By Megan Atiyeh
A colleague pointed out the following blog post by Thomas Claburn that quotes an executive from a company in the Web 2.0 world questioning the “objectivity” of industry analysts. I think the question applies to all companies, and to our clients who regularly use the services of the analyst community. I would argue that like any industry there is a wide spectrum of analyst firms and individuals involved, and both the value and the results of their contributions “may vary.”
We’ve all heard the industry grumblings about the power that is wielded by analyst firms, or that vendors sometimes feel trapped into buying services because their target customers rely heavily on analyst recommendations to make purchase decisions. But when you make broad generalizations about an entire industry (we hear this all the time about the field of public relations) based on a bad experience or two, you become exactly the thing you condemn. And what personal responsibility does each of us have in making sure the relationship between industry analysts and vendors work?


