MRC Methodology: How We Did It
Some enterprises just make money, but some also innovate, care for the environment, honour women and plough back into society. A BW Businessworld salute for the best of them
The Most Respected Companies survey is a perception-based survey. The objective of the study was to map the current perception level in the minds of employees in India. TechSci identified 23 sectors and conducted research across 1,012 respondents including senior- and mid-level employees.
The sectors covered included Apparel/Textiles, Automobile, Aviation, Banking, NBFC, Cement Manufacturers, Chemicals and Paints, Consulting, Consumer Durables, E-tail, FMCG, Healthcare, Handset manufacturers, Hospitality, Infrastructure (Power, Heavy Engineering), Metals and Minerals, Oil & Gas, Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, Retail, Technology, IT/ITes, Telecommunication (service providers).
The entire exercise was divided into four stages. It began with framing the questionnaires, followed by respondent identification, data collection and finally analysis of the data.
The framing of the questionnaires was an elaborate process that included going into the details specific to companies and sectors, creation of an algorithm of questions to give a scientific perspective to the questionnaire, translation of the questionnaire in relevant languages to elicit effective response from all the sectors. The questionnaire had 3 parts and 8 parameters -- effective growth plan, financial return, innovative product/services, trustworthy leadership, embracing latest technologies, corporate social responsibility, women friendly policies, and work culture.
A total of 1,012 respondents were identified from 141 companies on the basis of their age and work experience. The largest pool of 708 respondents were those with eight-plus years’ work experience and aged 35 and above. The next lot of 250 had 4-7 years’ work experience and were in the 25-35 age group. The smallest lot of 54 was made up of self-employed individuals of age 30 and above.
Database was created from target hubs in Noida, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai.
Data was collected from employees through face-to-face interviews, phone calls and links sent through email. Automated validation checks enabled data hygiene, followed by stringent quality checks on collected files.
This was followed by 20 industry employees and 20 non-sector employee being recruited from each sector to map the perception straight from the stakeholders as well as from the outsiders. In addition, 40-50 respondents from each sector were identified and asked to rate 3-5 companies of their domain and five to seven other companies. Finally, the entire parameters were mapped on a 5-point scale.
In the last stage, weightages were assigned by Jury members against eight parameters and a collective score was calculated to arrive at top 100 score. Finally, jury members also added a few companies as the survey did not capture enough responses to arrive at a conclusion.