Second Stage Extra: In Need of Master’s-Level Talent, Gongos Teams Up To Help Create It
For Auburn Hills custom marketing research firm Gongos Research Inc., finding the right talent to bring aboard is one of the greatest challenges. But a new effort could fill the talent pool with homegrown researchers.
In March, the CEO of Troy-based marketing research firm Ducker Worldwide contacted Gongos to help create a new master’s of market research program at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business and Graduate School of Management. The marketing research industry is growing, generating $19.2 billion globally in 2003 and more than $32 billion in 2008, according to the Amsterdam-based European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research. And as the industry grows, so does Gongos, going from 77 employees to 100 in the past two months and from revenue of $13.2 million last year to a projected $16.9 million this year. But finding master’s-level talent in the area has been nearly impossible for Gongos.