Research Consumers: Understanding How Data Can—And Can Not—Answer Questions about Customer Needs

June 27, 2023

In this episode of Trends from the Trenches, Stan Gloss speaks with Efosa Ojomo, director of the Global Prosperity Group at the Clayton Christensen Institute (CCI) and coauthor of The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty, about the parallels between consumption economy and life sciences research. Ojomo discusses how relying on data metrics does not necessarily provide full insight on what a consumer audience needs, why it is important to also look at non-consumers, how to overcome barriers of consumption—and how all of these questions can apply to research. He also delves into his experiences working with his late mentor Clayton Christensen, whose theories, models, and frameworks have pivoted the CCI’s mission of understanding the complex world of global development and, ultimately, achieving prosperity.

Efosa Ojomo
Efosa Ojomo leads the Global Prosperity research group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a think tank based in Boston and Silicon Valley. In January 2019, Ojomo and late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen published The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. In a Wall Street Journal review of The Prosperity Paradox, Rupert Darwall writes: "The authors return the entrepreneur and innovation to the center stage of economic development and prosperity."

Ojomo's work has been published and covered by the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, the Guardian, Quartz, Forbes, Fortune, The World Bank, NPR and several other media outlets. He speaks regularly on innovation and has presented his work at TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Bank, Harvard, Yale, Oxford and at several other conferences and institutions.

Ojomo graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in computer engineering and got his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Host Bio

Stan Gloss

As co-founder and Evangelist of BioTeam, Stan Gloss has been working to tell the stories of the intersection of science, data and technology since 2002. Gloss joined with fellow founding partners Bill Van Etten and Chris Dagdigian to form BioTeam in 2002 following his tenure in business development with AVAKI Corporation, a pioneer in global grid software solutions, and Blackstone Computing, a computing and IT consulting company for scientists, Gloss led the sales initiative that launched the company in the life sciences market. Gloss earned his MS at the University of Buffalo and was a department chairman and faculty member at Quinnipiac University.

A life science IT consulting firm at the intersection of science, data, and technology, BioTeam builds innovative scientific data ecosystems that close the gap between what scientists want to do with data—and what they can do. Learn more at www.bioteam.net.