Thought Leadership
Underpinned by our global reach and team of subject-matter experts, we create high-impact, evidence-based narratives to help executives run their organisations more sustainably and profitably.
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How we can help you
We create distinctive, actionable, and ground-breaking research that helps differentiate your organisation and reach relevant decision-makers.
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Influence stakeholders
To get out of the sea of sameness, organisations need to demonstrate the value of their activities to their key stakeholders. We help you advance your organisation’s reputation and bolster advocacy efforts by communicating strategic business issues and best practices to policymakers, local communities, customers, investors and employees.
Enhance strategy and planning
We conduct proprietary, custom-made research in partnership with companies and organisations to create evidence-based narratives about the future of business and the public sector. Rather than general research, we offer highly relevant analysis you can gear to your organisation’s specific needs, with valuable calls to action.
Break new ground
Our analysts and editors are experts in their fields. They know where to dig, what to probe, and how to connect the dots. By drawing on a full array of quantitative and qualitative research methods, from global surveys and interviews to data analytics and market forecasts, we go beyond conventional wisdom and uncover fresh stories and insights.
Our expertise: From ideation to delivery
Our distinctive capability lies in orchestrating thought leadership projects from ideation to seamless delivery and amplification. But we tailor our approach to match the precise needs and objectives of each client, ensuring their vision is translated into impactful thought leadership content.
Bespoke surveys
With decades of experience in the field of primary research, we specialise in crafting bespoke surveys that are precisely tailored to our clients’ unique research objectives, leveraging industry-specific knowledge, advanced data analysis capabilities, and an unwavering commitment to the highest quality standards.
Executive insight
Our expertise in C-level interviews is unparalleled. We have engaged with top-level executives in organisations around the world, from Fortune 500 companies and global industry leaders to innovative start-ups. Our skilled team of interviewers excels at navigating the intricacies of executive leadership, ensuring that our interviews yield valuable insights that are not only informative but also highly relevant to the ever-evolving needs of businesses and professionals worldwide.
Compelling narrative
We understand that it’s not just about collecting data; it’s about presenting that data in a compelling and meaningful way. With a deep understanding of what the market finds interesting, our team is skilled at transforming raw data into engaging stories that not only convey key insights but also captivate and inform
Visualisation
Data alone can be overwhelming, but when presented visually, it becomes accessible and engaging. Our team combines artistry with data-driven insights to produce eye-catching infographics, interactive dashboards, and multimedia presentations. We know what it takes to keep the market’s attention, and our visualisations are designed to do just that.
Disseminating the results
Our experts possess the essential presentation skills to communicate their findings effectively. They have a knack for distilling complex ideas and information into straightforward and engaging narratives, ensuring their research resonates with a diverse audience. Whether during conferences, press meetings, videos, webinars, or any other medium, we deliver the research insights with clarity and impact.
Report amplification
Our expertise extends to amplifying our clients’ reports across social channels, traditional media, and our website. Depending on your needs–through strategic social media campaigns, media outreach efforts, and optimised web presence–we ensure that the research findings gain maximum exposure and engagement, reaching a broad and relevant audience.
Our expertise in practice
We've undertaken a wide array of thought leadership projects across various sectors and emerging trends. Our deliverables include impactful insights that enhance our clients' understanding of critical issues, bolster their standing as thought leaders in their respective fields, and empower them to make more informed decisions.
As technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, organisations are looking to understand how emerging technologies are shaping the world and how technology is being used and maximised. Our experts in the field of technology are adept at assisting companies in developing thought leadership research, shedding light on these crucial insights, and enabling organisations to stay at the forefront of industry trends.
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Beyond Efficiency: Overcoming digital complexity through observability
Digital transformation and accelerated migration to the cloud over the last three years helped keep businesses up and running—even thriving—but these trends also added unprecedented complexity to computing environments. Executives are implementing observability practices to not only overcome that complexity but to gain insights that help their organizations operate efficiently and expand revenue streams.
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Security’s Lament: The state of cyber security in the UK
Oxford Economics and iomart surveyed 500 executives in the UK to understand how cyber security decision-makers are keeping up with the pace of evolving threats, and maximize the benefits of a strong cyber strategy.
