Second Innings for DVL Smith Group
January 5 2007
UK research guru David Smith has revived his old company name and is back in business just days after vacating the Chairman's seat at Illuminas. The new DVL Smith Group already has offices in London Docklands and, thanks to a partnership with Australian financial specialist John Marinopoulos, in Melbourne.
Smith told DRNO the firm will play to its strengths in terms of sector focus, concentrating on financial research, telecoms, publishing and other b2b areas; but will develop an innovative range of services with three main activities:
- strategic intelligence consultancy. The firm will not operate as a traditional MR agency but will buy in fieldwork from other agencies where appropriate
- development of expert systems and analytical tools. One specific aim of this is to enable researchers to properly integrate quant and qual data, something Smith says is much talked about but not often realised
- skills development. When he announced his departure from Illuminas Global (DRNO www.mrweb.com/drno/news6107.htm ) Smith said he wanted to focus on his interest in training and personal development. Elaborating on this, he told DRNO today that the firm will provide business skills and effectiveness coaching rather than teaching core MR skills. This will include the 'drawing in' of information from various sources and its integration into business strategy, as well as effective presentation of conclusions to the boardroom.
Marinopoulos has in-depth experience as a financial research consultant from work for National Australia Bank and most recently running his own firm, Strategic Intelligence Group, now effectively merged into DVL Smith Group.
Smith says the company aims for rapid growth and hopes to announce more detailed plans in the next few weeks. A web site is under construction, but for the moment he can be contacted on
david.smith@dvlsmithgroup.com .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
