1935: The Founding Philosophy of Gallup
Dr. George Gallup
As a pioneering pollster, company founder Dr. George Gallup determined that in seeking the truth, that is, the actual "will" of the people, his guiding principle would be independence. To ensure his independence, and therefore his objectivity, Dr. Gallup resolved that he would undertake no polling that was paid for or sponsored in any way by special interest groups such as the Republican and Democratic parties. Adhering to this principle, Gallup has turned down thousands of requests for surveys from organizations representing every shade of the political spectrum and with every kind of special agenda.
Historically, Gallup has measured and tracked the public's attitudes concerning virtually every political, social, and economic issue of the day, including highly sensitive or controversial subjects. Although Gallup has typically conducted its polling activities in collaboration with various media organizations and, on occasion, with worldwide associations and academic institutions, these polls have always been carried out independently and objectively.
This single, chosen ethical principle -- independence -- has made the Gallup name famous and among the most trusted brand names on Earth, synonymous with democracy and the democratic process.
1930-1935: Dr. Gallup -- the Original Market Researcher
In the early 1930s, Dr. Gallup was a vice-president of Young & Rubicam in New York City, and he was the first market research director of an advertising agency. At Young & Rubicam, in addition to his contributions to opinion polling, Dr. Gallup originated many of the basic methodologies and technical procedures used today in marketing, advertising, and media and audience research.
1936: Dr. Gallup "Breaks Through"
Dr. Gallup's initial breakthrough occurred in 1936, when he correctly predicted that Franklin Roosevelt would defeat Alfred Landon for the U.S. presidency. This directly contradicted the Literary Digest, the poll-of-record at the time, which predicted that Landon, the Kansas governor, would win in a landslide. With national newspaper syndication of the poll and almost daily references in the press, "Gallup" soon became a household word.
The Gallup Poll was suddenly on the map.
1938: Dr. Gallup Hires First "Rainmaker"
Dr. Gallup, together with Gallup Vice President David Ogilvy, who subsequently built the advertising agency bearing his name, developed one of the company's most important business practices -- helping Hollywood make better movies. During the late 1930s, the two men developed virtually all of the technical methods used in motion picture research. They conducted basic market research concerning the movie-going habits of the American public. Company efforts also included preproduction or diagnostic studies, such as title, story line, and casting tests as well as preview screenings of movies with scientifically selected audiences.
1937-1939: The First Global Polls
Just before the start of World War II, Gallup, with the assistance of a number of noted survey research academics, established what would eventually become an association of independent polling organizations representing almost 50 countries. The Gallup International Research Institute held annual meetings at which representatives of the various affiliates reported and analyzed what the world's people thought about the multitude of issues that affected their lives.
Topics that were discussed and analyzed included the dropping of the atomic bomb and other WWII-related topics, communism and capitalism, religion, the condition of the family, and world hunger. Every nation presented its findings. Dr. Gallup had created a sociological first -- knowing the opinions of people around the world on virtually all the issues that affected their lives. The core of Gallup's mission is revealed in his own words:
"If democracy is supposed to be based on the will of the people, then somebody should go out and find out what that will is."
Dr. Gallup had become the world's pollster.
Dr. Gallup as Teacher
Obviously, Dr. Gallup was a gifted scientist. But his greatest talent was probably best described by his close friend, Jan Stapel, founder of The Netherlands Institute of Public Opinion, who stated, "George was simply the greatest teacher of his time."
As with many who have become celebrated world figures, Dr. Gallup achieved this status by developing his strong leadership ability around his talents to think and to teach. Throughout his life, he remained true to his key strengths as a polling scientist and a teacher.
Dr. Gallup became a renowned world figure whose advice was sought by presidents, prime ministers, heads of state, and many of the world's most influential and celebrated thinkers and entrepreneurs. His name and his work are referenced time and again, and he is often cited as one of the most influential Americans of the 20 th century.
Dr. Gallup has appeared on the covers of many newsmagazines.
1988: Gallup and SRI
Following Dr. Gallup's death in 1984, a number of Fortune 500 companies explored the possibility of acquiring Gallup.
In October 1988, James Clifton of Selection Research, Incorporated (SRI) in Lincoln, Nebraska, led what many considered to be the improbable acquisition of Gallup by the employee-owned SRI. The merger occurred after four years of almost daily negotiations between Clifton and Gallup's vice-chairman, Alec Gallup.
Clifton was named CEO, and the new leadership team would embark on what would become a historic course. Over the next decade, the company grew tenfold in business volume, while expanding into 20 foreign countries.
