Second Generation Researchers
I remember when I was young getting asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” Of course I said I wanted to be an accountant just like my dad.
I’m glad I didn’t stick to that profession because as many of you know, I truly love the research industry. And other than playing left field for the Boston Red Sox, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
I wonder if the same was true for all the second generation researchers. I gave myself one minute and listed all of the second generation researchers I knew in our industry. I have listed all of them in alphabetical order:
- Harry Balaban
- Wendy Balaban
- Leslie Case
- Michelle Elster
- Andrew Hayes
- Matt Hayes
- John Heakin
- Lance Hoffman
- Towns Lavidge
- Colleen Moore
- David Schafer
- Steve Schlesinger
- Deb Schlesinger
- Mark Shugoll
- Jacki Spear
- Adam Weinstein
- Jennifer Whitworth
I was able to come up with seventeen people. As I said, I came up with this list in less than a minute. I wonder how many I could have listed if I had given myself five minutes. (By the way, I apologize to anyone in my inner circle that I left out; I am sure there are a few.)
I found myself wondering what it was like growing up in a multi-generational research family. What were dinner conversations like at their house? I am sure the kids helped their parents code, sort and ship questionnaires. Maybe some of them served milk and cookies to respondents. Maybe those early focus groups were even in their house.
Since so many of us have little ones, we would love to hear the stories:
How did the second generation researchers get started?- Were they pushed into the field?
- Did it start as a summer job that never ended?
- How proud is the first generation?
- Will there be a third generation?
Since the chance of my kids playing left field for the Red Sox is very slim, maybe they too will end up in an industry that I love so much!
September 6th, 2006 at 10:11 am
I know my Mom is going to love this post!!!!! She reads this blog regularly!
As a second generation market researcher I was given the opportunity to not only enter a field that I love but also create the mother-daughter bond that is unique and something I truly treasure.
I was the youngest of four children and my mother’s last hope!!!! The other children were given the same opportunity; I was the only one smart enough to take it and the only one able to work with my Mom (sorry Mom).
We have enjoyed traveling to industry conferences (especially MRA!!) together and working side by side for over 19 years!
My mother started the business out of the basement of our home. Door-to-door and telephone research were her specialties. We had people coming in and out of our house CONSTANTLY. At the age of 10, I helped my Mom sort questionnaires, look up telephone numbers, create hand tallies, etc. At the age of 14, she was putting my hair up in a bun to make me look older and I started intercepting people in the mall. Well, here I am 20+ years later still working in the industry that I love.
My mother is now retired and loving life. She still keeps up to date on what is happening at Moore Research and TRYS to keep me in line.
I must say, when you own a research business there are many advantages and disadvantages. One thing I know for sure is that it takes dedication and sacrifice. You must have a strong support system and my father provided that for my Mom and my husband provides it for me. I am not sure what we would do without our two guys.
Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me the opportunity to spread my wings and fly!! You are both the wind beneath my wings!!
As for a third generation…well, those of you that have had the opportunity to meet my 10 year old son know that he will be the President of some company OR country!!! Our family has been blessed with strong entrepreneurial genes!!!
September 6th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
I think back to being a young girl and helping my mom with new product testing and of course, counting completed questionnaires. This was my introduction to Marketing Research. It was my “internship” and I learned so much. This was not my dream job at the age of 12, though. I was set on being a doctor. Little did I know then that my path would change and all the information I had gathered while growing up would really serve me well as I changed my major in college and set out for a degree in Marketing and Media Research.
Being one of 4 children, after many years and many different careers along the way, all four of us are involved in the family business. Luckily, we all get along and actually like each other!
My mom was very enthusiastic about her business and when Steve decided to move forward and expand many other family members joined the team. We actually have 3 generations in our business and who knows what is yet to come. As of now, my children are not involved, but I have learned from experience that tomorrow always bring something new to the table.
My mom is so proud of all the family and the growth as she continues to be active in the “family business”.
