A few words on Gartner
Brand and trust are powerful assets
I’ve gotten to know Gartner pretty well over the years. I’ve been a customer (multiple times - including currently), a competitor (also multiple times) and nearly an employee (yes multiple times as well…).
There are many opinions on the company, and most of them involve some truth.
But there is one word that I don’t hear nearly often enough about the firm - trust. Yes every company who hasn’t done as well in an MQ as they’d like may question my use of that term, but I’d argue that Gartner has done a much better job than any of their many competitors over the years in becoming the trusted voice in the IT buyer community. And that Gartner is - far and away - the dominant IT research firm today.
The shares took a major hit last week - long-time Gartner follower Carter Lusher gives an overview here of why.
Gartner’s certainly got issues - and most of them apply to the analyst industry that the company dominates as well. I had another exchange about this with Scott Albro on LinkedIn last week.
But fundamentally that trust is still there and is the core of the Gartner brand - a powerful asset that’s been built over many years - which I believe has considerable long-term value.
So I now find myself in a new role with Gartner - as a shareholder. Putting at least some of my money where my mouth is, and betting the value of that brand and trust will sustain, and Gene Hall and his team will find ways to adjust to the many threats the business faces going forward.
