i4 Group, a passion for political intelligence

A note on the Total Addressable Market (Appetizer!)

A political consulting firm specialized in campaign management and public opinion research would have a very dynamic addressable market. The full potential of the addressable market unveils every 4 years, or 2 years in the case of midterm elections. This does not mean that there will be no demand for the company services during non-electoral years, but we will have to struggle to keep existing clients after elections (by shifting our consulting services from campaigns to public sector consulting) and that we will have to find countercyclical markets, for example in other countries of Latin America. Until 2020 elections will be held successively in Perú, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. The short and long-term addressable market assumptions are important, but they should be looked at with the seasonal effect of election years in mind.

Despite these considerations, the TAM for i4 group is divided between campaigns or elections, and public leaders in office. When measuring the TAM for my venture, I consider the three levels of government and the two branches that hold elections, namely the executive and legislative. This involves mayors, city councilors, governors, state legislators, congressmen and women, and the president. The following table summarizes the findings:

The sub-set of the TAM that we will address are subnational governments. We recognize there are existing and established consulting firms that are already working with big candidates during this presidential election year. As a result, rather than looking for big and well-known candidates though a top-down approach, we will adopt a bottom-up strategy, starting with mayors and governors, and subnational house members. This would allow the team at i4 to gain experience before the 2019 presidential election, and get to know the role of provinces and cities in determining national elections. Naturally, this would entail lower pricing to our services because of the lower fundraising capacity of mayors and other subnational leaders.

A brief description of the Business Model Canvas (Entree)

The difference that i4 group wants to bring to the Argentine public opinion research market is the constant search for great human capital and the latest available tools to analyze big amounts of data. That is why our value proposition relies on newness, high performance as well as a notion of getting the job done, and customization. We would the use the most advanced tools (e.g. social media analytics) tools and customize it to local needs and running candidates. Customization, in particular, is perhaps the largest flaw of international research companies landing in Latin American countries with low to non-existent knowledge of local party systems, political traditions, and electoral dynamics.

To achieve such purpose we have already been partnering with local vendors and companies that could provide us with different services and products that would enhance our research, including mapping and geolocating voting patterns, conducting social media sentiment analysis, and processing large datasets from previous elections to predict current elections. We also recognize that my experience at the Kennedy School could provide a unique opportunity to reach out early on to current students - future candidates throughout Latin America.

Our customer segments would be divided by level of government and their current role in the public sphere (running for office or in office). Our first customers would receive a completely tailored and dedicated service, partly due to our excitement about the endeavor, but also because we decided to provide candidate-centered public opinion research and dedicated personal assistance through an online platform that gathers all the data relevant to the election. The team we are currently putting together has that idea in mind, and has a very productive equilibrium between academic excellence and experience as practitioners. 

The hypothesis I want to test about my customer segment is from subnational elections and government. I want to test whether mayors and governors could find in i4 a valuable service for which to pay a monthly fee. My intuition is that local and state-level is guided mostly by traditional politics and policymaking and, at the same time, big consulting firms are not interested in small and medium clients. As a company we would try to bridge this gap by bringing in the latest research techniques to customers that are not frequent consumers of these products. I would like to see under what conditions they would be wanting to hire our services, what would be the gains for them, what are the pains that they are trying to overcome, and what value they would see in a cutting-edge consulting firm landing in subnational districts.

The other hypothesis I want to test is related to our value proposition. I want to help design a specific product around the need of mayors in office to respond to rising crime levels. The product could contain strategic advice on how to manage local police forces, mapping crime techniques, CCTV location, victimization surveys, etc. This is currently the main concern at the local level, both for citizens and public officers, as shown by private and public statistics. 

Finally, I would like to test a hypothesis about the key partnerships i4 will establish with prospective candidates that are currently attending graduate school. I would like to understand what they would need, what are their requirements, and under what conditions they would hire a consulting firm such as i4. I would also like to learn more about the early

A note on our brand (dessert!)

We created i4 with the intention to be the best consulting firm in Argentina in the course of five years, and the best LATAM company in 10 years. We want to change the way in which political consulting and public opinion research are conducted in Argentina. Through our mission we want to outperform existing firms that offer traditional products (e.g. survey research) with technology and rigorous statistical analysis. At the same time, we want to provide customized services and a sense of “getting the job done” with deep knowledge of local politics, something international public opinion research firms often lack.

i4 Group would work with a combination of permanent staff but would also be a hub of the best young consultants with expertise in different fields (communications, education, health, criminal justice, technology, big data and data visualization, etc.). My partner has been Secretary of State for over 8 years, and has been appointed to other national offices throughout his career. Together we have built this company to develop the most accurate and reliable political analysis. Our ability to gather relevant information in a timely manner and from multiple sources will allow us to make the most comprehensive assessment of our clients’ strengths and weaknesses, identifying their biggest opportunities and threats.

We assume disruptive innovation as a necessary condition for success in the existing market. The acceleration of technological change requires constant reinvention of communication tools to build identity, message and audience. Our commitment to this approach allows us to bring our customers the latest findings in the fields of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, data mining, and behavioral science. The products we designed, including social media analytics, microtargeting, rigorous impact evaluation schemes, big data visualization, smart cities design and prospective analysis, reflect this.