September 6th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Although my sister covered much of the Schlesinger story, I need to add a few thoughts. In the early days, we were definitely put to work - that was our first taste of the industry. My first jobs were keeping track of test product inventory and then I was elevated to delivery of work to interviewers once I got a driver’s license. I moved up to interviewing at Newark Airport and even a little door to door (scary). Last year we celebrated our 40th year in business and it was great to see how proud my mother was at our anniversary party of what had become of her start up company. In her eighties now and proud of it, she still comes to work most days and enjoys the action.
For me, it has been an incredible ride and one that started by accident. It was not my first choice of careers but boy am I lucky it is where I ended up. After 20+ years of this business, I still come to work each day with a hop in my step.
As for my kids, they love coming to work with me and talk about working here some day. At this point, I think the attraction is mostly the M&Ms.
September 6th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
When you were young? Merrill, you are young!
As far as playing left field for the Red Sox, since you are so young you are probably a Carl Yastremski guy. I on the other hand was born in in Boston in 1944, and the Splendid Splinter was not only the last guy to hit .400, but was also a certifiable American Hero taking time out of his illustrious career to be an Ace for the Marines not only in WWII, but Korea as well. Ranking right up there for me alongside Old Ironsides and the Old North Church, Ted Williams was all the reason I needed to think my birth town had to be the coolest city in America.
I came to research after watching how drained my father was every night after a career in sales management. As an undergraduate, I was President of the student chapter of the American Marketing Assn. at Southern Illinois Univ. As members, we got The Marketing News, and as it happened, Bob Lavidge was President of AMA that year, so here was this guy on the front page of every issue, AND MY MOM KNEW HIM! Well, I felt I was a people person, and research seemed to be a good solution for me, and Bob was my hero. How exciting was it for me to introduce him 9 years later as the headline speaker at the 1981 Chicago Convention.
I took a job for a year to get work experience, and the bug bit me. I loved the entrepreneurial spirit and democratic ways of the MRA. It was not long before I realized there was a tremendous opportunity to become a national player with mall offices all over the country-hey, it only took 27 years to build them!
Pat started me on the bottom, I edited, tallied, packed, shipped and validated for a year before I was allowed to brief my first job. I was being paid nothing, had no health insurance for the first 12 years, no pension for the first 13. We were built on a shoestring.
And if you think working for a parent is a lot of family, I had my brother and sister there, and married a field director client. I asked Maureen so many times to please talk about anything but work.
But it has all worked out for me as my family was able to realize it’s American Dream, thanks to our many clients and colleagues(competitors).
September 9th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Great post Merrill!
Can I count as a “use to be” 2nd generation marketing researcher? My dad, Lou Bloomberg, had one of the first data collection services in the Boston area. Some old timers might recall his shop .. Ellington Surveys. It was definately a family affair went we attended MRA conferences - dad, mom, my sister and me!
My dad’s dream was for me to take over “the business.” I think he considered it part of his legacy to me. Unfortunately, I had other dreams. However, the lessons learned in a small family business and in marketing research were to become the foundation of whatever success I achieved thereafter.
An off shoot to this thread might be what happens to the business and to the family dynamics when the next generation leaves the business? In my case, although my dad was disappointed, he was always supportive of my goals.
September 9th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
I’ve handed out free samples of water on the beach. I’ve conducted interviews with Veitnam Vets at the Memorial. I’ve given out coupons for BK Broilers in a chicken outfit in the middle of DC in 110 degree heat. I’ve bothered so many airport patrons it’d scare me to count. I’ve done research on women’s underwear. And I’ve recruited people to test for bad breath (scale of 1 to 10). May the good times continue to roll. Thanks, Ann.
September 10th, 2006 at 8:22 am
This is my first time that I have responded to any of your blogs, although I have been a faithful follower of yours for many weeks. I have really enjoyed each and every one of them.
I have been retired from Moore Research for a couple of years, but miss the research industry very much. My daughter (Colleen Mezler) has made it possible for me to enjoy retirement. Colleen bought my home, and my business and has afforded me the opportunity to buy a home in Florida, and a summer home in Pennsylvania.
