Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gary Peterson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gary, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

Absolutely. After all these years, I have realized that I need a solid one week vacation each quarter, just to clear my head and rest. If I don’t take that time, it leads to more stressful, less productive, and poor decision making.

We preach at gap intelligence that vacations are good for all involved. Vacations are good for the person taking them to catch up on rest, clear the mind, and refresh. The tasks that person delegates to team members benefits them because they are challenged to learn new things and more often than not make those tasks even better, which benefits the company in the end as the entire team is cross trained and ready to scale.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I started gap intelligence in 2003, I was inspired by companies who recognized that private business is responsible for the public good. I admired Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, the Container Store, Wholefoods, Patagonia, and others because they made it their mission to make their community better as a result of them doing business there. With that as your purpose, the company can’t help but do similar great things for its employees and ultimately customers.

gap intelligence exists to do great for its people, its clients, and the community. We do that by empowering our people to bring data to life for our clients and ultimately tell our clients what is happening with their competition and marketplaces. Our clients are hardware manufacturers and they are busy building and designing and selling their goods. Our clients don’t have time to understand what is happening in stores or what tactical moves their competitors are making and that is where gap intelligence comes in. In a world full of software as a service or big data analytics, our core value is our People – a human being who is an expert in an industry. A person is more intuitive, responsive, and insightful than any software platform and it is our people that we lean on.

I’m proud that we have walked the talk for all these years. We’ve grown the business, helped our clients make smart business decisions for three decades, and have raised over $500,000 for local San Diego nonprofits. You’re not signing up for a data feed when you work with gap intelligence, you are signing up with a true partner and contributing to something bigger than ourselves.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I was employee #4 at another research firm in the late 90’s. We were short staffed and I was doing the work of about four people and was just exhausted by the time ownership allowed me to hire more staff. My first interview was with this guy named Chris Barnes and although my only hiring requirement was “breathing”, Chris was indeed alive and extremely competent. I hired him immediately and we have been work spouses ever since. My first goal when starting gap intelligence was to figure out a way to have Chris join me.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Market research and professional consulting are stuffy vocations. The typical researcher is a know-it-all who turns a nose up to small market questions and small market people. When we started gap intelligence we wanted to be the opposite – to be approachable. We’re not the suit wearing, stuffy shirt, analysts that won’t return calls, we’re the person sitting in the cube next door to our clients. We want to know how your vacation was. We want to know who your kids are and who your favorite sports team is. We pick up the phone and we return phone calls no matter who you are.

I have always made it a point to talk to every employee at a client’s office. Those interns, those junior managers, that I visited with 15 years ago are VPs of Marketing and CMOs and they remember me and gap intelligence. For me that’s the goal, I want my clients to think of the people they work with from gap intelligence more so than the business itself. When my clients see the research budget line item for “gap intelligence”, I want them to think “Dustin” and “Monica” and “Kristina” and “Jordan” and simply can’t live without them. That’s the goal.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gapintelligence.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gapintelligence/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gapintelligence/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gap-intelligence/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gapintelligence
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu9fzwLZpgWHjcGW9aZz08g

Image Credits
No credits needed. These were shot by gapper Erin Hartman.