Many in the residential construction industry were on the brink as the housing market collapsed in the late-2000s. Hanley Wood bet that things would be different on the other side—namely, that their customers would rely more on market research to inform their future investments.

The company was already involved in data, but only secondarily. It doubled-down as 2012 came to a close though, acquiring the market leader, Metrostudy, after a major capital infusion from its owners.

“Hanley Wood used to dominate the construction space by selling lots of ad pages or banners and buttons online or booth space at our trade shows, but we knew we had to lead with data in this chapter,” says Peter Goldstone, CEO of Hanley Wood. “Metrostudy completely transformed our company.”

While the purchase immediately strengthened the foothold in the market, the sale of Hanley Wood Exhibitions for $375 million in November allowed the company to “supercharge our strategy,” Goldstone says. Investments in personnel, a variety of tech platforms and two plug-in acquisitions quickly followed.

That rapid change meant the company needed a strong core to build out from—not just a solid client roster, but an internal structure that would support growth. Rather than fit Metrostudy into its existing model, Goldstone decided to do a reverse acquisition.

“We acquired Metrostudy, but assumed their model,” he says. “We would typically buy a company and absorb them into the Hanley Wood model, because we were pretty good at what we were doing. On data, it was clear that Metrostudy had a better model. We had a national model, where we’d aggregate a lot of national data. The secret sauce behind Metrostudy was that they had 30 regional directors. They were beating us 3-to-1 in market share because they had this local person who was the thought-leader, the chief economist and the go-to resource for anybody who wanted to understand the building activity in that location.”

Metrostudy is now a $30-million business for Hanley Wood, up 50 percent from when it was acquired just over two years ago. And, now with a more diversified customer base and a membership model that leverages Hanley Wood’s existing assets, it’s running two to three years ahead of its operating plan.