60-second interview with .... Vladimir Kozlov

A Q&A with Vladimir Kozlov, CEO of market research firm, LightCounting. The first of occasional, brief interviews with industry figures. 

"You have to look over a longer time frame to understand the industry and appreciate the progress"

What exactly does your job entail?

As the founder and CEO my primary responsibility is to ensure that LightCounting's business grows smoothly. In practice this means managing a small team of industry experts to deliver quality market intelligence to our customers, co-ordinating sales and marketing and looking for new business opportunities.

What aspect of the job do you most enjoy?

I love talking with clients and industry experts. A good discussion is an essential element of market research, sales and business development. Not to mention that many of these people are my good friends by now.

How is the optical industry changing?

Slowly but steadily. If you look at it on a daily or quarterly time frame, it is full of problems and nothing is really changing. You have to look over a longer time frame to understand the industry and appreciate the progress.

What are you working on now?

I recently attended Optinet China held in Beijing. I am working on a report based on that exhibition and starting to work on a forecast report. China is a wild card, the economic systems of Europe are falling apart, and the U.S. is full of uncertainty. Someone needs to come up with a forecast for the next four years, despite this uncertainty. It is a big responsibility and a privilege at the same time. 

You have been covering optical as an analyst for over a decade. What advice about market research would you give to someone starting now?

Doing a really good job in market research is much harder than it looks. You have to live on the edge to be able to do it right. Scanning the news and running forecast models is the easy part. Digging deep into the industry by finding the right questions and people who can answer them is much more challenging, but it is also a lot of fun.

Unless you can live on the edge and get excited by challenges, do not go into market research. Really good market research people are a bit crazy…I am not really good at it, but I am learning every day and I will certainly be crazy when it is time to retire.

LightCounting is a market research and consulting company focused on high speed interconnects for the datacom, telecom, and consumer communications.