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STRATEGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE  •  (800) 224-7608  •  www.SRI-Consulting.org

"You predicted that if we followed your recommendations that our bond measure would be approved by 79% of the voters.

"We followed your recommen­da­tions quite closely, and the measure was approved by 78.7% of the voters."

— Mr. Hal Cronkite
 Assistant City Manager
 City of Berkeley, CA


About SRI

What sets our Institute apart from the rest?


Where other firms stop, we continue on!

Strategy Research Institute (SRI) is a supplier of "applied science" for purposes of policy decision-making in both the public and private sectors.  This includes policy research and consulting for agencies in the public sector, and market research and consulting for firms and organizations in the private sector.

The Institute also generates "intelligence" needed to assist its two sister firms in servicing their respective Clientele;  those being: IMC Corp (Integrated Marketing Communications) and PAI (Political Action Institute).  The Institute has been in business for nearly three decades.

SRI is comprised of a select team of applied behavioral scientists (both quantitative and qualitative researchers) and strategic planners.  SRI's researchers are proficient in the most up-to-date, advanced scientific methodologies and have advanced degrees from such academic institutions as Univ. of California-Berkeley, The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC (University of Southern California), and NYU (New York University).

What sets SRI apart from other research firms and organizations is that we CONTINUE ON where they leave off.  Specifically, most applied research firms provide only basic descriptive statistical analysis (percentages & cross tabs), while SRI goes beyond descriptive statistics to advanced, inferential, statistical analysis including, but not limited to, correlation analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis, and even causal modeling;  thus, yielding far more accurate predictions of voting and/or consumer behavior.

Public Sector

In the public sector, the Institute partners with government agencies (e.g., cities, counties, JPAs, Special Districts, public school districts, and state agencies) throughout the U.S.;  thus, providing decision-makers with the very form of "intelligence" needed for making "informed decisions".  We also partner with special interest groups & organizations that are stakeholders in the Public Sector.

California is unique, compared to literally every other state in the nation, in that many (if not most) funding measures (taxes) that are placed before local voters require 2/3rds voter support to be authorized vs. a simple majority.  Thus, with 24% of California voters describing themselves as being "anti-tax," a tax measure that requires 2/3-voter support can be derailed with a negative impact on voting behavior of 10% of the respective electorate, or even less.
 As such, any special interest group, stakeholder group, or voting bloc (e.g., seniors) can easily cause a given tax measure to go down to defeat;  yet, SRI's record of success remains in the high 90-percentile AND has been for more than two decades.  Indeed, SRI's proven success ratio is unmatched by any competing research firm/organization.

Some of SRI's most recent successes are, for example…

  • In the June 2013 election cycle, SRI orchestrated a funding Measure in Lane County, Oregon (the Eugene area) on behalf of the County Sheriff's Department.  The County had placed the very same Measure on the local ballot nine (9) times in a row; it lost all nine times.  County officials then retained the professional services of SRI, which was successful the first time out.  Below are a couple of quotes from the Client.

    Sid Leiken, Chairman, Lane County Board of Commissioners:
    "The data you provided on voters' willingness to pay, combined with what you told us about the communities values, allowed us to craft a revenue question that received the support of 57% of our voters.  Most notable is that with your help, we turned around an electorate that had said no to nine previous public safety elections dating back to 1998." — SL

    Alex Cuyler, Lane County Intergovernmental Relations Manager:
    "You know, Sid and I just looked back again at your predictions.  After you'd asked the question of would voters support a modest increase specifically designed to reopen beds, you got into the threshold of willingness to pay issue.  On fifty cents, your go/no-go model said 58%.  Last tally I looked at we were at 56.95%.  Sid and I were just shaking our head's in appreciation for your nailing that number.  Really remarkable." — AC

  • In the June 2013 election cycle, SRI called, spot on, 8 out of 8 elections in the City of Omaha, Nebraska;  this included the Mayor's seat and seven City Council seats.
  • Also in the June 2013 election cycle, SRI correctly predicted 3 for 3 successful funding Measures for the City of Clovis, California;  both the City Manager and City Council thought all three would fail.
  • After Fresno COG (Council of Governments comprised of the County and the 15 cities in Fresno County) experienced a terrible defeat at the polls (54% YES vote when 2/3rds voter support was needed), SRI was commissioned to nurture them through a $1.7 billion (with a 'B') transportation funding measure.
      Dr. Manross worked closely with the Agency for more than two years;  the upshot was 78% voter support.  In fact, these efforts resulted in an eight-page editorial in support of the tax Measure, published in the "Fresno Bee";  something not seen before nor since anywhere in the United States.

