A visit to our New York office
Last week, I had the pleasure to pay a visit to our US team for the first time since we opened the office in New York about 6 months ago. This short blog post gives a status update on where we are today. Operating from a small office located in the heart of New York (Madison Avenue 232), our team consists of 4 bright and motivated people: Filip De Boeck (Managing Partner and US Country Manager), Niels Schillewaert (Co-founder & Managing Partner) and Dennis Claus (Business Director). By October, Angie Deceuninck (Business Director) will reinforce the US team. Having started a green field operation in the Netherlands myself a few years ago, it was great to feel and recognize the vibes that typically go along with any start up.
Looking at realizations, I am very happy to see that our US team has been able to successfully convert their market development efforts in real and meaningful business growth. After just 6 months, they have been able to realize more than $ 800,000 in sales, exceeding the targets we had set for the first semester. We are delighted to be able to work for aspirational US customers such as Bloomberg, MasterCard, AB InBev, Heineken, and Diageo.
In addition, our InSites Consulting brand is gradually building awareness on the US market. We have been ranked as 11th most innovative research company in the most recent GRIT report, Tom De Ruyck (our Head of Research Communities) was nominated as a next generation research star at the ARF Great Mind Awards 2012, Niels was recently featured in Quirk’s and CASRO magazine and presented at the Advisory Board of the MMR at the Terry College of Business – University of Georgia, and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Leonard Murphy in the CEO Series of the GreenBook blog.
And more is scheduled for the coming months. Tom De Ruyck will be a keynote speaker at the AMA Virtual Xchange event on what’s next for ‘Online Research Communities’ in terms of new tools and new possibilities. We will present at the Best of ESOMAR events in Los Angeles and New York. And we will be on stage at the upcoming ESOMAR Congress in Atlanta, also being member of the Esomar program committee.
A big thank you to everyone having contributed to our success so far. I am looking forward to the next steps in further strengthening our position on the US market.