By JEFF MANGAN, mtbusiness.com
Make it Missoula is excited to collaborate with our good friend, Jeff Mangan of mtbusiness.com, on a new series of interviews and profiles on Missoula-based businesses. Read part two of Jeff’s profile of Muzeview.
Jeff Mangan, mtbusiness.com
Good afternoon, Paul and Todd. Tell us about Muzeview Research.
Paul Gladen, Muzeview Research
To start in terms of what Muzeview does, we provide research and consulting services to global professional services firms, major law firms, accounting firms, and consulting firms.
Our research and consulting centers largely around helping our clients with their marketing and business development by providing market and competitive intelligence. We deal with the key topics and issues that major corporations, government and non-profit organizations grapple with, whether those are strategic issues, legal issues, and/or financial issues.
We track and index what we term “thought leadership,” the content and activities that major firms are producing to demonstrate their insights and expertise.
We have essentially developed a dataset that we can use to tell our clients very quickly what major firms are saying and doing around specific topics, whether it entails white papers, client alerts, briefing paper alerts, conference speaking activity, or an upcoming webcast/podcast that they’ve produced. We can use that data to provide intelligence to these firms and help them stay on top of the key topics that their clients and prospects are concerned about and what their competitors are doing in that space.
The data allows our clients to remain current and allows their own professionals to quickly go into the marketplace and talk about these things as well. For some firms, it’s not just about having the latest white paper or putting the a newsletter out there, it’s making sure that your firm’s professionals are up to speed themselves on those issues and industry trends, and able to have a business conversation with a client or a prospect about what’s driving their business.
Jeff Mangan, mtbusiness.com
That’s fascinating. How do you put teams together? Regionally and across areas of expertise, how do you manage that function of the business?
Paul Gladen, Muzeview Research
Our services include both intelligence products and consulting services. Clients often request a combination of both.
For our intelligence products these include subscription access to our database or daily alerts. If you are an attorney that’s focused on intellectual property litigation in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, we can provide a daily alert that delivers the latest material covering that specific area.
In terms of the consulting work we do for clients, it’s primarily delivered by myself and our other business partner, Chris Aitken. Chris is based out in the Bay Area. Chris and I have over 40 years of combined experience in the professional service industry. We were both previously partners at Arthur Anderson, we understand the space very well. But that work is typically supported by our team and research from our database.
I’ll give you example of one of the projects we’ve been working on. The client said, “Okay, we’re looking at a food and beverage industry, can you help us understand what’s hot in food and beverage right now and develop a briefing paper that we can use internally to help our professionals engage with clients and prospects.” We have members in our team that mine our database and determine what’s going on, what’s hot, and then provide analysis and commentary that we deliver to our client.
Todd Taylor, Muzeview Research
Our team currently consists of 21 employees; the majority are located in Ravalli County, but also includes several University of Montana students. The majority of our employee work part-time, about 20 to 25 hours per week. It’s an ideal job for them because it provides for a quality work-life balance.
Our team can work from as early as 6 in the morning and until midnight, pretty much the hours they select based upon an employee’s personal situation and preference. The team functions in three capacities.
We have our basic data analysts which go in and take the data which is inserted into our database automatically. They first review the data to confirm that it’s information we want to track. The team also validates the data to make sure that the links are accurate and apply basic tags such as activity type, geography, and associated professionals.
The second level of our team performs a true analyst role where they identify the industry and the business topics, and tag the record appropriately.
Our third level of employee focuses on quality assurance making sure the links are working, the content is correctly formatted and tagged.
Jeff Mangan, mtbusiness.com
Your team compiles the research, the data and Paul and his partner then take it from there and work directly with the client. Is that correct Paul?
Paul Gladen, Muzeview Research
Essentially, we will have one of the more experienced members of our team, providing the initial analysis and developing a draft report that Chris or I would then review and finalize for the client.
Jeff Mangan, mtbusiness.com
Paul, you are working with clients globally, correct?
Paul Gladen, Muzeview Research
Most of our work is with client executives and professionals based in the US, but they all work for global firms and the nature of the research and analysis is certainly global in perspective.
Jeff Mangan, mtbusiness.com
One last question on the business aspect, and we will move to the more lifestyle aspect here, how has the recession or current economic condition affected your business?
Paul Gladen, Muzeview Research
I think if you look to the period of 2008 to the mid-2010 that was a tough period in many ways because the business was relatively new. My view of it was it was tough, but the fact that we survived was a very positive sign! Since mid-2010, we’ve seen good activity, growth, and engagement with our clients and prospects.
Jeff Mangan, mtbusiness.com
That’s good to hear. Let’s talk about Missoula. Obviously you chose, Paul, to settle in Missoula and start your business in the area. Why Missoula?
Learn why Muzeview made it Missoula! The conversation continues with Paul Gladen and Todd Taylor of Muzeview in part two. Find Muzeview Research at muzeview.com, facebook/Muzeview, twitter @Muzeview, and LinkedIn.
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Since 2005, mtbusiness.com had served as Montana’s premier business news and resource portal. Passionate about #mtbiz, Jeff Mangan is the Managing Partner at Fatmoose Media, LP, and the founder of mtbusiness.com, your resource for Montana small business and entrepreneurs. Much success!