During the Second World War, bombers returning to base were examined. There were numerous bullet holes across their wings and fuselages. The first recommendation seemed entirely sensible: reinforce the areas taking the most fire.
The statistician Abraham Wald pointed somewhere else. The aircraft being examined had one thing in common — every one of them had made it back. The bullet holes on them therefore showed where a plane could be hit and still keep flying.
What Wald paid attention to were the areas with almost no bullet holes on the returning aircraft. Because when a plane was hit there, it may not have made it back at all. It was never among the aircraft available to examine.
Abraham Wald, 1943
The same planes. The same bullet holes. The same data…
DetailsClose: The same planes. The same bullet holes. The same data…
But a different question led to a completely different conclusion.
For us, perspective is exactly that: questioning not only what the data tells us at first glance, but also what it is not telling us. We do not simply collect data. We look for the right question.
That thought sits at the centre of how ID Research & Consultancy works. One of the biggest misconceptions in research is that the data obtained will lead on its own to the right decision. Thousands of interviews can be conducted. Tens of thousands of observations can be collected. Hundreds of indicators can be produced. But if the answer is being sought to the wrong question, more data does not always mean more knowledge.
So we do not begin a study only with "what do we see?". We also ask:
- What can we not see?
- Who falls outside this data?
- What else could explain this result?
- Which piece of information could genuinely change the decision?
This way of questioning is not only ID’s analytical approach; it is its fundamental perspective.
From 2010 to today: the same curiosity, a larger capacity
ID’s journey began on 10 October 2010, with the aim of using knowledge of research, statistics and methodology to solve real-world problems.
DetailsClose: From 2010 to today: the same curiosity, a larger capacity
The founding idea has not changed: decisions should rest on reliable evidence rather than on assumptions.
Over the years that approach grew into an integrated structure reaching from research design and sampling through field operations, data management, advanced analytics, monitoring and evaluation to consultancy.
Today ID Research & Consultancy is an independent research and consultancy organisation that can define the research problem, build the right methodology, select the target population through scientific methods, produce data reliably in the field, control its quality, analyse it, and make the resulting evidence meaningful for decision-makers.
We do not go into the field only to collect data
The reliability of a study does not begin at the analysis stage. A result is only as reliable as the process that produced it. Fieldwork at ID is therefore not an operational step where enumerators conduct interviews.
DetailsClose: We do not go into the field only to collect data
Sample design, field organisation, training, supervision, digital data collection, paradata checks, quality verification and QA/QC processes are parts of the same system.
Today we have the capacity to run field operations across all 81 provinces of Türkiye and its 26 NUTS-2 regions. We use CAPI, CATI and CAWI alone or in combination, according to what the research needs. The more than 100,000 interviews we have conducted are not for us only an indicator of corporate capacity. Each interview is part of a larger picture we are trying to understand.
From data to evidence, from evidence to decision
Our work does not end when the data is delivered. The real value begins after that. We look for the patterns, the differences, the relationships and the explanatory mechanisms inside the data.
DetailsClose: From data to evidence, from evidence to decision
Sometimes the answer is in an average. Sometimes in the difference between two groups. Sometimes in an invisible subgroup. And sometimes, as with Abraham Wald’s aircraft, in what is not in the data at all.
Methodology, statistics and analytics are therefore not support functions at ID; they are the centre of the research. Our aim is not only to show what happened. We try to understand why it happened, for whom it differed, under which conditions it changed, and what can be done next.
From Türkiye to regional research capacity
ID’s experience today is not limited to one sector or one type of research.
DetailsClose: From Türkiye to regional research capacity
We have conducted large-scale studies in fields including health, education, employment, entrepreneurship, youth, social policy, gender, environment, economic development and private sector research.
We have taken part in research and fieldwork projects associated with the World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, ILO, UN Women and other international organisations.
The methodological and operational experience we developed in Türkiye is now being turned into a broader regional capacity covering the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East.
But we do not see internationalisation as simply running fieldwork in more countries. The same question may not mean the same thing in different societies. The same indicator may say different things in different economic and cultural contexts. Our basic approach in regional research therefore does not change: understand the context first, then build the right method.
ID Perspective
Everyone can look at the same table. Everyone can see the same percentages. Everyone can hold the same dataset. What makes the difference is usually which question was asked.
DetailsClose: ID Perspective
We call that ID Perspective. We look at what is visible. We question what is not. We look for the right evidence. And we turn knowledge into a decision.
Because for us the real value of research is not producing more data. It is understanding better. And understanding better starts with a better perspective.
