by Eleanna Sfyra-Ragkousi, Global Head of Business Development
Get to know the $1.9bn expert network industry that offers immediate, easy access to information from the most knowledgeable executives, industry professionals, market experts and business advisors around the world.
Global competition. Geopolitical changes. Digital disruption. Shifting regulatory landscapes. Evolving consumer behavior. When it comes to corporate strategy and growth, there are several factors you need to take into account: from the current rate at which facts change and information flows, to the increased global competition led by technology-driven challengers and the speed that innovation happens. Without making informed and efficient decisions, any company is off the right track and its stakeholders are blind to changes in current conditions, future predictions and shifting behaviors. Existing databases and market reports will only help you obtain generic and unrepresentative insights; as soon as you get access to them and “store” the information, the information is already outdated.
To survive, grow and succeed in this environment, business or investment decisions must be constantly kept up-to-date to adapt to our world’s ever-changing scenarios. One smart way to achieve this – and to manage or reduce any unforeseen risks – is to rely on the experience and learning of the business professionals that have trialed something similar in this specific market, industry and location and market leaders who are in the center of change and innovation.
As the devil is in the detail, companies and entrepreneurs need to follow a differentiated strategy built upon elevated, untapped and tailored-to-their-needs knowledge. Widely available and high-level information points, that can be found in easily-accessible reports and databases by anyone, won’t give you a competitive advantage. When corporations and investment firms are faced with strategic decision making, access to specialized, unique insights can be a gamechanger in unlocking value for their organization and clients. Just in 2021, the expert network industry’s year-on-year growth surpassed 20%.
How do expert networks work?
The expert network services are available to any type of business, and most importantly:
- consulting firms looking to enable their teams to provide top quality work to their clients by accessing knowledge about different industries and local markets and staying on top of current and future trends and technologies across sectors,
- investment firms such as private equity funds, hedge funds, asset managers and venture capitalists conducting due diligence, interested in identifying and screening new investment opportunities or understanding how the characteristics of a specific market might impact their current investments,
- and corporates that might be seeking specialized experts that will help them shape their strategies and business plans or identify opportunities related to their operations and enable them to achieve higher efficiencies .
“By now expert calls for consulting and investment companies are like ATMs for banks. They are a sort of advantage to have, but most importantly, a tremendous disadvantage not to have. Without engagements with experts, you’ll be missing out against your competitors.” – former Managing Director at a top-3 global Consulting firm
After receiving a project brief from a client, expert network companies are looking for the best subject matter experts around the world to get them the insights and information that they need, no matter how specific or urgent the request is. Following the sourcing of all potentially relevant experts, the client – a consulting company, a hedge fund and so on – receives a list with the best matches for their project. It is totally up to them to decide with how many and which one(s) of the experts they would like to connect with, in order to understand market dynamics and get answers to their questions.
Let’s say for example that a few years ago, a leading industrial manufacturing company in Europe was looking to understand the market demand, price and competitive landscape for lithium-ion battery materials used in electric vehicle batteries around the world. The expert network would first proceed with market research to establish criteria around which experts would be the best to advise on this subject (their industry, location, level of expertise, position, professional background etc.), source them and share their profiles with their client. The client would decide with which of the battery materials and energy storage technologies experts they would like to connect in order to understand the trends and market dynamics of the space.
Our differentiated model
Dialectica – founded in 2015 to revolutionize how information services companies and expert networks operate and to bring true value to the world’s leading consulting and investment companies as well as the largest corporations – is following a differentiated approach to expert knowledge sharing.
With a business model that puts the needs of our clients at the forefront, we follow a differentiated, agile research-first approach. Unlike traditional expert networks that follow a database-first approach, we will look absolutely everywhere. Our ongoing customized research processes and targeted human-led screening that are focused on the hard-to-find and differentiated experts, enable our Client Service team to stay flexible and able to constantly realign on your evolving needs, priorities and information gaps. By employing 500+ talented professionals in five international locations and aiming to grow our team to 1,200+ people in the coming years, each one of our clients has a dedicated point of contact for all their requests. At the same time, we maintain a solid, error-proof compliance framework to fully protect your project information and scope.
With the help of technology, Dialectica is constantly improving its current services by offering new products to adjust to its clients evolving needs. Being one of the best companies in our industry is simply not enough for us; our vision is to be the global information services company that shapes better decision making worldwide. By expanding our business ventures we aim to dominate the wider market research industry in the coming years. Having followed a really successful trajectory in the field of expert calls globally, in Q4 2021 we established a new business unit in B2B Surveys in order to provide even more value to our clients by giving them access to custom recruited and vetted respondents across niche B2B markets.
