The turnover of Ipsos has been flat for the past three years. Based on this disappointing fact, the management of Ipsos has launched a programme designed to foster a route to profitable growth.
Beyond external factors such as the volatility of certain emerging markets, the stagnation of the Euro zone or the profound transformation of marketing practices used by companies (and institutions) for the development and promotion of their products, services and ideas, Ipsos believes that the main factors explaining its current performance lie within its organisational structure and its capacity to roll out new services which meet the new requirements of the market.
The new requirements evolve around four key themes: Security, Simplicity, Speed and Substance. They are expressed in relation with relatively traditional business matters, for example, when monitoring the health of a brand in a particular market, or when measuring the level of satisfaction of existing clients with a specific service, or when forecasting the sales potential of a new product. These new needs are, also, expressed in relation with new questions, such as the understanding of communication campaigns in a fragmented and digitalised media environment, or as the impact of companies’ corporate image on their ability to sell their products and services.
The response to these new needs should clearly integrate the fresh possibilities offered by new technology, the rise of neuroscience, and the emergence of giant databases arising primarily from social media and distribution channels.
Ipsos will find its path back to growth by responding to these new needs, by developing a range of new services in a more systematic and aggressive way, and which are designed for both mature and developing markets.
In July 2014, Ipsos launched a programme entitled “The New Way”, designed to run for a number of years.
Several hundred staff have been involved with this project over the past six months. It aims to transform the organisation of the company with a single, over-riding objective: to make Ipsos more able to develop, commercialise and sell new services, while ensuring its clients receive a high quality, reliable level of service delivery.
Today, Ipsos is putting on its website presentations of some of these new services, just as they are being presented at a meeting being held in Paris with a number of French investors and analysts.
The positive effects of “The New Way” will be felt in 2015, and will increase over the coming years.
As previously announced, Ipsos’ revenue and operating margin will be stable for 2014.
In 2015, Ipsos should grow organically by 1 to 2%. Its profit level will be impacted by the 20 million Euros of new expenditure that the company intends to devote to implementing decisions arising from “The New Way” programme, and the development and roll-out of new services. The operating margin will be around 10%.
From 2016 onwards, Ipsos’ organic growth rate should increase to between 2 to 5%. In such a situation the profit margin will improve and should be between 11 and 12% in 2017. It will then continue to progress until it reaches its long-term goal of 15%. Ipsos considers itself to be well positioned to take advantage of its competitive advantages: the strength of its brand; its knowledge of its clients and the quality of the relationships it has built with them; the talents and expertise of its teams; its financial resources; its global presence; and its strength not only in major developed markets (including the US and the UK) but also in large emerging markets.
The need for information which helps decision-making and management control is not declining in companies and institutions with which Ipsos has worked in the past, works today and will work in the future. This need is increasing and it is changing. It is these changes which Ipsos has not adapted to sufficiently over the recent past. These are the changes which “The New Way” project addresses. They are tomorrow’s requirements which Ipsos will anticipate thanks to its new organisation.
With this in mind, Ipsos has decided to express its commitment by linking its name to a new tagline: “GAME CHANGERS”
In this way, we commit to our clients to help them manage their own transformation by providing them with the right information and the best services this requires.