LONDON, June 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Top Novus executive Torbjörn Sjöström was celebrating this week after taking the title of Business Worldwide Magazine's (BWM) Media/Communications Industry CEO of the Year (Europe) Award 2016.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160610/809284 )

Sjöström's leading Swedish-based market research company aims to help brands, NGOs, unions, political parties and charities assess and understand public opinion in order to grow their business and influence. The company's fact-finding and commentary collecting work covers their native Sweden, the Nordic regions and Europe. They have also carried out research in countries as far apart as the USA and South Africa.

The entrepreneur and former software engineer took over the running of Novus from his father who established the company back in 2006 - although he had been mentored in market research for at least two decades prior to taking up the post.

On receiving the BWM award Sjöström said he was delighted but insisted that it should be shared with his staff who were "probably the most experienced market researchers in Sweden."

He added: "Today our challenge at Novus is to keep going against the stream and educate the public about what proper research really is. And that means a focus on integrity, facts, and evidence.

"The media has become a particularly dominant opinion forming force, and it frames knowledge in very particular ways. The rise of digital media over print exacerbates those trends, and we are perhaps witnessing a decline in quality and a lack of complexity in opinions.

"At Novus we deliver qualified knowledge, not simply statistics as part of a report."

To back up his point about falling standards in market research Sjöström pointed to the poor outcome of the polls in predicting the UK General Election last year. Many had claimed Labour had as much support as the Conservative party. The election results notably proved otherwise. The failure of those UK polls was attributed to poor sampling methods leading to unrepresentative counts as well as pollsters possibly skewing findings to match other polls. Cutting corners was blamed as the underlying reason in many cases.

For some years now Novus has been undertaking global research for the Gapminder Foundation's Ignorance Project. This is to help prepare teaching materials and looks at public knowledge on global issues.

Sjöström added: "Public opinion influences everything, from who gets elected to what people buy, whether people will give to charities or support particular organizations etc. Knowing why people make particular choices can prove to be extremely valuable information for any organisation looking to be a leader and opinion former in its field."

Find out more about Novus and their research and reporting methodologies visit the website http://www.novus.se

An article on the company can also be found on BWM website

http://www.bwmonline.com/2016/05/market-research-matters/

For more details on Business Worldwide Magazine Awards 2016, go to  http://www.bwmonline.com/awards/

About Business Worldwide Magazine
Business Worldwide Magazine is the leading source of business and dealmaker intelligence throughout the world. Our quarterly magazine and online news portal enables an established audience of corporate dealmakers to track the latest news, stories and developments affecting the international markets, corporate finance, business strategy and changes in legislation. This readership includes of CEO/CFO - Banks, Corporate Lawyers and Venture Capital/Private Equity Companies to name a few.
http://www.bwmonline.com

Contact
David Jones
Awards Department
E: david.jones@bwmonline.com
W: http://www.bwmonline.com

SOURCE Business Worldwide Magazine