In a recession economy, one of the major casualty is the research budget. It is hard for a research manager in a company to justify the enormous budgets he commands in a company. It i especially true for projects which are run on a regular basis. The ad hoc projects which are in majority used for estimating the demand for a new product also dry up. In the same way, when an economy is recovering, companies would like to test their products and are in constant need to self evaluate their position int he market. So the point I am trying to raise is the amount of work a research firm has indicates the direction of the economy.
Dubai has been reeling under recession for the past one and half year or more and recently the amount of projects being given to research companies has seen an increase. Could this mean that Dubai is recovering?
Another possible explanation is what is commonly termed as sunset budget. The research budget in companies are approved in the first quarter and the research managers in their own frugal mindset spend minimal amounts in the second and third quarter. This puts enormous pressure on them for the fourth quarter. In their own self aggrandizing mentality they would like to complete the budget in order to increase their budget and position next year. So the net effect is commissioning of lot more studies in the last quarter.
So now that you know research companies are billing more this months, does it mean Dubai is coming back or is it the research budget being spent by overzealous research managers. Could be anything, but the net effect is I would have lots of work in the next three months.
An associated problem with this is sudden increase is the effect it has on the manpower of research agencies and the quality of life of the researchers. I guess it requires another post in itself.
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