Ipsos unveils Horizons strategy to boost growth

Ipsos unveiled Horizons, its transformation and growth strategy to reinforce its global leadership. This strategy, led by CEO Jean Laurent Poitou and approved by the entire Board of Directors, sets out the company's new ambitions and its execution plan.The annual organic growth rate is expected to reach 5% or more in 2028, accompanied by an improvement in the operating margin, which should reach a record level of 13.5% in that same year.

Ipsos' strategy relies on six pillars:

1. Harnessing the full potential of its broad range of services Ipsos' multi-specialist model allows it to offer solutions that meet the informational needs of numerous clients on a variety of topics and across multiple geographies. Ipsos will actively operate these services, particularly those with the most significant potential.
2. Strengthening its ability to operate globally with a strong local footprint Operating in 90 countries, Ipsos benefits from an international reach combined with in-depth knowledge of local markets. Ipsos will accelerate the development and adoption of global platforms and services, and deepen the expertise of local teams, ensuring the relevance of the information provided.
3. Delivering faster, with the same reliability Ipsos will evolve its platforms and processes to significantly speed up delivery. Over time, insights will be produced, analyzed, and shared in real time for some projects and within 48 hours for most others.
4. Leveraging its mastery of AI as a differentiating lever Ipsos will increase its investments in Artificial Intelligence to gain speed, agility, and productivity without compromising data quality and relevance of analysis.
5. Further developing its proprietary panels to ensure reliability Access to real respondents is a key differentiator and competitive advantage for Ipsos. It enables real-time detection of behavioral changes and is an essential prerequisite for the proper use of AI-generated synthetic data.
6. Enabling decision-making with high value information. By transforming data into impactful and actionable insights, Ipsos aims to be the indispensable partner for its clients when they must make rapid, well-informed and value-generating decisions.

These strategic pillars support a clear ambition: to make Ipsos the AI augmented Global Market Research leader. Drawing on its deep understanding of Society, Markets and People, the company aims to assert its status as the global leader and be the champion of producing and delivering actionable, impactful insights.

This ambition relies on two growth drivers: on the one hand, reinventing our services by leveraging AI to transform ways of working and delivering faster; on the other hand, enriching our portfolio by maximizing the adoption of high-potential services and exploring new growth opportunities.

The implementation of this plan will rely on: - - A robust investment program in tech, AI, and data: Ipsos will invest more than 1 billion euros in transformational operations over the next five years, primarily through acquisitions and strategic investments. The investment plan will be mainly funded by free cash flow. Naturally, acquisitions will accelerate and strengthen Ipsos' operational capabilities and its expansion in the data integration and analytics market. Enhanced training for teams to ensure they have the skills needed to deliver Ipsos’ operational capability improvement programs and the development of its analytical capabilities.

Jean Laurent Poitou, CEO of Ipsos, states: "We are at a pivotal moment. The opportunities presented by tech and AI will allow us to build on our strengths and further reinforce our model to become an “Augmented Ipsos”. This strategic plan will enable us to set a new pace in a rapidly evolving market, embody the future of our industry, and reinforce our leadership. By investing in our platforms and services and leveraging the expertise of our teams, we will gain speed without ever compromising on the rigor and reliability of our research. We will thus respond to a new reality for our clients, who must act ever faster, but with the same level of trust."