Coalface Research is the research arm of Launch Pad Marketing and its Principal, Peter Hind. Its name draws on the expression ‘to be at the Coalface’. In UK business terminology being 'at the coal face' is used figuratively as a way of saying that the person is 'in touch' and appreciates the actualities of the industry rather than being a 'bean-counter' (accountant), in an ‘ivory tower’ (consultant), a 'paper pusher' (administrator), or a 'fat-cat‘ (executive).
This name has been selected as representative of the work and experience Peter Hind has been doing since he began as an IT analyst in 1994. For ten years Peter ran the InTEP IT Executive Community across Australia and New Zealand on behalf of the research company IDC. This was an environment free of vendors, the press and consultants where senior IT executives and their reports met to exchange ‘warts and all’ implementation experiences. The aim is to cut through the hype that bedevils the ICT industry by providing practitioners with an environment where they can save themselves re-inventing the wheel by learning from the knowledge gained from those who have gone before them in implementing a new technology or management practice.
For ten years Peter Hind was responsible for recruiting members to the management group, facilitating the meetings, delivering a ‘perspective’ speech at each session on the topic of the meeting and writing up the proceedings. It has been this exposure to the needs and challenges of CIOs in the Asia Pacific region over so many years that gives Peter the right to say that he is ‘at the coalface’ of the ICT industry in this region.
Peter has also earned a deserved reputation as one of Australia’s foremost ICT analysts for the numerous end user research projects he has carried out across Australia, New Zealand and Asia since 1994. Besides survey research Peter has carried out numerous other forms of research. These include roundtable discussions, focus group research, one-on-one interviews, telephone research or web based surveys.
Peter has become a proficient user of a number of software analysis and research tools during his career in ICT research. These include: Information Tools Espri, SPSS data analysis software and the SPSS Scytab tool.
