"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
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.
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…
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
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
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.
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.