers turn from strategic to catastrophic?
- Repaying the stakeholder, not the shareholder
- The smart insurer: embedding big data in corporate strategy
- Can Darwin teach us how to adapt to the era of the digital customer?
- 10 future business mistakes in strategic… Show more

Businesses live and die by their ecosystem in today's global economy. The fourth BearingPoint Institute Report features the following papers:
- Utilities x.0: energy companies prepare for a reboot
- Will your suppliers turn from strategic to catastrophic?
- Repaying the stakeholder, not the shareholder
- The smart insurer: embedding big data in corporate strategy
- Can Darwin teach us how to adapt to the era of the digital customer?
- 10 future business mistakes in strategic planning Show less

We've created and ran an awards programmes for the best analyst relations teams and professionals.

I've just written the preface from this seminal book by Efrem Mallach, a must have for any AR pro.

Whilst public relations and marketing are mainstream in commercial companies, most analyst relations (AR) professionals are often at pain to describe their role.

AR is a relatively new discipline, tracing its origins in the last 15-20 years when a handful of very large ICT firms institutionalised a function to handle consultants and analysts relation. Nowadays all major technology vendors and services players have established sizeable analyst relations (AR) departments –50 to hundred… Show more

Whilst public relations and marketing are mainstream in commercial companies, most analyst relations (AR) professionals are often at pain to describe their role.

AR is a relatively new discipline, tracing its origins in the last 15-20 years when a handful of very large ICT firms institutionalised a function to handle consultants and analysts relation. Nowadays all major technology vendors and services players have established sizeable analyst relations (AR) departments –50 to hundred strong for mega-vendors such as IBM or HP. Its raison d’être is to liaise with industry analysts, providing them a single point of contact and managing the relationship between them and the suppliers. Show less

The BearingPoint Institute's ambition goes beyond traditional 'thought leadership'. We aim to equip business leaders with actionable insights and advance the science of management by combining our consultant’s experience 'in the field' with research into topical business issues.

Both seasoned analysts and AR professionals love a debate – no doubt that’s why they work in this industry! Conversations about the nature of influence, analysts versus bloggers, the role of analysts in buying decisions, whether independent analysts can truly ever be independent will no doubt run and run. They can make it hard for newcomers however, who could be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about.

With this in mind, the IIAR is releasing a primer on the analyst industry… Show more

Both seasoned analysts and AR professionals love a debate – no doubt that’s why they work in this industry! Conversations about the nature of influence, analysts versus bloggers, the role of analysts in buying decisions, whether independent analysts can truly ever be independent will no doubt run and run. They can make it hard for newcomers however, who could be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about.

With this in mind, the IIAR is releasing a primer on the analyst industry. It is deliberately, unapologetically designed for those with no previous experience of working with analysts – while it does touch on such debates, it leaves any cans of worms tightly closed. Rather, it covers:

• The kinds of work analysts might be involved in across the working day.
• A definition of analysts, differentiating them from financial analysts and market researchers.
• An overview of firms, types, products and services across the market as a whole.
• Services offered by different kinds of analyst firms, be they “buy side” or “sell side”.

The main question the paper aims to answer is why analysts exist at all – after all, no other industry has them in such numbers. To give away the punchline, the paper draws the conclusion that they bring necessary clarity to the still-nascent sector we call the Information and Communications Technology. If you are new to Analyst Relations or the industry and would like to learn more about it, or if you want an overview to help explain the analyst industry to others, this paper is for you. Show less

Both seasoned analysts and AR professionals love a debate – no doubt that’s why they work in this industry! Conversations about the nature of influence, analysts versus bloggers, the role of analysts in buying decisions, whether independent analysts can truly ever be independent will no doubt run and run. They can make it hard for newcomers however, who could be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about.

With this in mind, the IIAR is releasing a primer on the analyst industry… Show more

Both seasoned analysts and AR professionals love a debate – no doubt that’s why they work in this industry! Conversations about the nature of influence, analysts versus bloggers, the role of analysts in buying decisions, whether independent analysts can truly ever be independent will no doubt run and run. They can make it hard for newcomers however, who could be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about.

With this in mind, the IIAR is releasing a primer on the analyst industry. It is deliberately, unapologetically designed for those with no previous experience of working with analysts – while it does touch on such debates, it leaves any cans of worms tightly closed. Rather, it covers:

• The kinds of work analysts might be involved in across the working day.
• A definition of analysts, differentiating them from financial analysts and market researchers.
• An overview of firms, types, products and services across the market as a whole.
• Services offered by different kinds of analyst firms, be they “buy side” or “sell side”.

The main question the paper aims to answer is why analysts exist at all – after all, no other industry has them in such numbers. To give away the punchline, the paper draws the conclusion that they bring necessary clarity to the still-nascent sector we call the Information and Communications Technology. If you are new to Analyst Relations or the industry and would like to learn more about it, or if you want an overview to help explain the analyst industry to others, this paper is for you. Show less

The AR Compass is a framework to uncover business goals and align your AR programme to those goals.

A recent contract renewal conversation with an IT analyst firm rep got me wondering how record companies ended up suing their best adopters and whether the end is nigh for them. Both music and research live on IP, and there are many similarities, though we’ll only explore the consumption and value aspects in this post.