Member Article

Dipsticks get Oxford guidance

Northumberland-based research experts who work with the likes of Sky, Tesco and O2 have turned to leading growth experts to help expand their business.

Hexham firm Dipsticks Research is already highly regarded in the competitive market research sector, working with high street clients including Tesco, O2, National Express and Red Bull as well as local authorities, the NHS, ITV and Sky.

They keep their clients in tune with audience and customer feedback on how their products and services are currently being perceived.

Now Dipsticks founder and director Fiona Raglan has turned to growth experts Oxford Innovation to provide business development support to her team of 50 employees.

“I’d previously taken the view that if business support is free it might not add any significant value,” explained Fiona.

“But it soon became very clear that this wasn’t the case with Oxford Innovation, and now we’re ideally placed to grow the business.

“We’ve previously divided the business into stand-alone divisions according to whether the client was in the private or public sector and what their precise requirement was.

“However, we grew at such a rate that our people were highly skilled in their own area but there was little or no opportunity for them to contribute to the overall business development and growth strategy.”

In addition to the Hexham-based staff, Dipsticks retain more than 215,000 panel members across the UK, in its consumer panel brand, ‘Panelbase’, as a source of audience and customer feedback.

Mike Jobson, Oxford Innovation’s Business Northumberland High Growth programme manager, has previously worked with big brand names including Guinness, Colgate Palmolive and Alcan.

He said: “This is very clearly a highly impressive business that is in great demand from clients.

“But the organisation structure and even the culture within the team where lots of people were all working in small silos, were not conducive to the business maximising its full growth potential.

“We had to break down the barriers and introduce an account management-style of operation.

“Once the team recognised what was holding them back they fully embraced the concept of coaching and what we were trying to achieve together.”

Oxford Innovation delivers The Business Northumberland High Growth programme on behalf of Arch, The Northumberland Development Company and Northumberland County Council, as part of a programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Anyone wishing to find out more about the Business Northumberland High Growth Programme and how Oxford Innovation can potentially support their business should call 01670 528403, email northumberland@oxin.co.uk or visit www.businessnorthumberland.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .