Every morning, I check my phone, just as millions of us do, to see the email in-box displaying a delightful red dot with a figure proudly displayed. For me, that figure is generally in the twenties or thirties. I open my e-mail in anticipation that today’s deliveries will all be exciting and relevant to what I’m focused on. I’m disappointed; it’s a jumble of non-relevant spam dross. Why don’t I delete all?

Because, just maybe somewhere in there is an email from Profound.com. That informative and precisely relevant email will be focused on a current project or industry that I need information on. Why do I seek out this golden nugget of an email? Well, because I told it precisely what I needed to be contained within it. It took me minutes to set up, and that investment was invaluable. How did I do it? By using the highly customized features on my Profound.com market research solution. But, why did I invest my valuable minutes?

I am always amazed that through science man has determined that the universe is between 14-15 billion years old and, even more astounding, is the calculation for the Universe’s expansion. So, why was it that, at the Perfect Information Conference in 2012, 30 leading information professionals with hundreds of years of experience between them could not come up with the answer to a simple question: What is the ROI (return on investment) from market research? Is this the information industry's holy grail? Maybe…..

Let’s consider this in another way. If there are too many variables to determine which piece of data or knowledge proved pivotal in the launch of a new product or successful investment, then consider this: Where was the value derived?