Charlene Li today announced in the Groundswell blog that she will be departing Forrester Research. Charlene is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, and co-author of the Groundswell book and blog. Her last day will be Friday, July 18th.
Hundreds of analysts depart from the research business — or change companies — each year. Each leaves behind a personal legacy. After all, the analyst business is a people business. Ask someone for their favorite story about the analyst firms and chances are they’ll tell you a story about a person, not a research report. I would argue that it’s the people aspect of the analyst business that truly separates it from its sister industries, publishing and market research.
Of the many departures from the profession each year, a few stand out. These departures seem to cause a ripple across the analyst, analyst-watcher, and technology adopter communities. I suspect that when we look back on 2008, Charlene Li’s decision to leave Forrester will be one that stands out. In a relatively short time, she made a sizable impact. Credit George Colony and Charles Rutstein and the rest of the management team for giving her freedom to take risks.
Best wishes to Charlene for whatever comes next!
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