InformationWeek

November 15, 1999

Analyzing The Analysts:
Coaching Meta Group To Reinvent Itself

al Sribar, senior VP and general manager of Meta Group's Infusion Program, wants to drive change. Sribar has taken on the ambitious task of helping Meta reinvent itself.

"My biggest challenge is breaking down the perception with our customers that we're a traditional research firm," Sribar says. Instead, he wants Meta Group to be seen as a consulting and research firm that coaches its customers through the process. "This requires creating an entire plan and getting a whole group of people executing," Sribar says.

Pressure to speed up research results in stimulating change at the firm. Meta's old model was to go into a company, interview its people, and then drop a thick "here's-how-to-do-it" report on their desks, Sribar says. Now, however, customers don't have time to interpret research results and plan how to implement them.

Sribar started out in the engineering program at Cornell University. But he hasn't held an engineering position in the 10 years since his graduation. Sribar's first step into IT was with Ernst & Young. He has spent seven years with Meta.

Meta has allowed Sribar to "get paid to go to business school." He's had crash courses in management and organization. Sribar says his motto is to lead by "doing it first," an approach that's not typical of an engineer. He's also driven to make Meta a billion-dollar company. "Results are what will get Meta Group there, and demonstrating success through good customer relationships," Sribar says.

His strategy is to take what he considers the five major industry themes--enterprise architecture, customer-relationship management, commerce change management, adaptive infrastructure, and operational excellence--and "infuse" them into a comprehensive plan for customers. Meta's Infusion Program extends the firm's research services with on-site customer workshops that provide implementation blueprints and comprehensive plans.

The approach seems to be working. The Infusion Program was a major contributor to Meta's third-quarter earnings, and it's now servicing more than 500 customers.

Go on to the next story, "Forrester Research's Creative Thinker."

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