Around Jim Morrish from Analysys Mason in 10 questions

Today’s star analyst in our Around in 10 Questions series is Jim Morrish, at Analysys Mason.

1. What are your coverage areas?
   I run the Mobile Content and Applications research programme for Analysys Mason, and I’m responsible for all of our published research covering anything that happens on a mobile handset, excluding traditional voice calls and SMS.  That includes application stores, specific niches such as gaming or mobile video and mobile advertsing, plus consideration of non-phone substitute devices.  The analysts work pretty closely at Analysys Mason, so I also get involved with our mobile broadband, Internet of Things, fixed broadband and connected home research.  In fact, I tend to get involved in pretty much anything that is new and exciting and consumer oriented.
2. What’s your typical day like?
   I spend a significant amount of time simply keeping abreast of industry developments:  the areas that I focus on change and develop very quickly.  Aside from that, I spend a lot of time discussing Analysys Mason’s research with both existing and prospective clients, researching specific topics, speaking at conferences and being briefed by telecoms operators, vendors and software providers.  And I fit some report writing into the gaps.
3. Now, c’mon, tell me an AR horror story?
   I was a consultant for 18 years before becoming an industry analyst just over one year ago, and luckily I’ve not seen any real AR horror stories in that time.  Now if you had a consulting sister-blog, then I could type for ages …
4. How do you position your firm? What is your business model?
   Analysys Mason’s research arm generates revenues from three main channels: Telecoms market research publications, telecoms software research publications and custom research, including primary and secondary research tailored for anyone interested in any aspect of the telecoms market when neither off-the-shelf or consulting support can deliver.  Here’s some text that I’ve cut and pasted from our website:  “Analysys Mason’s extensive range of subscription research programmes offer a mixture of qualitative and quantitative market intelligence, providing an essential resource for strategic planning, investment, marketing and benchmarking.  We analyse the industry and the significant shifts affecting the global telecoms market. We also analyse, track and forecast the different types of service accessed by consumers and enterprises, as well as the software, infrastructure and technology underlying those services.  Many of the world’s leading vendors, regulators, banks and operators subscribe to our programmes and rely on our insight on a daily basis to inform their decision making “
5. What is your research methodology?
   All of the above.  You can’t beat secondary research to get a quick overview and understanding of a specific issue, but you can never truly understand an issue completely until you’ve spoken to the people that are at the coal-face, living and breathing that issue every day.  For instance, I’m now researching device fragmentation and I’m talking to people who write and develop abstraction layers (of different types), major games developers, small scale (one-man) developers, application stores and operators and resellers:  anyone with an interesting perspective, and who will talk to me, really.
6. Tell us about one good AR practice you’ve experienced or one good AR event you’ve atttended.
   Telefonica recently did a really good job of pulling together relevant telecoms industry analysts, together with key internal project sponsors for a couple of days in Madrid, and were just really open about their plans in various markets.  I learned a lot.
   
7. What are your offerings and key deliverables?
   Mainly reports and other written deliverables for our research programme subscribers and client briefings and presentations.  Sometimes I get invited to visit clients to give my views on either a new strategy, or potential product offerings.  As a company we are known for being able to bridge the gap between understanding customers and understanding hardware, networks, technology and pricing – how you configure and price telecoms products has an impact on how you have to build your networks, and vice-versa.  It’s always an optimization problem.
8. Any hobbies or favourite restaurant / food that you’d like to share?
   Not really hobbies (does anyone have any time for those any more?), but I do try to head out to the Oxfordshire hills with my mountain bike whenever I can find the time.  In fact, I actually try to spend as much time in the South of France as I can, frequenting the restaurants around Gourdon (Lot), sampling the wines of Cahors and biking in the hills down there but there’s an issue of the quantum of available time, and realistically I get to the Oxfordshire hills more often than the South of France!  Hmm, I suppose I’ve just implicitly categorized horsing around with my kids as something that keeps me from getting out on my bike … not so, they’re great. (and I’m not even obliged to say that, because neither of them can read yet!)
   
9. What is your biggest challenges for the upcoming 6 months? And for the next 30 mn?
   Key challenges in the next 6 months for me revolve around developing a new and compelling service offering.  And the next 30 minutes?  It’s Friday afternoon as I write this – enough said?
10. Is there another analyst (a peer in your firm or with another firm) whose work  you rate highly?
    Rupert Wood.  I have never yet come across a situation, or topic, in telecoms and on which Rupert does not have something interesting and insightful to say.