Nicholas Trivisonno, chairman of AC Nielsen, the world's largest market research group, has been carrying out a mission in Asia billed as 'one company indivisible'.
The aim is to integrate a loose affiliation of companies in Asia, a result of previous acquisitions, under the trademark of AC Nielsen.
Because the company had grown mainly through acquisitions of Hong Kong-based SRG (Survey Research Group) in Asia in 1994 and Australia-based research group AGB McNair in the Pacific in the same year, AC Nielsen's name had not filtered through to the market as quickly as the management hoped.
This has been compounded by the fact the independently-run firms have not performed well. Between 1995 and 1996, operating revenues increased but profitability fell.
The profit indicator, earnings before interest and tax, was only 1 per cent in 1995, far from an expected 11 per cent.
'We weren't a single company,' Mr Trivisonno said.
Last year, the margin improved to 4 per cent. Still, as operating revenue went up by 17.2 per cent in Asia (outside Japan) to US$254.1 million last year, operating income dwindled from $12.6 million to $4.8 million.