Articles & Resources

Articles, white papers, presentations and interviews are posted below. We publish commentary on customer experience related topics on our blog, Customer Experience Crossroads. 

The Innovative Organization is now available in print

The round-table discussions with more than 150 executives and managers from 121 organizations that formed the basis of the Schulich Executive Education Centre's research project on managing innovation has been published as The Innovative Organization.

The book, written by Susan Abbott, is a practical exploration of sparking innovation in the real world. It is based on the experiences and observations of the business managers and executives who participated in the two-year research project.

The Innovative Organization is only available from SEEC's Centre of Excellence in Innovation Management. It can be ordered online here. 

Innovation Research - Schulich Executive Education Research Series

Over a two-year period, Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC) sponsored a continuing research series into the topic of managing innovation. As one of the project research partners, we are able to provide you access to these reports. Each report is based on a discussion among senior executives about specific topics. The project concluded with a conference in Toronto in June 2007.    

• Report 1 - Creating the Conditions for Success - July/05 (PDF)
• Report 2 - Policy Buzzword or Critical Success Factor? Feb/06 (PDF)
• Report 3 - From Talk to Action - Mar/06 (PDF)
• Report 4 - Leading Innovation: Get Comfortable Failing - April/06 (PDF)
• Report 5 - Managing Innovation: Leveraging the CFO Function - May/06 (PDF)
• Report 6 - Innovation in Marketing: Customer Insight at the Core - Oct/06 (PDF)
• Report 7 - Commercializing Innovation - Nov/06 (PDF)
• Report 8 - Change and Sustainability - Jan/07 (PDF)
• Report 9 - Leading Innovation: Tangible Tactics - Feb/07 (PDF)

Going Deep With Online Qualitative for B2B

Online qualitative research provides opportunities for innovative research designs. Susan Abbott presented to the MRIA - B2B research interest group on Feb. 15, 2006. Download a copy of the slides here: ( 4 MB Zip File or 5 MB PowerPoint)

Online Marketing Research Survival Guide

Research on the internet is here to stay, whether it's buying a report from an aggregator, conducting an online survey, or running a discussion group using a bulletin board. Download this 10-page guide for a quick primer or refresher

• Getting ROI from your research
• Where to buy off-the-shelf research
• How to find a research supplier
• 31 questions you need to ask about your online survey
• 13 questions you need to ask about your online discussion group

Download the Online Research Survival Guide PDF

Originally presented to Association of Internet Marketing and Sales (AIMS). Posted: January 2005

Retail Banking: Managing Complexity Without Reducing Choice

Retail bankers are giving more than lip-service to the concept of customer focus and integrated delivery across channels.

Read the report on a day-long series of executive panels (March 2005) kicked off with a consumer round-table discussion. Hosted by The Access Group, sponsored by IBM, Computer Associates, Adobe, Teradata, Schulich Executive Education, Edge magazine, Mandrake, Poststone, and Glasgow Group.

Read Susan Abbott's report for sponsors here.

Posted June 2005

What's on the Minds of Internet Managers: Integrated Metrics!

We recently held a virtual roundtable with managers responsible for some part of the internet presence in their organization, with a few consultants for good measure. They have a lot on their minds.

Developing and co-ordinating an expanding universe of operating metrics, marketing metrics, industry trend data and customer research is a complex and ongoing challenge for multi-channel organizations.The development of integrated metrics is seen as a cross-functional issue requiring support from C-level executives to succeed. Making the ROI case for internet investments – whether web related, or e-business enablement -- is less of a problem in some organizations now than deciding which technologies will have the best long-term impact on the organization’s longer term goals.

Download our three-page summary of the discussion.

Posted March 2005

Managing Organizational Change: How Research Can Help

The research contribution to successful change initiatives often is overlooked. But research is particularly relevant to successful customer relationship management implementations because it helps an organization lead with marketing strategy instead of technology. In Using Research to Support Strategic Change Initiatives, a recent article in Imprints, Susan Abbott looks at how market research methodologies can be used in an actionable way.

Imprints is the monthly magazine of the Professional Marketing Research Society, now the Marketing and Research Intelligence Association. 

Read Using Research to Support Strategic Change Initiatives (428 KB PDF) reprinted from Imprints, September 2003

View PDF Posted: October 2003

The MRIA website can be found  here. 

Some of these documents are stored in Adobe Acrobat® PDF format. You need the Acrobat® Reader, available at no charge on Adobe's web site, to view and print these files.