our story
MRops was launched in January 2007 by Ian Kiernan, a former TNS Executive. 2007 was a particularly turbulent time for the market research industry. The business climate was difficult and the larger market research firms were starting to view data collection and operations as more of a commodity and overhead cost rather than a differentiator. They were focusing on cutting costs and cutting corners that in turn had a negative impact on quality and service.
This sparked the idea for creating MRops. Would companies be open to outsourcing their operational needs to a company that provided end-to-end operations services with the highest level of service and quality? After reviewing his business concept with a number of well-respected industry leaders, Ian decided to pull the trigger and start MRops.
The economic downturn during this time made it extremely difficult to secure investors, so Ian invested his own time and resources to start the company. He converted a spare room in his home into an office and started up the business. His first employee, Suzanne Mears, actually worked from his home.
Within two months, MRops secured enough clients to hire additional staff and opened up a “real” office in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It was nicknamed ‘The Cottage’ because it was a converted three bedroom cottage with a swimming pool! In the summer of our first year, we started to work with MRK Prasad, a highly talented MR technology expert based in Hyderabad, India. Under Prasad’s leadership, MRops started to build an expert team of survey programmers, DP staff and coders in Hyderabad. MRops finished our first year of business with eight employees.
Today, all of the original clients are still with MRops. There are now 100 employees and the company has offices in Doylestown, Minneapolis, Hyderabad and London.
The success and continuing growth of MRops is attributed to the positive company culture that it has created and the talented operations and project management professionals it has attracted.
