Editor’s note: James M. Velayas is director of strategic market research at SBC Communications, a San Antonio, Texas, telecommunications firm.

Upon reading the article “Q&A: Conducting research in Egypt and Israel” in the November 1999 issue of Quirk’s I was astonished to find a similar belief uttered by the two interviewees. The research principals in both Egypt and Israel said essentially that there is no reason for U.S. based clients to be present during the research unless they wanted to, “enjoy a nice holiday.” This is wrong.

Over the years I have been responsible for research projects in Europe, South America and the Far East while others in my group have covered the world - including both Egypt and Israel. The quickest way to end up spending tens of thousands of dollars for meaningless results is to follow the advice suggested above. I believe that any responsible researcher, manager or client who fails to become personally involved in the research process puts both his firm and career at great risk.

Each phase of the research process -- from defining the target population to determining sampling requirements, from selecting interviewing methodology to developing and translating the questionnaire - requires the involvement and active presence of the responsible party. And that responsible party is you.

Regarding the language barrier, I am reminded of a friend who, after taking four years of French in high school and another four years in college, took his first trip to France. At the airport he caught the train for downtown Paris and, shortly after leaving the station, the train stopped in a dark tunnel. For three hours he sat on the stalled train and, as they waited, every 10 minutes the train’s conductor would make an announcement. Even after eight years of French and hearing the same announcement over and over again he never did fully understand what the problem was.

So now imagine that you are going to do research in a foreign country with a project that has a budget of $100,000. In all probability, you do not speak the language of the country where the research is to be conducted. Now suppose you have found three research firms that have good references or perhaps just good advertisements. First you will need to select the most appropriate research service supplier to execute your program. At the initial review meetings with the vendors all will have their top management people (their top salespeople) present, but you find that one firm you prefer. The reason for your selection will be that you find them to be very knowledgeable and their bid is competitive.

When people tell me they find a vendor to be very knowledgeable that usually translates to mean they can communicate with the vendor. I recall my college definition of communication being, “the mutual understanding of ideas when conveyed.” People are willing to pay a premium to work with a firm where the communication levels are high. And when you realize that you are willing to pay this premium you are tacitly affirming the inherent dangers of international research.

What happens next? The vendor you have selected does not have its top management actually do the research since they are busy selling the firm’s capabilities. Now you are handed off to the research manager, who may have been present at the first meeting, but was mostly silent and supporting the sales team. Your research manager in most cases does not possess the same set of language skills as the sales team, but this is who you are going to have to work with.

My advice here is to test your research manager. Have the manager get a paper copy of a research project they have recently completed. Ask them to translate one page of the document from their native language to English. This should scare you. Just think: They are going to take your English research instrument, both the questions and instructions, and translate it to their mother tongue. It is not my aim to belittle the foreign research manager, rather it is imperative to understand the hazards associated with the translation phase.

Then your research instrument is going into the field where, if you are lucky, the field workers will able to execute the research as instructed. More often than not you will have a small army of interviewers spread across the country doing door-to-door interviewing since telephone penetration is never close to the 98 percent U.S. level. As the responsible party you have a duty to go into the field and verify that the instrument is performing as designed.

I remember being in Brazil sitting with an interviewer as she conducted an interview in Portuguese. While I do not know Portuguese I could tell something was amiss because what should have been a 15-minute interview turned into a 30-minute interview. Without going into details the translator had, as nearly as was possible, translated my English questions as precisely as possible without allowing for geographical variations. This resulted in the respondent being unable to answer many of the questions unless prodded by the interviewer.

There is no substitute to being at “ground zero” when your research instrument is being translated and tested. Questions and instructions that are given little thought in your U.S.-based studies become critical when moved into the international realm. When was the last time you did not review the questions to be asked when you were doing a study in the U.S.? Your involvement in the international study is of even greater importance.

While I could mention many more concerns and perils when it comes to doing international research I would like to close by saying a little something about this “nice holiday” attitude. International research is a grind. Granted, from time-to-time you will have a pleasant moment viewing sights most others only dream about, but usually you will be in for a tough haul. From the 10-hour airplane flights to days of jet-lag to working through language differences to hotels with no air conditioning or over-aggressive heating systems to trying to figure out what you are eating, the “holiday” aspect will be minimal.

The norm will be frustratingly long days and nights as you fight to insure the research program you are putting in place will yield meaningful results. Days turning to weeks as you are away from family, friends and familiar surroundings will harden your attitudes towards those who fail to understand the demands of international research. However, in the end, knowing the contribution your diligence has made to the success of your firm will supply you with the satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing.

In closing, ask yourself this question: If you were going to do the same project in the U.S., how involved would you be in the research program? Whatever your answer is to this question it should be, at a minimum, the answer to the same question when it comes to conducting international research projects.