Engage Experts through a Wide Variety of Interaction Options

Gerson Lehrman Group enables clients to engage Council Members through several research solutions, each supported by standards and safeguards to drive appropriate consulting. To facilitate these exchanges, GLG has developed two intertwined management systems:

• Collaboration Systems GLGs collaboration options include telephone consultations, educational events and wide variety of written offerings. Each GLG solution is customized to clients education and decision-making contexts, project timeframes and organizational preferences. GLG helps clients understand the combination and sequence of solutions that are most appropriate for their research needs.
• Conflict and Disclosure Management Systems GLG has developed unique systems to support its clients standards for expert consulting. In addition to the underlying contract signed by each GLG Council Member, every collaboration between a client and Council Member is managed through technology that enforces clients compliance requirements.

Collaboration Systems

Gerson Lehrman Group can arrange different types of interactions that are appropriate for every research need, ranging from quick inquiries to comprehensive due diligence efforts. These include:

• Telephone Consultations Direct conversations with Council Members efficiently deliver relevant industry overviews. Typical turnaround time for consultation requests is less than 48 hours, with many arranged in under 24 hours.
• Educational Events The GLG Institute organizes tens of thousands of meetings between clients and Council Members in GLG Member Programs every year in a variety of formats, from formal seminars and collaborative discussions, to site tours and private in-office one-on-ones.
• Written Products These include both expert surveys of Council Member populations, as well as a variety of customized reports by experts in GLG Member Programs, including single-author reports, collaborative multi-author reports, market studies, in which one or several experts create and comment on a consumer survey.  In addition, GLG News service provides commentary from experts on important news items.

In addition, GLG is always developing new ways to tap the knowledge and expertise of the GLG Councils. These new services, some in the earliest stages of testing, seek to improve information access in novel ways.

Conflict and Disclosure Management Systems

Gerson Lehrman Groups unique technology enforces important standards and safeguards. These include processes to which all GLG Council Members are subject, and special safeguard systems for Council Members who are employees of organizations. These include:

• Project Vetting and Acceptance Process - Council Members have the responsibility and are always afforded the opportunity to assess and explicitly accept each consulting project before interacting with a client. Both clients and Council Members are required to interact only on topics that do not pose any conflicts. As a result, GLG asks that clients provide the specific topic of conversation, and that Council Members assess and unequivocally express that they are able to discuss that topic.
• Conflict Disclosure and Tracking - Council Members are systematically solicited to disclose specific restricted subjects. In addition to requiring a Council Member vet and formally accept proposed projects before the interaction, GLG seeks to carefully track a Council Members expressed limitations to avoid inviting him/her to a project on a restricted subject. To efficiently enable this critical capacity, GLG has developed an innovative Disclosure Management System to efficiently track such subjects. Based on the same powerful technology and taxonomies that drive GLGs knowledge-management efforts, the Disclosure Management System uses human-language questions to elicit restricted topics, and then stores the information provided in a subject hierarchy to help block inappropriate projects.
• Employee Conflict Safeguards - Council Members who are employees of companies cannot engage in projects concerning their employer. Based on both client and Council Member feedback, GLG requires that industry experts who are employees never consult on his/her own firm.
• Programs for Ongoing and Extensive Consulting - Only specially qualified Council Members can engage in extensive or ongoing projects that entail a deeper relationship with GLG clients. Only those experts who are qualified for GLG Member Programs, membership which requires written confirmation from an employed Council Members employer demonstrating consent to the employees outside consulting activities, can engage in types of consulting that require or result in deep, ongoing interactions. This safeguard prevents any expert not in GLG Member Programs from participating in more than three telephone consultations a year with a client, participating in any in-person meetings, or providing any written reports.