We apply research skills and expertise - from anthropology, history, law, linguistics, political science and psychology - to matters of strategy, integrity, operations and impact.
Advisory Support
Case Studies
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Entity: A start up Ai software company won funding for an autonomous resupply vehicle project, through a government technology accelerator programme.
Problem: The project required a specialist in policy, legal, regulatory and operational research to establish deep context, justification and implications of the proposed technology.
Solution: Research was done on government policy, multi-agency logistics doctrine, standard operating procedures, and case studies of the commercial state of the art.
Impact: The final report provided the contextual detail needed to justify the project to the funding programme, trigger release of a funding tranche, and advance to next stage of research and development.
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Entity: A large established insurer monitoring a politically unstable African state in the midst of fast changing and violent revolutionary upheaval.
Problem: The client required an updated understanding of political and commercial channels of influence in the area. Due to the fluid nature of the situation, it also required an expedited response, and core capability in the form of an outsourced investigative analyst who could design and undertake research in support of the in-house team lead.
Solution: An approach was identified and implemented to make use of locally produced open sources, including online, print and grey literature. Steps were then taken to acquire and collate information, validate it, and extract relevant data points. These were used to develop network charts mapping out social, political and commercial networks.
Impact: The client was briefed, and a final report and data visualisation product were handed over. The client deployed the collated information and briefing materials to its in-house team, which used them to increase the effectiveness of its real-time fraud detection and investigations.
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Entity: A state in Europe engaged in diplomatic efforts with the de facto authorities of a post-conflict region.
Problem: Very little was known about the de facto authorities. The client's Ministry of Foreign Affairs wished to have a broader knowledge base so that it could more effectively prepare for its engagements with the de facto authorities. They were aware of a private collection of hardcopy primary sources that had been generated by the de facto authorities, including newsprint, magazines, laws and decrees, and other openly published materials. The collection was held in a remote location, physically inaccessible to researchers outside the country, could not be relocated, and the texts were in multiple languages read and spoken by very few in the Ministry.
Solution: A project was designed from scratch to preserve, organise, digitise and translate the collection. Digitisation equipment was procured or built, and digitisation and translation efforts were undertaken under austere conditions, in partnership with the collection owners. Over 50000 pages were digitised, 2 million words of text were translated from three different languages into English, and local staff received and implemented training in digitisation processes. The original collection was left in the safekeeping of a custodian in the country and thereby preserved as tangible cultural heritage, and the digital collection was donated to a university library to ensure future researcher access.
Impact: The project radically increased the store of publically available primary source data on the de facto authorities. Conversion of the collection from paper to digital media prevented loss of the physical materials, and of the information contained in them. The availability of an accessible and searchable digital archive enabled better informed diplomatic engagement with the de facto authorities, and researchers have authored multiple books and articles based on the newly available source materials.
Applications
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You need to be in the know. There's a lot of information out there - too much for you to effectively track, process, and triage for the nuggets that matter to you. You need someone to design, implement, and maintain a system that will sort the signal from the noise, communicate it effectively to you, and limit the risks that come from being in the dark.
We can help.
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You have a vision and a plan, but not the hard data you need to back them up. You need a fractional CRO who knows your information gaps, how to fill them, and who then gets you the contextual and exploratory information that will establish a firm foundation for what you want to achieve.
We can help.
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Your office is preparing a position paper. You need to base it on verified historical data and source material, and you need to demonstrate that you’re taking an evidence-based approach to the position.
We can help.
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You have an interesting idea that you think might be innovative and worth the investment in resources needed to develop it. You want to know the current state of the art, whether it’s been done before, by whom and how well, and whether there’s a commercial market for it.
We can help.
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You need to understand and shape the atmospherics in your market segment. We use empirical and analytical techniques to verify relevant elements of the information landscape and make sense of its impact on your interests.
We can help.
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You're a partner at a boutique firm that's in high demand, and the pressure is on to deliver more, better, faster. Ai tools are the way forward, and you've already integrated one into your practices. A major problem is that hallucinations still happen, and they present serious risk. You've already received one client complaint about the quality of one of your Ai-enabled reports, and the potential for sanctions is high. Your staff don't have the competencies or the time to engineer effective prompts, quality control, or edit your Ai's outputs.
We can help.
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You've been assigned on short notice to a new region. You don't have the language, and you have little to no time to read into the local and national scene before you have to lead a series of important client meetings. You need a briefing package that's crisp, comprehensive and digestible - and you need it yesterday.
We can help.
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You’re the consortium leader on a proposal with a tight deadline, you don’t know where to begin, and you don’t have the time or the expertise in-house to get up to speed. You need an external expert to do the research that will get you over the line.
We can help.
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You’re in the C-suite and your attention has been directed to an opportunity. You need a discrete advisor who can draft a crisp, well written memo that quickly scopes relevant public information, determines whether it's accessible, and outlines the costs and benefits involved in obtaining it.
We can help.
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You’re in the midst of a negotiation and a counterparty quotes a media source alleging a problem that could affect your company. It’s news to you. You need someone to look into it and sort fact from fiction.
We can help.