Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column where C-level executives and advisory firms from across the mobile industry share unique insights and experiences.
Successful companies in the future will be those who partner with industry analysts to drive new technologies forward and create new market opportunities. We can use each other, strategically, to create products and technologies. The days are long gone when companies looked to analysts simply as a source for research reports or a consensus industry number on shipped quantities. Every time we interact with an industry analyst, we have the opportunity to spark a new technology idea. Analysts can sow the seed for a revolutionary product or a new way of thinking about the future. Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen the best business development execs allow analysts to become a vital catalyst for creating impressive, out-of-the-box ideas that can change the world.
A formalized industry analyst relations process is new for MediaTek. To start, we took the more traditional approach over the last few months when we launched our octa-core mobile processor, the MT6592. We pushed out the news via analyst meetings and one-on-ones in eigh major cities from Hsinchu to Boston. In turn, analysts spoke with carriers, tech partners and other customers, creating a great buzz, and a “pull” for the chip. In the future we will be involving analysts at much earlier stages of the business development process.
Industry analysts’ understanding of what a company is trying to achieve is so vital. I see it as a balanced 50/50 of “push” and “pull.” Sometimes I push information out to the analysts. Other times, I pull from the analysts, requesting their insight into a particular growth trend. Early on, we can get that out-of-the box analyst insight that will be the start of a world-first capability. A good balance creates a relationship of trust.
MediaTek has committed to a long-term strategy to develop mutually collaborative ties with at least one-third of the approximately 800 industry analysts out there covering “mobile.” Analysts are technically astute and highly inquisitive, their influence is far-reaching and more powerful than many in our industry would like to admit. Our industry analyst relations strategy is starting to take shape, with full support from MediaTek’s divisions and key stakeholders. Industry analyst relations can sit as a relatively unimportant function inside of a company’s public relations department or, as at MediaTek, a company can commit to developing a world-class industry analyst relations function, at the top, to increase mindshare and drive revenue and stock value.
Kristin Taylor is VP, Worldwide Analyst Relations at MediaTek, a global leader in fabless semiconductors for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions. She brings over 20 years of technical and business development experience, as well as analyst relations know-how from successful executive management roles at AT&T, Lucent and Qualcomm.
