ISA Marks 35 Years

Watching the next generation of ISA flourish has been fun. Many were born in the 1990’s, and soon we will have the first who were born in this century.

After 35 years at ISA, and almost 40 in market research, what keeps me motivated and looking to the future? Technologies that once seemed like science fiction are now an everyday occurrence. It’s not just the growth of the company and the expansion of our offerings that excites me, its seeing our clients and employees flourish.

When I began my career at Suburban Associates at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, NJ, everything was completed on paper. The company did not even have hand-held calculators! Tabulations were done with punch cards. Move ahead to 2017 — where paper and pencil are considered the dark ages and where ISA completes projects involving passive metering, insight communities, our own MySoapBox Mobile app, projects in Somalian, Urdu and Hmong and large complicated automotive clinics. Diversification is part of our business culture. Our offerings will continue to change and grow in response to dynamic changes in the industry.

We have amazing clients and employees. It would be great to acknowledge all of them by name, but that would take 25 pages. You know who you are. Several of our clients have been with us almost as long as I have. There are ten employees who have been with us for over 25 years and four of those for over 30. It has been a privilege to watch many of our employees meet their significant others here, (or while employed here) and have children. I met my wife, Taylor, at ISA.

Reflecting back on the 35 years of our growth and accomplishments, I am pleased with our ability to continue advancing our expertise in multicultural research. ISA has completed projects in 67 languages, to date, and has been awarded three Researcher of the Year Awards by the Asian American Advertising Federation. (The 3AF) Our four divisions, ISA, Q-insights, SoapBoxSample and icanmakeitbetter, all continue this tradition by offering their services in multiple languages.

Watching the next generation of ISA flourish has been fun. Many were born in the 1990’s, and soon we will have the first who were born in this century. Viewed through the lens of five different decades of being in market research, I feel very fortunate to be a part of this growth and change.

By my rough estimate, in 35 years we’ve conducted around $400 million dollars in research for our clients. That’s not a big number when you look at the entire industry but it’s significant to us.

None of our accomplishments were done in a vacuum. Alongside me were accomplished, supportive partners; Arnie Fishman, Dave Sackman, Tony Kretzmer, Michael Liebergall and Sy Lieberman. They need to be acknowledged as well. ISA would not have thrived without them.

It’s been a great ride and it’s not over yet! I can’t wait to see what our team has planned for tomorrow, next week, next year and into the future. With warmest regards and respect to all our friends, colleagues, current and former employees, thank you for allowing me to join you on this journey.

 

Michael Halberstam

Chairman, ISA