Making a successful business case or comprehensive strategic planning requires thorough business research. Business research involves gathering relevant information from both "Primary" research sources and "secondary" research sources. Primary research is from firsthand sources within your organization like direct observation, surveys, interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, discussions, and analytics. Secondary research is from other sources gathered by another organization or institution such as, benchmarking, best-practice reports, professional journals, books, media, professional organizations, consultants, industry reports/information and government records/reports. Many leaders and organizations place a higher value on secondary research and often ignore primary research opportunities. This is a significant error that could result in missing very critical and relevant information that should be considered in your analysis! Both primary and secondary research must be considered to ensure you have a complete and thorough investigation that will lead to successful business results!