The SRI name is still used with products grounded in SRI's founding practice (1969) of conducting structured psychological interviews to identify the talents of individuals who "fit" a designated position or role in an organization. This practice has continued to serve businesses, schools, and other institutions for more than 30 years.
1990s: Gallup Experiences Its Largest Growth
During the 1980s and early 1990s, corporate management theory was dominated by the doctrines of "quality gurus" -- Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Joseph M. Juran, and Philip Crosby created a whole new industry around "total quality management." This produced a significant opportunity for Gallup, which was nearly perfectly equipped to architect the first ongoing tracking studies for measuring customer satisfaction. Gallup and several other leading research organizations paved the way for Fortune 500 companies to measure and track customer satisfaction as consistently and reliably as they had applied traditional accounting principles.
Gallup expanded its activities from tracking presidential approval to tracking consumer product and customer service approval. These efforts contributed to the largest period of growth in the company's history. During this time, Gallup won its largest contracts, most of which are still in place today.
Gallup "Builds Out" the World
As clients extended their research efforts overseas, Gallup's leadership concluded that the company's loose, informal network of independent affiliates, typically owned by local shareholders, would not serve Gallup's future well. The situation was further complicated by the fact that many of the affiliates had acquired the right to use the Gallup name in their respective countries. Gallup's leadership, therefore, decided to rectify the situation in these nations by either acquiring the organizations in question or by establishing start-up operations. As of this writing, Gallup owns Gallup-named operations in 20 nations and maintains offices in 40 major cities around the world.
As a pioneering survey research company, Gallup has fostered the development of numerous individuals who subsequently attained leadership positions in organizations representing a wide range of fields. For example, at last count, Gallup "alumni" have become senior executives at 35 survey research companies, as well as at many of the nation's major advertising agencies, public relations firms, newspapers, magazines, foundations, and academic institutions.
1992: Gallup Goes "Daily" With CNN and USA Today
In 1992, during a time of proliferation of national and local polling organizations, Gallup produced another major breakthrough by forming a polling partnership with CNN and USA Today. This partnership made it feasible to expose the public to polls that were not only accurate but that were also reported on a more frequent (daily) and more comprehensive basis than ever before. Gallup and its media partners helped carry out a new mission for polling, while maintaining the highest ethical standards for public opinion journalism in a democratic society. In the words of Dr. Gallup, "If politicians and special interests have polls to guide them in pursuing their interests, the voters should have polls as well."
Gallup built its own television studio with The Gallup Poll's Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Frank Newport, as anchorman.
Late 1990s: Gallup's Q 12 Breaks Through
In the late 1990s, as the business environment was becoming increasingly global and more competitive, Gallup produced its next major breakthrough. For the first time, corporate leaders began to express an interest not only in what their customers were thinking but also in the opinions of their employees. Although employee surveys had been around for years, they tended to focus on issues that were narrow in scope, such as employee parking or benefits. Gallup's breakthrough occurred when corporate leaders actually committed themselves and their organizations to studying basic employee attitudes that affect workplace morale, and ultimately, overall productivity.
Gallup was at the right place at the right time with its in-depth research (developed over 25 years of study and analysis). This research clearly indicated that among thousands of questions, 12 key items ( the Q 12) revealed the primary needs of people in the workplace.
Gallup quickly developed partnerships with 200 organizations around the world. In these partnerships, Gallup conducted ongoing employee " engagement tracking" based on the newly discovered Q 12 measurements, as well as development programs to improve employee engagement throughout these organizations.
Gallup had produced a major management consulting breakthrough.
1999: Gallup Hits the Bestseller Lists
Gallup's next breakthrough was a book publishing venture. Gallup's book about employee engagement -- First, Break All the Rules -- became an almost immediate bestseller in the United States. The book also became a bestseller in several foreign countries and remains a bestseller in the United States.
On the heels of the success of First, Break All the Rules, Gallup authored a second bestseller, Now, Discover Your Strengths . Virtually every business bestseller list regularly includes both books in its top 10. Gallup's next major management book, Follow This Path , was published in October 2002. Gallup's other management texts include Discover Your Sales Strengths (2003) and Animals, Inc. (2004). Gallup's recent bestseller, How Full Is Your Bucket (2004), reveals how even the briefest interactions affect relationships, productivity, health, and longevity.
1999: Gallup and Psychology's First Taxonomy of Strengths
Gallup's next historic advance came via the psychologist's laboratory. The science of psychology had historically focused on what is wrong with people. Using more than 30 years of in-depth research, Gallup scientists, led by Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D., created one of the first programs based on what is right with people. This innovative program is built on the Clifton StrengthsFinder, a Web-based talent assessment tool. As of this writing, more than 3 million people worldwide have taken the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment. Among them are a great number of leaders who claim to have become significantly more effective as they have structured their lives and their leadership activities around their newly diagnosed "talents."