I am so very proud of how my daughter has grown the company. She has taken it to the next level. I have never had to look back, and be sorry for the decision I made.
Colleen and I have a very special “bond” workiing together. She was my best friend. I can honestly say we never had an arguement when I was the boss. She always respected that. Now she is the boss and is doing a much better job at it.
This is one happy ending to a second generation story.
Keep up the good work Merrill, I am loving your OPINIONS.
September 18th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Growing up I never thought I would end up in Market Research. My mother started her career as a door to door interviewer working for none other than Sarah Schlesinger! It was that career move that took her away from the monotony of being a stay at home mom and gave her a real outlet for her energy and love of life. She met and teamed up with Ilene Kaplan and together they believed door to door interviewing was like being on Bill & Ted’s Excellent adventures. Just ask them and they will tell you stories that have your sides hurting from laughter. As I hit my late teens I too started telephone interviewing, doing in store intercepts, editing piles of surveys, recruiting etc. I did it for the college money and never thought I would end up making a career out of it. I began fulfilling my life’s plan as a High School teacher, but after having baby number 2 my mother convinced me to come work for her. The line was something like…”You’re gonna love it!” I have to say it is my mothers INCREDIBLE passion that brought me over to the world of MR and I do not regret one day of my journey. I’ve worked with respondents test driving cars and walking through an airplane seating simulator. I’ve done dairy studies with couples and their use of a condoms and watched little kids brush their teeth or put together a building toys. I’ve made so many friends in the industry and have learned so much. Thanks Mom and thanks Merrill for posting this blog and being a previous employer and amazing mentor.
September 18th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Jeez Merrill, I guess it depends on your perspective.
Not sure I’m first or second generation. If we start with Politz, Art Nielsen, Sr. and George Gallup, I guess we are all mostly second generation - those of us born in the forties and early fifties. If you start from the real explosion in marketing research - late 60’s through the 70’s, I guess many of us (including those you listed) are first generation.
Regardless of how we define the different cohorts, I am concerned about the emerging generation of researchers. Seems to me that the “business” of marketing research is too often usurping the art and science of marketing research. This seems especially true in the big research conglomerates. Personally, and professionally I don’t like that trend.
I think that trend, and the accompanying need to economically justify everything in the short term severely detracts from personal investments in training, mentoring, contributions to our associations, and the science of our profession.
We are clearly not the cohesive and dedicated group that we once were.
Or maybe I’m just feeling like an old grouch.
Keep up the good work.
September 18th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Merrill -
I’m not sure how many second-generation researchers you’ll find who actually aspired to take on the family business. I suspect that many of them found that it was something to do while they figured out what it was they wanted to do when they grew up. Nevertheless, nearly all can tell very memorable stories about growing up in this unusual profession.
Personally, my earliest recollections of involvement were serving as a gate-opener for my mother on long drives into the country to interview pecan farmers, and of being paid to roll out toilet paper on the living room floor to count the sheets as part of a quality control check audit. (I’ve tried to hone both of these skills over the years.) I also remember how embarrassed my brothers and I would be at the attention our house would draw from the neighborhood when a delivery truck would come unload 30 or 40 cases of Kotex into our garage.
At fourteen, when I lived in a seminary, Galloway Field Service donated about 10 cases Kool Aid packets that were left over from a market test that the client told the field agencies they could keep. It snowed that winter and we rolled up a 10 foot tall snowman on the football field and then colorized it with Kool Aid.
Around that same time a little nine-year-old girl, named Elisa, used to run packages of completed surveys up to our door for her mother, who worked as an interviewer. There were so many people coming and going all the time that I wouldn’t have paid her much notice. I did notice her, however, twelve years later when we were each working at the little company that had long since out-grown my family living room. Today that little girl is still here, only now she’s the president of the company and two of our sons Danny and David work here with us.
On that note, I might add that there are quite a few other 2nd and 3rd generation marketing researchers out there. Here are a few you missed. You should email them your link. They have more stories than you’ve got blog space.