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The Race for Data Supremacy: Achieving decision advantage to deter future conflicts
Oxford Economics, in collaboration with IBM, interviewed government and military officials to understand how data can be used to create a sustainable decision advantage.
Find Out MoreWorking in a complex and diverse sector, our experts consistently explore the dynamic intersection of finance, innovation, and market trends, conducting comprehensive research on a range of themes. The actionable insights we provide empower businesses to maintain a competitive edge in the fast-paced financial industry.
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SMB Ambitions Barometer
Oxford Economics was commissioned by Payoneer to survey 3,575 small and medium-sized businesses around the world in an effort to understand their goals for international expansion and the challenges they face along the way.
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Leveraging Technology to Promote Financial Inclusion
Oxford Economics and Red Hat surveyed executives at financial institutions internationally to discover how they are using technology to expand financial inclusion while gaining business benefits.
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Becoming More Efficient – How finance and IT are leading the way
Oxford Economics and SAP Concur surveyed 1,000 finance and IT executives about how they are making their functions more efficient.
Find Out MoreHealth and well-being are paramount concerns for individuals and organisations alike. Our thought leadership initiatives in the realm of health explore the latest trends, emerging technologies, and best practices to foster a healthier world.
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The Ultimate Healthcare Experience: What People Want
Oxford Economics worked with Accenture to survey 11,823 people in 14 countries about their opinions on healthcare experiences in terms of access, service experience, digital technologies, and trust.
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The State of Scientific Research Productivity: How To Sustain A Critical Engine of Human Progress
A report with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, identifies common issues linked to lagging research productivity, along with some practical steps for improving performance across the research ecosystem.
Find Out MoreOur sustainability thought leadership team leverage their own expertise and our organisation’s multifaceted capabilities to dissect the factors behind high-performing sustainable organisations. By examining ‘who’ and ‘why,’ we guide businesses and their customers to achieve lasting success through informed decisions for themselves.
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Global Sustainability Transformation Survey Report 2023: Four keys to successful sustainability transformation
Oxford Economics and Fujitsu surveyed 1,800 C-suite and senior executives and conducted 22 in-depth interviews, uncovering perspectives from industries and countries around the world on the challenges, triumphs, and realities of transforming to a more sustainable business.
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Deep Green: How data, technology and collaboration will drive the next phase of sustainability in business
How data, technology and collaboration will drive the next phase of sustainability in business
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How New Sustainability Efforts Can Boost Efficiency and Profit
Sustainability efforts are a business necessity, but they still face headwinds, according to a new Oxford Economics and SAP study.
Find Out MoreSome of our most innovative thought leadership projects have been dedicated to applying rigorous analysis to topics like the future of work, workforce management, diversity and inclusion, transformation, efficiency and even the return on culture. Our ground-breaking research, often exploring the less measurable, more nuanced areas of business, deliver actionable insights for effective decision-making.
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Managing workforce risk in an era of unpredictability and disruption
Oxford Economics, in partnership with Deloitte, conducted a survey in the summer of 2022 to gain insights into how executives are identifying, measuring, and mitigating workforce risks.
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Empowering your people: How executives can jump-start the flexible workplace
Oxford Economics and SAP Concur conducted a global survey of executives and employees to see how executives support the new world of flexible work—and if employees are on the same page.
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Innovation Index: Are You Prepared to Shift from Disruption to Growth?
Oxford Economics and NTT Data fielded a survey of 1,000 North American business and IT executives in 2022 to uncover future strategies to mitigate disruption.
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Return on Culture: Proving the connection between culture and profit
Assigning a measurable value to something as intangible and fluid as organizational culture - defined here as the often-unspoken rules that guide the behaviour of leaders and employees alike - is a challenge for even the best-managed companies.
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Five ways to make the supply chain resilient: Thriving through disruption
Even during periods of massive change, there are plenty of opportunities to make supply chains more resilient—and more sustainable—to meet the challenges ahead, if only organizations will take advantage of them.
Find Out MoreOur thought leaders
At the core of our thought leadership work are our experts, each with a wealth of knowledge and experience in diverse fields such as technology, health, finance, and operations. Their collective expertise drives our commitment to delivering valuable insights and innovative solutions.