The Clifton StrengthsFinder is one of Gallup's most significant psychological breakthroughs. It is available in 16 languages, and it is changing the lives of individuals worldwide. Gallup clients regularly use the Clifton StrengthsFinder to identify the talents of individuals in their organizations and to help those individuals understand and maximize their talents by building and applying strengths in their roles.
Dr. Clifton and his team of scientists had discovered psychology's first taxonomy of strengths. In 2002, Dr. Clifton was cited as the "Father of Strengths-Based Psychology" in an American Psychological Association Presidential Commendation.
2000: The Gallup Path
In 2000, extreme competition in the global marketplace caused corporate leadership -- according to numerous think tanks -- to pose one common, all-consuming question: What is the role of human nature in driving business outcomes?
Gallup's next major technical advance provided the answer to this question. Gallup sorted through billions of bits of economic information and analyzed more customer and employee data than had ever been studied before. The answer to the role of human nature in driving business outcomes is contained in the management theory known today as The Gallup Path.
The Gallup Path is now Gallup's premier management consulting model. At the heart of the model is the theory that in every organization, every employee, at all levels, contributes to some degree to sales growth, profit, and ultimately, to share price. The Path represents a turning point for Gallup, but even more so for 20 million world leaders. It is the first theory that proves and tracks the connectedness of managers to employees, employees to customers, and customers to hard financial outcomes.
Today, The Gallup Poll reports "the will" of the global electorate, while The Gallup Path -- through Gallup's HumanSigma metric -- reports "the will" of customers and employees around the world.
2001: The Gallup Poll for 20 Million World Leaders
Gallup's key mission focuses on world leaders, estimated to be about 20 million in a total world population of 6 billion. Gallup loosely defines a world leader as any individual with an (overlapping) personal constituency of at least 1,000 people. To meet the information or "intelligence" needs of these world leaders, who include enthusiastic poll readers as well as client management and Gallup alumni, a unique electronic newsmagazine was created -- The Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing. Another publication, the Gallup Management Journal , was launched as a monthly online journal that reports on Gallup's management discoveries.
The Gallup Management Journal, grounded in decades of Gallup's rigorous research, provides actionable management insights, global company case studies, and perspectives from Gallup experts on building employee and customer engagement, motivating world-class sales forces, and managing the talents and strengths of employees.
2002: The Gallup Brain
Gallup has designed and engineered the world's first Web storage system containing millions of records of what people have thought over the last 65 years. The Gallup Brain, introduced in October 2002, provides ongoing opinion tracking data concerning virtually all issues affecting humankind. The Gallup Brain is the first information or intelligence resource designed specifically for the world's 20 million leaders. Access to the Gallup Brain offers these leaders the opportunity to significantly improve their decision-making ability in practically every area of their lives.
Possibly of greater value to the new world order, which appears to be increasingly dominated by economics, the Gallup Brain contains information on consumer confidence, spending habits, household savings, confidence in the stock market, fear of unemployment, and so on.
2003: Gallup University: a Riverfront Campus
Opened in August 2003: The Gallup University Riverfront Campus in Omaha, Nebraska.
Gallup opened a 50-acre Gallup University campus on the Missouri River in Omaha, Nebraska, in August 2003. Gallup's future efforts will focus on educating, informing, and advising the 1 million most influential people who lead, mentor, and determine the futures of the remaining 6 billion people who inhabit Earth.
2004: Gallup Press
Since its inception, Gallup has shared its insights on public opinion polling, societal issues, education, management, and human talent through its books and publications. Gallup's bestselling books on great managers - First, Break All the Rules - and talents and strengths - Now, Discover Your Strengths - as well as the books Follow This Path , Discover Your Sales Strengths , and Animals, Inc. tapped an audience eager for Gallup's management insights.
Gallup's newest publishing venture, Gallup Press, exists to educate and inform the people who govern, manage, teach, and lead the world's 6 billion citizens. Each book meets Gallup's requirements of integrity, trust, and independence and is based on Gallup-approved science and research. The most recent books from Gallup Press include the bestselling How Full Is Your Bucket (2004) and StrengthsFinder 2.0 (2007).
Gallup has also created an innovative online experience for college and college-bound students: StrengthsQuest. Combining a Web site with a printed text and a customized, downloadable workbook, StrengthsQuest leads students in a discovery of their natural talents and provides valuable insights into developing those talents into strengths.
For more information on Gallup's newest books, please visit the Gallup Press Web site.
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