Alumni Profile: Dr Ian Cesa
Degree: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) 1983
Current Position:President of Horizon Consumer Science (USA)
Board member of University of Melbourne USA Foundation
A FINELY-TUNED ability to read people, stemming from a degree in psychology, may often lead one to pursue a career as a psychologist or counsellor.
But Dr Ian Cesa has instead used his training in psychology to travel the world working with fine chocolate companies, top shelf liquor connoisseurs, leading universities and businesses spanning a diverse range of industries.
As President and founder of US-based market research company Horizon Consumer Science, Dr Cesa’s business is based on solving the problems that businesses need to solve to achieve success.
“People don’t come to us with simple things,” he says.
“They come to us with difficult problems that they can’t solve themselves.
For instance, he recently helped a Belgian chocolate company design several new products to sell at airports, based on feedback received from potential consumers. He is now assisting a large retailer based in Japan to make a big business decision. The company owners are trying to decide whether or not to close a car hire business attached to one of their larger stores. It’s up to Dr Cesa to conduct research among their clients to find out whether this decision is likely to impact on the trade of the store.
But his favourite project was more than a decade ago, when he was involved in the design of a top shelf Scotch whisky product that redefined what whisky could be.
“The whisky business is very traditional – and we slayed every sacred cow there was,” Dr Cesa recalls. “We developed one of the most interesting and unusual Scotch whisky products ever”.
Though he wasn’t sure the very traditional whisky company would agree to the unique new design, market research led to a completely different approach than the company would have adopted themselves
“So the company listened, took a deep breath and they went there.”
Dr Cesa believes his background in psychology has boosted his success in market research, equipping him with a “tool kit” to read people and their reactions at a deeper level.
“What you learn in a psychology degree is how to solve problems, how people behave, think and experience things,” he says. “There is a close connection between psychology and market research in terms of research methods. In terms of understanding how to interpret things that people tell us, we are less likely to take people at face value and better able to design research in ways that don’t rely completely on what people simply say.”
After completing an honours degree in psychology at the University of Melbourne in 1983, Dr Cesa moved to the USA to study at a graduate school. While he was there, he undertook some consulting work in market research. This is where his career in the field began, later leading him to open a thriving international business.
But his experiences in the USA also sowed the seeds of another significant aspect of his life – his involvement with the University of Melbourne USA Foundation. The Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that fundraises to support educational institutions in Australia and the US such as the University of Melbourne. Dr Cesa, a board member since 2001, believes the Foundation is a wise adaptation to America’s philanthropic environment. “Fundraising is a very strong activity for schools and universities in America,” he says. “There is an expectation that people will give to their American university and the American universities do a good job of fostering bonds with their alumni.
“If Melbourne is competing with that, it’s a tough job because we don’t have the same affinity with our Universities as Americans.”
The Foundation raises money from alumni and friends of Australian education in the US, and has provided a number of generous grants that have supported scholarships and faculties across the University of Melbourne.
“For instance, we could set up scholarships to bring people from the University to the US, or bring people from the US to Melbourne,” Dr Cesa says.
He became involved with the Foundation because he wanted to reconnect with the University of Melbourne and support Melbourne students.
“You get to a point in life when you think, how can I help the next generation? Not just my own children, but everyone,” Dr Cesa says. “The other thing you have to ask yourself is: which tribes do you want to belong to? And one of my tribes is Melbourne.”
