Eventually the industry may get better at labeling useless research for what it is (the trend is not positive, however), but for now the very few good studies routinely drown amidst the hyperbolae of research that can’t connect with real insight—or those that connect all too well because the result was fairly evident before the process began.

Nowhere is the problem more acute than in the online travel and social media worlds. High-priced research typically reinforces conventional wisdom and assumptions while key customer and behavior questions remain unresolved.

I’ve wondered aloud in past articles why major trade groups show such slight interest in these issues. If the online and social media worlds have such monumental consequences, what precisely could be more important to their members?

Here are a few suggestions for modeling forthcoming research projects. These are similar to suggestions I’ve made in public for 15 years, and hopefully they will help you appreciate the limitations of today’s travel research and be positioned to improve it in the future.

1)           Broaden the Base

Successful studies need wide participation and sponsorship. Those funded and controlled by a single company or clique are not necessarily bad, but this adds complexities and concerns that are avoidable through planning and execution that strives to include more viewpoints. Addressing the needs of a broad constituency increases both value and integrity.

2)         Sampling Is Key

Few research projects undertaken in the travel industry describe how the study sample was selected, what the resulting accuracy and margin for error are, or the size of the sample.  This is because these are among the most challenging aspects of valid research—requiring time, expertise, and money to address properly.

Most researchers simply ignore them; the resulting studies are little better than worthless.

If you peek under the covers only slightly at a surprising number of major industry studies, you’ll discover that the sample essentially self-selects. The researchers won’t explain how their conclusions in this environment are valid because they aren’t—and they can’t.

There are many parts of a study that has sufficient statistical validity to become the basis for real-world conclusions and predictions, but one is usually that a valid sample must be defined and identified in advance of the research and then the study must continue until it reaches the sample as defined.  More work than most researchers want.

3)         Questions, Questions

Any question-based research should disclose the questions used and how these are presented.  Forming valid questions is a significant undertaking—which is frequently botched.

During 2010 I was treated to a trade conference  where the expert presented study results to show the importance of the field where he was the market leader and that was the subject of his presentation.  The self-selected sample were asked a variety of simplistic questions with many obvious answers:

“Is cost-control important in your business?”  Have you ever met anyone who would answer “no?”

When the presenter reached some study questions that were clearly silly, he remarked,

“Well, my staff assembled these questions and I should have reviewed them better.”

In other words, the presentation is a waste of everyone’s time—which also says something about the extent to which some conference organizers vet their presentations.

4)         Seek Wide Input

Limiting control over a study to its sponsors or other “insiders” cannot but color the result as self-serving. Enlightened researchers learned along ago that the “best and brightest” often don’t work for them and they seek such talent out wherever they can find it.

5)         Dump Hyperbolae; Focus On Quality

The industry doesn’t need another round or praise describing how great the opportunity of the day may be. What’s needed is thorough research and careful answers that relate to business concerns and allow the reader to reliably take action.

This simple definition disqualifies most of the fluff-laden e-commerce and social media studies of the past few years. There are people who know how to do real research—it’s a mystery when their input is so clearly lacking in the major reports of today.

6)         Analyze

As there are competent researchers there are also competent interpreters who can make connections between abstract numbers and real business situations. Their work ought to by key to any research project. A study lacking informed, usable conclusions should be first into the worthless bucket.

7)         Validate

There’s a saying that teaches thus:

“Premises that are absurd when projected into the future were absurd to begin with.”

Researchers and readers alike need to apply logical tests in order to understand the validity of a study’s conclusions.

For instance, most predictions about the fantastic growth of mobile, social media-based, or other new media travel purchases assume a level of personal computer use and literacy throughout society that is simply absurd within the time frames considered.

Clearly studies are failures when they cannot withstand the test of reasonableness.

8)         Forget “Guru” Mentality

Research is ongoing and the “final word” on most topics will likely never be written. Successful research projects are willingly subject to critical review and are revised in light of new viewpoint and data.

A premise holding that the oracle has now spoken and nothing further may be added only highlights the underling weakness of the research in question.

The company said that it received a letter from NASDAQ on March 11 stating that it “no longer complies with Listing Rule 5550(b), which requires the Company to have a minimum of $2.5 million in stockholders’ equity. In addition, the Company continues to not be in compliance with Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) regarding the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement, which cure period expires on March 29, 2010.”

TRX further explained that it has decided not to undertake remidies for this situation “which may or may not be successful.”

