Gerson Lehrman Group

Infobox Dotcom company
company_
company_name = [http://www.glgcouncils.com/ Gerson Lehrman Group]
company_type = Private Company
foundation = New York, New York, USA, 1998
Employees= 630
location_city = New York, New York
location_country = United States
key_people = Mark Gerson, Co-Founder and Executive ChairmanAlexander Saint-Amand, President and Chief Executive OfficerThomas D. Lehrman, Co-Founder and Director
industry = Expert network
products = The Research Management Platform: Web-based software that provides access and tools for managing an expert network of 200,000 sources. Customers can also telephone a company Research Manager to identify and engage with appropriate experts.
Slogan = The World’s Marketplace for Expertise
Website = http://www.glgcouncils.com/

Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) operates an expert network comprised of more than 200,000 [ [http://www.glgroup.com GLG Website Home Page] ] experts who provide consultant services to businesses. GLG’s clients include financial services firms, professional services firms, corporations, and non-profit organizations that use the network to improve their decision-making process.

The company divides its experts by field of expertise, organizing them as GLG Councils that focus on specific industries or disciplines. Industries include: Accounting and Financial Analysis; Consumer Goods and Services; Energy and Industrials; Financial and Business Services; Healthcare; Legal, Economic and Regulatory Affairs; Real Estate; and Technology, Media and Telecom.

GLG does not provide research or expertise itself but instead puts clients in touch with relevant experts. GLG Council Members include physicians, scientists, engineers, attorneys, senior-level business executives such as former CEOs, and market researchers. The GLG Councils are managed by Council Managers from GLG, who use a sophisticated set of profiling tools to help optimize matches with users.

Funding

Gerson Lehrman Group was initially funded by a friends and family round. [Steve Bodow, December 23, 2001. " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06E6DF1F3EF930A15751C1A9679C8B63 It's Not What They Know, but Whom] ", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

The firm has been called the "most valuable NYC company no one outside of Wall Street has ever heard of." [Peter Kafka, December 18, 2007. " [http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/12/experts_for_hire_gerson_lehrman_group_funded_800_million_valuation Expert Network Gerson Lehrman Sells Stake: $875 Million Valuation] ", Silicon Valley Insider. Retrieved August 13, 2008.] Estimates of the company’s value range from $875 million to $950 million. [Integrity Research, December 20, 2007. " [http://www.integrity-research.com/cms/2007/12/20/silver-lake-takes-a-piece-of-gerson-lehrman/ Silver Lake takes a Piece of Gerson Lehrman] ", Integrity Research. Retrieved August 13, 2008.] A 12-month revenue figure of $220 million was included in a company press release in December 2007 that announced that technology investment firm Silver Lake had made an approximately $200 million investment in GLG. [GLG, December 19, 2007. " [http://www.glgroup.com/news_12192007.html Gerson Lehrman Group Announces an Agreement on Approximately $200 Million Equity Investment from Silver Lake] ", GLG Press Release. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

Origins and early history

GLG was founded in 1998 by Yale Law School graduate Mark Gerson and Thomas Lehrman, who had spent the prior two years at large hedge fund Tiger Management. Their new company was formed as a publishing house to produce industry guidebooks for institutional investors, a business they abandoned a year later when they could find no buyers for their product. The two retooled their business model a year later to offer a matchmaking service -- or expert network -- to connect investors with independent consultants who could answer questions about a specific industry. Its services filled a research gap by providing timely, proprietary insights that were increasingly difficult to get from large brokerage firms. [Steve Bodow, December 23, 2001. " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06E6DF1F3EF930A15751C1A9679C8B63 It's Not What They Know, but Whom] ", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

As the use of alternative research providers within the financial industry has grown, brokerages themselves have seen the value of partnering with firms such as GLG. [Integrity Research, December 20, 2007. " [http://www.integrity-research.com/cms/2008/03/27/gerson-lehrman-and-morgan-stanley-alphawise-tie-up/ Gerson Lehrman and Morgan Stanley Alphawise Tie Up] ", Integrity Research. Retrieved August 13, 2008.] Today, there are at least 25 expert network providers focused on serving the investment community. [ [http://www.integrity-research.com/cms/our-services/researchfocus/expert-networks/ Integrity Research Web Site] . Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

GLG began working with clients outside of the investment community in 2005, and now has about 20,000-30,000 Council members who are senior business leaders engaged in consulting with other businesses. [Michael Fitzgerald, June 13, 2008. " [http://www.cio.com/article/395113/Why_Social_Computing_Aids_Knowledge_Management_?page=4& Why Social Computing Aids Knowledge Management] ", CIO Magazine. Retrieved August 13, 2008.] The company’s approach of connecting people and allowing for ranking of the experience involves a number of elements associated with social networking sites. There are some who consider the GLG model to be part of the evolving social network collaboration trend. [Robwebb2k, July 16, 2008. " [http://blog.robwebb2k.com/2008/07/16/user-value-demographics-tolerance/ User Value = Demographics + Tolerance] ", Robwebb2k. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