Patrick
Susan Adelman
Survey Service, Inc
Jerry Carter
Consumer Opinion Services, Inc
Jane Rosen
Nichols Research
Aaron Nichols
Nichols Research
Elaine Herron-Cravens
The Herron Group of Tampa
Bill Gaffin
Synovate
Judy Hominy
Pat Henry Market Research, Inc
Teri Leibowitz
Leibowitz Market Research Assoc, Inc.
Merrill Shugoll
Shugoll Research
September 18th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Ooops-
Dagnabit, Merrill. Now you’ve got me thinking about all the other 2nd generationers who I’ve overlooked. Please add to the list:
Cristy Reid
Colorado Market Research, Inc.
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September 18th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Yes Pat - I can relate with the trucks rolling up to the house when we were kids. I’m sure our neighbors had lots of discussions about just what was going on at the Henry house with trucks, people and strange products moving in and out on a regular basis.
As you now I jumped in when my Mom became ill 30 years ago and now my daugther Joelle is working with me as a 3rd generation researcher.
I just started reading this blog and am enjoying the stories.
Judy Hominy
September 18th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Hi Everyone,
It is always fun to hear stories about ‘growing up’ in a marketing research home. I may confuse some people because, although I am a second generation researcher, I AM NOT MIMI’S DAUGHTER! ( I could get fired for saying that if I were not a part owner of Nichols Research.) My mother, Sylvia Rosen, owned Rosen Research in Cleveland from the late 60s to the late 90s. I worked for my Mom in the same capacity as many of you. Delivering the first disposable diapers to new moms to try, going door-to-door for Quaker’s American Family and even intercepting guys in the mall to ask them if they had jock itch. We had an Oxydol commercial filmed in our basement and our dining room had a two way mirror in it so focus groups could be held around the dining room table and observed by the clients from the family room. I went far away to college to get away from the craziness and the first job I took was in Germany. I never planned on working in research again and knew I would never live in Cleveland. However, after marrying someone from California and moving to the San Francisco area, my Mom encouraged me to just stop into the mall and say hello to Mimi because they had become friendly through the MRA. Well, in spite of being dressed in cut-off jeans and birkenstocks, schlepping my 1 and 3 year old children with me,and having no intention of working, I was hired to start the next day. And guess who the client was? None other than M/A/R/C! Merrill, you can probably look that study up in the archives, a project for XEROX from July 1984.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
I love reading the stories related to 2nd generation researchers. They are interesting, funny and…exactly what MRA is looking for to post on our 50th Anniversary Website (coming soon)! If you have a funny anecdote related to your research experience (does not have to be 2nd generation related - we are looking for ANY research related tale) and would like it posted ot the 50th site, please send to me (kara.ledger@mra-net.org) as soon as you can. Thanks, Kara
January 3rd, 2007 at 9:21 am
I am thrilled to say that I have two wonderful daughters who followed in my footsteps and have made their own mark in the industry.
Lisa Cooper is a VP at Ipsos and has worked in the industry for 23 years. She is truly one of the very few people I know who ,at the age of 12,declared that she was going to attend college in North Carolina, major in Marketing and become a Market Researcher. She accomplished all three.
She continues to serve the industry at the highest level and is also working on the Career Development Committee at CASRO. The charge is to attract the best and the brightest to careers in MR. If anyone can succeed it will be Lisa. She does all of these wonderful things in addition to being the mother of 2 teenage sons,one on the way to his Freshman year at Northeastern and the other a senior in HS to be who is working on his Black Belt in the martial arts.
Daughter # 3 out of 6 , Janet Baldi is also a second generation Researcher. She is a VP at RTi Research and is currently Secretary of the Norteast chapter of the MRA. Janet, unlike Lisa did not declare early on to be in our industry. She was bit by the Financial investing bug ,became a Day Trader and then thought it would be fun to join Dad. She has done remarably well and to quote her current boss Mel Rothstein ” Janet has developed a world class Field department at RTi ”
I could not be prouder and the Research world in my opinion is enriched by having these 2 wonderful ladies as part of our community.