    Tony Boren, Executive Director, Fresno Council of Governments:
    "I can give you $1.7 billion reasons why I think Dr. Manross is one of the best in the business;  that is how much our transportation sales tax Measure C will raise over its 20-year life." — TB

  • In the June 2012 election cycle, of the 11 Cities/Counties throughout California that placed a sales tax Measure on their respective ballots, over half failed;  however, the top two vote-getters were SRI's: 74% YES vote for the City of Pittsburg and 73% YES vote for the City of San Pablo.
  • SRI has assisted the East Bay Regional Park District (the largest regional park District in the U.S.) raise over $1 billion over the past 27 years;  in fact, SRI continues to work with this Agency on a retainer basis and will undoubtedly continue this on-going relationship into the foreseeable future.
  • SRI assisted the City of Eugene (Oregon) with a successful $35.9 million G.O. Bond;  a street maintenance bond to fund approximately 70 lane-miles of streets and three miles of off-street bike and pedestrian paths.  Subsequent to this success, SRI was commissioned to conduct a comprehensive scientific survey regarding revitalization of downtown Eugene.
  • The Institute orchestrated a successful TOT (bed tax) on behalf of the City of Desert Hot Springs;  in June of the same year, the firm nurtured a successful effort that secured 69% voter support among property owners in the City of Pittsburg for an increase in their annual Landscape and Lighting assessment (voter support started out at 34%).
  • SRI has worked with BART (the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority), which services three counties in the San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco Counties);  and the AC Transit District, which services two counties in the Bay Area (Alameda and Contra Costa).
  • Other Clients in the San Francisco Bay Area that SRI has worked with through the years include:
    …the cities of Oakland, San Jose, Milpitas, Hercules, Martinez, Pleasant Hill, Benecia, Brentwood, Berkeley, Danville, Pleasanton, Fremont, Newark, Los Altos, Half Moon Bay, Gilroy, Santa Rosa, Union City, Pittsburg, San Pablo, Sunnyvale, Hollister, the towns of Fairfax and San Anselmo, (to name a few);
    …the counties of Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, San Benito, Orange (CA) and others.
     In addition, we worked with the cities of Fresno, Clovis, Sacramento, Davis, West Covina, Eugene (Oregon), Park City (Utah), Fairfax (Virginia), Green Oak Township (Michigan), Tulsa (Oklahoma), Omaha (Nebraska), Louisville (Kentucky), Phoenix and Tucson (Arizona), among others.
Private Sector

SRI has in-depth experience in the private sector, as well.  The Institute routinely conducts market research and consulting (marketing consulting, public relations, advertising, and promotion);  much of it in the managed health care industry.

Its Clientele has included the Health Care Division of J.D. Power and Associates, one of the most prestigious research firms in the world that specializes in this area, for example.  J.D. Power staff did the qualitative research;  SRI researchers did the empirical (quantitative) modeling.

SRI conducted monthly customer satisfaction/loyalty research for SafeGuard Dental, Vision, & Healthy Family Plans (headquartered in Orange County), for 14 years;  until it was purchased by MetLife.  The Institute does new product development and surveys involving Member Disenrollment for a variety of organizations in the Managed Health Care Industry, which have included HealthNet, Humana, SCAN Health Plan, among others.

SRI is also involved in high tech;  in particular, introducing Fiber Optics to the marketplace.  For example, SRI was commissioned to conduct surveys for 18 cities in Utah and two cities in Wyoming to test the feasibility of creating new revenue streams for local government by introducing fiber optics (Fiber to the Home and Fiber to Local Business) to the local marketplace.  The list could go on and on.

SRI's Chairman & CEO

George Gary Manross, Ph.D. is a behavioral scientist with more than 25 years experience in political communications and political consulting, integrated marketing communications, and communications management.  Dr. Manross is cited in Wikipedia as being…

"A leader in designing and conducting public opinion surveys, Dr. Manross is an influential figure in California politics… implementing innovative methods. Dr. Manross' results are often astonishingly accurate."

Prior to founding SRI, Dr. Manross held executive-level positions with two Fortune 500 companies, as well as with the largest state trade association in America, the California Association of Realtors®, and the largest public relations agency in the world, Hill & Knowlton, Inc., headquartered in New York, N.Y.  He began his career as Business Editor for a metropolitan daily newspaper.

Dr. Manross has taught at UCLA and at USC, and was Associate Professor of Communications in the California State University system, where he held a joint appointment in Advertising and Public Relations.  He was the head of the Advertising Sequence when he left academe; during this period, he taught courses in applied research, integrated marketing communications (IMC), management, advertising, and public relations at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

His research is routinely cited in both the scholarly and popular press, and in such classic textbooks as Diffusion of Innovations (Everett M. Rogers, 1995, 4th ed., Free Press, N.Y.).  Dr. Manross is senior author of a paper with the late Dr. Rogers that will soon be submitted to the Harvard Business Review;  entitled, 'CLOSING THE CHASM'™: Introducing New Products/ Services Into the Marketplace by Integrating Diffusion of Innovations with Product Life Cycle.  Dr. Manross also authored the book: The Impact of Theory-driven Public Opinion Research in Strategic Planning for Winning Campaigns, Carlton Press, NY.