International

In addition to Gerson Lehrman Group's headquarters in New York City and other locations in major cities in the USA, the company operates in key cities around the world. [ [http://www.glgroup.com/contact.html GLG Web Site Contact US Page] ]

*Austin, TX, USA
*Boston, USA
*Chicago, USA
*Los Angeles, USA
*San Francisco, USA
*Washington, D.C., USA
*London, England
*Hong Kong
*New Delhi, India
*Shanghai, China
*Singapore
*Sydney, Australia
*Tokyo, Japan
*Zurich, Switzerland

Items & Services

Gerson Lehrman Group claims it facilitates more than 12,000 consulting engagements a month. [ [http://www.glgroup.com/about.html GLG Web Site About US Page] ] This volume drives a ranking system for the experts, called CouncilRank. A typical phone consultation with an expert lasts for approximately 40 minutes. [ [http://www.integrity-research.com/cms/our-services/researchfocus/expert-networks/ Integrity Research Web Site] . Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

GLG’s home page states that it has 200,000 experts in its network. A competitor, Vista Research, is said to have a network of 90,000. [BusinessWeek, August 1, 2005. " [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_31/b3945068_mz020.htm Have Experts, Will Hire Out] ", BusinessWeek. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

Clients can identify the appropriate expert from within the network and manage the logistics around the consulting session via a Web-based software tool called the Research Management Platform.

Clients can also call a GLG Research Manager who will perform the search to find the appropriate expert(s). Clients can choose how they wish to interact with the chosen expert, such as over the phone, via an in-person meeting, or through the creation of a written report or survey.

Experts are invited to join the network based on their profiles or association with industry organizations. Experts can submit their profiles online, including biographical descriptions and other background information.

The company has a deal with Credit Suisse, whereby analysts from the financial services giant would be able to tap into GLG’s council members as part of their research process. In return, 300 Credit Suisse analysts became members of the GLG expert network. [Greg Farrell, September 10, 2008. " [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7b41e986-7eca-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 Credit Suisse in alliance with consultancy firm] ", Financial Times. Retrieved September 17, 2008.]

Controversy

The expert network business model has drawn scrutiny for concerns relating to adherence to disclosure rules and sharing of insider information within the investment industry. [ [http://www.jmdutton.com/PDF_Files/mayhew-interview_0605.pdf Dutton Associates Online Interview] ] During 2005, for example, doctors who served as paid consultants to investment firms as a result of their role in an expert network generated a “fair share of controversy.” [Marcy Tolkoff, April 21, 2006. [http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=319414 Consult for Wall Street? Consulting for Wall Street may be lucrative, but some critics say such arrangements involve inherent conflicts of interest] ", Medical Economics. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

GLG was part of a lawsuit filed by Biovail in March 2006, in which Biovail claimed that its shares had been manipulated. [Jenny Anderson, February 23, 2006. " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E5DB1E3EF930A15751C0A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink] ", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

In September 2006, GLG announced a program of outreach to employers to increase transparency in the expert consulting and primary research fields. [GLG, November 1, 2006. " [http://www.glgroup.com/news_11012006.html GLG Press Release Gerson Lehrman Group Launches Institutional Registry, A New Clearinghouse for Expert Consulting Restrictions and Conflicts] ", GLG Press Release. Retrieved August 13, 2008.] GLG has in place a compliance framework and tools that are designed to supplement and enhance the compliance protocols of its clients and reduce client exposure to conflicts. [ [http://www.glgroup.com/Compliance-Guide.html GLG Web Site Compliance Framework Description] . Retrieved August 13, 2008.] The company says it has built proprietary systems to help identify and manage conflicts, leveraging its experience as a pioneer in its industry to craft risk-reducing rules for expert engagements.

In January 2007, it was reported that the company and Vista Research, then a Standard & Poor affiliate, were part of an inquiry by the New York State Attorney General’s office into the consulting practices of investment firm clients. [Jenny Anderson, January 17, 2007. " [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/business/17hedge.html?ex=157680000&en=1c4da4dd5325d223&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink Wall Street ‘Matchmakers’ Under a New York Inquiry] ", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.] In December 2007, The New York Times indicated that no action had been taken by the New York State Attorney General’s office and that the investigation was possibly dormant. [Andrew Ross Sorkin, December 19, 2007. " [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/business/19silver.html?ex=1355806800&en=7e0859e0df210573&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod= Silver Lake Partners to Buy a Quarter of Research Firm] ", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.]

References

External Links

* [http://www.glgroup.com/ GLG Home Page]
* [http://www.thecouncils.com/ GLG Councils]