Debra D’Agostino
Managing Director, Thought Leadership; Co-Managing Director, Oxford Economics USA
+1 (646) 380 9454
Debra D’Agostino
Managing Director, Thought Leadership; Co-Managing Director, Oxford Economics USA
New York, United States
Debra D'Agostino founded Oxford Economics’ Thought Leadership division in 2011 and serves as its managing director. She oversees a global team of editors, researchers and analysts who conduct ground-breaking research programs in partnership with the world’s most forward-looking organizations, on topics ranging from business transformation, emerging technology, diversity and inclusion, talent and leadership to risk management and corporate finance. Debra also leads Oxford Economics’ global consulting business development team, serves as co-managing director for the firm’s operations in the Americas, and is a member of Oxford Economics’ global Senior Management Team.
Debra joined the firm from the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research arm of the Economist Group, where she led the company's business research department for the Americas. Prior to the EIU, she served as an editor and writer at CIO Insight, the award-winning business and technology strategy journal she helped launch at Ziff Davis Media in 2001. She holds a bachelor of science in journalism from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
Edward Cone
Editorial Director, Thought Leadership
+1 (336) 337 3127
Edward Cone
Editorial Director, Thought Leadership
New York, United States
Editorial Director Edward Cone oversees global research programs for our Thought Leadership group. As Technology Practice Lead he works with clients such as Google, Accenture, IBM, SAP, and many others. His areas of focus include Artificial Intelligence, the impact of technology on business performance, and healthcare organizations.
Edward joined the firm in 2012 after more than two decades as a business and technology journalist based in New York, Paris, and North Carolina, including stints as an editor and writer at various Ziff Davis magazines (CIO Insight, Baseline), a contributing editor at Wired, and a staff writer at Forbes.
Edward also wrote a weekly newspaper opinion column for many years in his hometown of Greensboro, NC and authored a semi-popular blog. He has contributed to a bewildering variety of magazines and papers on topics ranging from politics to rock climbing and was a frequent speaker and organizer at new media conferences across the country. Honors for his work include the 2020 Rybczynski Prize, awarded for the best essay on economics by Society of Professional Economists, and various awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and the North Carolina Press Association. He has a BA from Haverford College.
Zack Friedman
Managing Editor, Thought Leadership
Zack Friedman
Managing Editor, Thought Leadership
New York, United States
Zack works with clients across multiple sectors for our Thought Leadership group.
Zack has served as co-founder and CEO of Mentor, a leading fintech company focused on personal finance. He has invested in companies in the financial services, real estate, technology, healthcare and consumer sectors. Prior to Mentor, Zack worked at Blackstone and Morgan Stanley. He has served as a Senior Contributor at Forbes. Zack holds degrees from Harvard, Wharton, Columbia and Johns Hopkins.
John Reiners
Managing Editor, EMEA, Thought Leadership
John Reiners
Managing Editor, EMEA, Thought Leadership
London, United Kingdom
John oversees Thought Leadership projects with EMEA-based clients. He works across business sectors and disciplines, but specialises in issues relating to strategy and business operations, such as sustainability, digital transformation, employment and skills, finance, and performance management. He has directed the Thought Leadership contribution on some of Oxford Economics’ largest and most complex research programmes, for global consultancies and corporates, including Accenture, the Adecco Group, Cognizant, EY, Fujitsu and YouTube. Often this is in collaboration with his economist colleagues to blend qualitative and quantitative analysis, and to explore the impact of corporate actions at a business, industry and economy level.
John joined Oxford Economics in 2014, after 25 years as a Financial Controller, financial management consultant and, most recently, a thought leadership expert for IBM’s Institute for Business Value, focused on global public sector issues. John then worked on the independent Digital Government Review as input to the UK General Election. He is an Economics graduate from Sussex University and a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA).
“Working with the team is a real pleasure. I felt they were just as committed to the project as I was, both in terms of meeting the due dates and also delivering quality, well-written content. They were very communicative with the regular updates on process. Our survey was conducted at the height of the pandemic and the team proactively suggested adding new questions to address what was going on at that moment and delivering an intermediary report very quickly.”
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If you would like to learn more about our thought leadership services, please fill in the form and let us know a bit more about you and what you’re looking for. A member of the team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.
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