Gerson Lehrman Group connects businesses and individuals to people with the insights to empower better decisions.

The Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 with a mission to eliminate avoidable blindness and make eye care accessible throughout Armenia, a country known for its poor social support infrastructure. Raising money is of central importance to any nonprofit organization, and the leadership of AECP was acutely aware of their need to improve that part of their business. However, they also needed support in tackling board development, staffing, strategic marketing and PR implementation.

GLG Research quickly sourced key experts with a broad range of experience who could speak to each of AECP's needs. Our experts initially worked to strengthen AECP's fundraising efficacy, providing insights into audience awareness and long-term goal setting. Over time, their projects with us grew, and through conversations with our experts, AECP was able to develop new strategies for social media marketing, online demand generation, public relations, fundraising and governing principles for their board.

"GLG Research delivered the highest caliber consultants. Working with them is analogous to participating in a high-level post graduate course in nonprofit management with dedicated professors," said Roger Ohanesian, President of the Armenian EyeCare Project.

After several interviews with our experts, AECP developed more robust strategies for several major areas of their organization: from fund raising to receiving highly qualified board leads to settling on a strong marketing plan and PR strategy moving forward, the insights our experts provided will help AECP elevate their marketing and fundraising efforts.

Envivio’s leadership was looking towards the future of the company, with an IPO pending. With consumer trends increasingly geared towards video and live TV consumption through multiple screens, Envivio is well positioned to make a strong impact through their cross-platform video streaming solutions. However, the company’s board was composed of mainly angel investors and venture capitalists, and needed new expertise as it prepared to go public.

Envivio came to us for this unique request. We tapped our network to find a board candidate with compensation expertise, who lived in the region and could devote significant time to board practices, quickly gathering more than 20 qualified executives.  Ultimately, Envivio chose a candidate local to San Francisco who had a strong background in compensation strategy. “GLG Research helped us find the right person quickly, with the specificity of our requirements fully accounted for, in a cost-effective manner,” said Gianluca Rattazzi, Envivio’s Executive Chairman. Within 60 days of joining the board, the compensation committee held its first meeting.

Jane Chen, Rahul Panicker, Nag Murty and Linus Liang, a team of graduate students at Stanford University, had a great idea.  They wanted to find a way to reduce premature infant mortality rates in emerging countries.  As part of a graduate school course they took together, Embrace Global was founded. Its aim: to provide sustainable, easy to use infant warmers for third-world communities to help low birth weight and premature babies survive. However, as their idea took shape, they realized that the scope and reach of the project needed specific, niche insight that they could not find through their own contacts.  They turned to us for help.

Through our network of more than 300,000 experts, we identified 20 of the most relevant and qualified specialists for each of Embrace’s business needs. Experts with sustainability, manufacturing and medical device design experience were brought in to inform the development of Embrace’s flagship product – a moldable incubator sleeping bag. Our experts helped Embrace in formulating a distribution model, and as the organization has come closer to creating a broad launch of its product, we have helped provide access to key insights to their marketing, organizational and strategic needs. With our experts’ guidance, Embrace is doing good work that will benefit countless people across the world struggling to access affordable, sustainable health options.

"Innovation in Action" featured CEOs from some of the most promising venture-backed companies discussing their industries and the latest technology trends in an intimate forum.  CEOs Victoria Ransom from WildFire.com, Gary Swart of oDesk.com and David Friedberg from Weatherbill.com presented to a diverse audience of venture capital, late-stage private equity and public market investors.

For the participants, it was an opportunity to learn about important developments in the enterprise, wireless, online marketing and social markets directly from the CEOs of the companies that are driving those trends. It was also the chance to meet the leaders of a group of companies that will be part of the next wave of major ascendant businesses to emerge from Silicon Valley. 

For the presenting CEOs, it was a chance to make some valuable connections to investors and executives, especially as the companies consider future growth strategies. Former top executives from local tech companies that included Six Apart, Yahoo and Zynga, joined the audience for the event and added a level of depth and experience to the discussion.

An investment management client called GLG Research at 10:00 a.m. on a Friday to understand Reverse Morris Trusts, which are transactions that allow the tax-free merger of two companies.

By 4:00 P.M., GLG Research had the client on the phone with a Council Member who actually wrote the Reverse Morris Trusts law.

“GLG is invaluable in any situation where voice of customer, voice of market or voice of technology is critical and time sensitive.” – John Meduri, Director Strategic Planning and Business Development BD Diagnostics – Diagnostic Systems

BD Diagnostics, a global medical technology company, was exploring the process by which pharmaceutical companies develop new anti-infective agents used to treat disorders caused by microbial pathogens.

GLG Research formulated a custom survey and secured responses—which included detailed commentary—from a group of more than 20 anti-infective agent experts in our network, exceeding Meduri’s expectations.   “The number of detailed responses provided in the survey was very powerful. Beyond that, we were able to call survey participants whose responses sparked more questions on our end, giving us additional perspective directly from the respondents,” says Meduri.  "This brings tremendous value to our process and has the potential to open doors to new opportunities."

“The unbiased information and analysis we’ve gleaned through utilization of the GLG platform has helped us make more confident investment decisions and provide strategic recommendations to Takeda.”  – Graeme Martin, President and CEO, Takeda Research Investment, Inc.

Japan-based Takeda Research Investment (TRI) works diligently to ensure that the company is aware of important industry developments and emerging healthcare trends in every corner of the world—and that the discovery phase of its activities incorporates best practices from around the globe.  TRI needed to identify and recommend emerging growth opportunities to its parent, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, by uncovering early market indicators and trends across North America, Europe and Australasia.

Graeme Martin and his team engaged GLG to arrange consultations and visits with experts, as well as put together a panel to assess a potential target.  Not only did the insights validate TRI’s position on the target, one Council Member introduced TRI to a new innovation that the company had not previously considered.

Social media has caught on like wildfire, connecting people with a speed and precision that we never imagined.  The challenge is the seemingly infinite flow of data on social platforms, known as the 'stream.'  Larry Cornett, founder of the product design advisory firm Brilliant FORGE, says that the players who can help make sense of this "polluted" stream will win.

A generalist private equity firm focused on emerging markets needed help with one of its portfolio companies in the manufacturing industry. The company had a large older facility in Hamburg, Germany and needed guidance on what its options were for re-engineering and upgrading the facility.

GLG was able to locate an engineer with German language skills as well as experience with a blue-chip engineering consulting firm. The Council Member spent two weeks alongside the private equity firm’s executives in Hamburg conducting a personal evaluation of the facility and its financials and produced a written report on the costs of upgrading the facility. The client estimated that the project cost one tenth of what a similar project with an engineering firm would have.