TRX elected to list itself on the NASDAQ Capital Market (which is used by smaller companies with less capitalization) in October, 2009 owing to problems it had faced for some time retaining its place on the NASDAQ Global Market.

Read the complete press release at: http://bit.ly/dkaoXK

The space program, undoubtedly among the most enlightened and visionary initiatives of the 20th century, brought about untold advances in all scientific fields.  Among its short-term goals was to show the superiority of U.S. science, engineering, management, and political leadership.

Kennedy speaks of the initiatives he has just announced and says that we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, “Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Few of us will be called upon to motivate an entire nation to action, but in the small ways we are asked to lead others, remember Kennedy’s words and also remember that doing hard things is not only possible, it creates often insurmountable obstacles to competitors and adversaries.

Managing for peak performance is one of the most difficult tasks you’ll ever attempt.  Whether your business is large or small, and whether you have major development projects in progress or simply want someone to handle training for three people, the formula for managing technology routinely eludes most people.

The first key to managing is recognition that management is the wrong word and the wrong premise.

I’ve always taken the somewhat extreme position that few things of real worth were ever built, assembled, found or perfected by managers.  True excellence in any field comes from differentiating between managers and leaders.

Once that step is made, it’s possible to do truly great things.  An army lead by managers is composed of conscripts and mercenaries because the people actually doing the work neither wholly believe in nor accept the cause for which they labor.

Likewise, projects or offices staffed by people who just put in their time as long as their paychecks keep coming are ultimately destined for mediocre results from partial commitments and average efforts.

Only when an army is truly led, and when the efforts of the participants are measured by the fact that they wish they could do more, do conscripts become patriots.

In a business sense, the ability to go beyond what everyone else is doing or to take a giant step is driven by personal commitments from exceptional people—the kind who will do anything for the right leader.

Leadership is so elusive that you almost never see it in business. No doubt you can think of many people who have been reasonably successful while managing.

But if you know of anyone who did something extraordinary in business—developed a radically new product, launched an enterprise with no capital and little experience, or did what others had tried to do and failed—chances are part of the reason is that this individual stopped managing and started leading

Given enough money, time and staff, you can complete a project and get workable results—results that also will be fairly common (uncreative), rigid and not years ahead of the competition, by managing people who simply put in time.

Most businesses find this formula too expensive and limiting to be useful.

Achieving the exceptional result—something very difficult to replicate and extremely valuable to your business—depends on attracting, motivating, leading and keeping the right people. Don’t blame the staff for the lesser result—the fault is usually at the top.

Ernie Pyle, the great World War II news correspondent, once wrote that the success of any enterprise is determined by the morale of the group. Morale, he said, depends on two factors: commitment to the team and complete confidence in its leaders.

• A leader stands at the head of the group and asks the other members to follow as he addresses the tasks before them.  A manager asks the group members to work as hard as they can, but measures his own success by different standards.
• A leader doesn’t ask anyone to do things he hasn’t or wouldn’t do it himself. A manager thinks most jobs are for underlings and that he has “special skills.”.
• A leader shows the kind of genuine commitment to the project he expects everyone else to show; by implication, he wouldn’t be involved if he didn’t believe in the project. A manager just follows orders and puts in time.
• A leader has the highest professional and personal standards. A manager will often tell others to do what it takes to get by.
• A leader holds his position because he’s shown he has what it takes to get the job done.  A manager often occupies his position because he’s been there the longest, knows somebody or just happened to be appointed to the position.
• A leader doesn’t necessarily know everything, but as long as he can apply the skills of other experts, the project can succeed.  A manager feels he might fail personally if someone else is shown to know something he perhaps should.
• A leader puts the project first—if it fails he fails. A manager usually has somewhere else to affix blame.

The biggest problems to be faced in any type of project are almost always management, and not operations-based. To successfully overcome them, you don’t need smarter people: you need to become the type of person smarter people will follow.  You and I can both look at most organizations in our industry and see that they’re not performing at peak efficiency.

Morale, something most managers never seem to notice, is among the primary indicators.  Leadership doesn’t wholly take the place of money, or the right tools, or skilled professionals, but it does give these elements a chance to do something really useful.

You can produce real competitive advantages, but you’ll rarely ever succeed until leadership becomes first priority.

Key areas emphasized here include:

• Travel distribution strategies.
• New travel technology products, techniques, and processes.
• Commentary on what these developments mean and what you should be doing about them.

The industry is awash with seminars, newsletters, and online brochures that have their own agendas to promote. What you won’t find here is that same conventional thinking. Regardless of who might disagree, the views found in these pages take a different path–one that is usually proven right.