Driven by Data: The Podcast

In Episode 27, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Tom Betts, Group Data Director at Kingfisher Plc , where they discuss the complexities, challenges and opportunities of building a centralised data function at a group level to support multiple operating brands, which includes;

• His journey from DJ to Travel Agent to CDO
• Studying Artificial Intelligence in the early 2000s
• Organising a centralised data domain to serve a multi-brand business
• Being the first data leader at group level
• The benefits and challenges of starting from a blank canvas
• The challenge of attracting talent as a group company that people haven't heard of
• Building a data-led customer experience as a pillar of a corporate strategy
• Deciding which capabilities sit within the operating companies versus what is centralised at the group level  
• Working out where the biggest opportunities lie across multiple brands
• Adopting different ways of working within different teams
• The importance of meeting each operating company where they are and not having a group approach to everything
• Dealing with different; cultures, literacy, adoption and maturity across the different brands
• The core use cases that are scalable and reusable across different operating companies  
• Building an orchestration framework for Generative AI tools
• Using gamification as a tool for education and upskilling
• The benefits of building working prototypes to drive buy-in and adoption
• Building a customer-facing generative AI solution
• Understanding and mitigating the risks of a customer-facing GenAi solution
• Considering the risks of inaction
• Why you’ll always learn more from just doing
• Why the role of Chief AI Officer is not needed in isolation
• Why it’s important to have teams that are delivering DS/AI solutions to go as end-to-end as possible in a cross-functional way
• Why it’s faster to build things than it is to leverage what has been built

Thanks to our sponsor, Data Literacy Academy.

Data Literacy Academy is leading the way in transforming enterprise workforces with data literacy across the organisation, through a combination of change management and education. In today's data-centric world, being data literate is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity.

If you want successful data product adoption, and to keep driving innovation within your business, you need to start with data literacy first.

At Data Literacy Academy, we don't just teach data skills. We empower individuals and teams to think critically, analyse effectively, and make decisions confidently based on data. We're bridging the gap between business and data teams, so they can all work towards aligned outcomes.

From those taking their first steps in data literacy to seasoned experts looking to fine-tune their skills, our data experts provide tailored classes for every stage. But it's not just learning tracks that we offer. We embed a deep data culture shift through a transformative change management programme.

We take a people-first approach, working closely with your executive team to win the hearts and minds. We know this will drive the company-wide impact that data teams want to achieve.

Get in touch and find out how you can unlock the full potential of data in your organisation. Learn more at www.dl-academy.com.

In Episode 26, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Michelle Gansle, Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer at McDonald's, where they discuss why, as one of the world's biggest brands, they still have a commitment to change and innovation and how Data & Analytics fuels that, which includes;

• 3 fun facts that people don’t know about McDonald's
• The data and analytics goals of McDonald's
• The size and scale of the D&A capability at McDonalds
• Defining the right operating model for such a large enterprise
• Key D&A use cases in the fast food industry
• Why prioritisation should be the easiest part of the job
• Why even the biggest companies need to optimise and innovate to be successful
• Why one of the world's biggest brands has a commitment to change
• The tangible impact that certain innovations like drive-thru’s and delivery apps have had on their business
• What the landscape looked like before and after the pandemic
• Building a foresight team to predict what may happen in the future
• The three-legged stool concept
• Why the McDonalds culture has always been tied to innovation
• How innovation is in service of the organisation's core business
• Why they view their size and scale as an incomparable advantage
• The double-edged sword of being a large business
• Why relentless curiosity will make you successful
• Understanding the difference between what you could do versus what you should do
• The benefit of having a seat at the table
• Why it’s imperative to understand what “the end” is, and why Data & Analytics is not it
• Who really are the competitors
• Why they’re rarely first to market but are often fast followers
• The role that GenAI will play at McDonald's
• The 3 horizons of Generative AI
• How D&A was mentioned 42 times at investor meetings

Thanks to our sponsor, Data Literacy Academy.

Data Literacy Academy is leading the way in transforming enterprise workforces with data literacy across the organisation, through a combination of change management and education. In today's data-centric world, being data literate is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity.

If you want successful data product adoption, and to keep driving innovation within your business, you need to start with data literacy first.

At Data Literacy Academy, we don't just teach data skills. We empower individuals and teams to think critically, analyse effectively, and make decisions confidently based on data. We're bridging the gap between business and data teams, so they can all work towards aligned outcomes.

From those taking their first steps in data literacy to seasoned experts looking to fine-tune their skills, our data experts provide tailored classes for every stage. But it's not just learning tracks that we offer. We embed a deep data culture shift through a transformative change management programme.

We take a people-first approach, working closely with your executive team to win the hearts and minds. We know this will drive the company-wide impact that data teams want to achieve.

Get in touch and find out how you can unlock the full potential of data in your organisation. Learn more at www.dl-academy.com.

In Episode 25, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Irina Mihai, Director of Data, Marketing Analytics & Decision Science at Adidias, where they discuss how to create an environment to ensure that the work of a D&A team is constantly visible, which includes;

• Coming from a non-STEM background and dealing with imposter syndrome
• The importance of branding the Data & Analytics team both internally and externally
• Having an internal decision-support culture
• The benefits of authentic leadership
• The importance of how to decide on which problems to work on
• Intentionally building a team to cater for areas where you have less experience
• Choosing the right KPIs to monitor performance
• Moving from being an individual contributor into a leadership role
• Ensuring you’re not a bottleneck for your team
• The importance of defining your team's purpose within the organisation
• Fostering an environment of psychological safety
• Why you should co-create your roadmap as a team
• The importance of having designated leads for each item of your roadmap as a team
• Why communication skills separate the good from the excellent
• Having a criteria to prioritise what projects to undertake
• Understanding the organisational strategic goals
• Knowing when and why to discontinue a project
• The benefits of having an organisational culture where challenge is welcome
• The importance of having an agreed model of communication to engage effectively with stakeholders
• Why the engagement and commitment of stakeholders is a key evaluation criteria
• The benefits both internally and externally of making sure your D&A team is visible
• Why you can no longer rely on the company brand to attract talent
• Why everyone needs to be responsible for their own visibility

In Episode 24, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Chris Bannocks, Group Chief Data Officer at QBE Insurance, where they discuss how they are productionising GenAI use cases from scratch within 8 weeks, which includes;

• Being a CDAO/Group CDAO in multiple organisations/sectors
• The importance of international experience
• Being allergic to the term ‘data strategy’
• The impact that Gen AI will have on business
• Why GenAI/AI isn’t the solution to every problem
• Harnessing the value that GenAI can bring
• The top and bottom line opportunities of GenAI
• Why GenAI raises the stakes further for D&A teams
• The requirements of the semantic understanding of your data organization
• Going fast and hard on one opportunity to prove it could be done
• Using different mediums to gather 300 potential use cases
• Building things to be reusable and scalable
• Measuring the addressable opportunity
• Why they didn’t have to quantify the value before they got started
• Standing up a technical spike within 6 days to show what could possibly be done
• Having a 12 week deadline to get it done from a standing start with no capability
• How that capability has now reduced time to production to 8 weeks
• The collaboration needed with each leader from different business units
• The importance of creating a working product in production
• Why they avoided focusing on efficiency and focused on increasing revenue instead
• Avoiding enthusiastic experimentation
• Why tight deadlines helped to make decisions quickly and focus on scope/MVP
• Why you should never start a piece of work without input from business stakeholders
• The challenge of ethical and bias considerations
• How they tackled GenAI education across the organisation
• The importance of having a human in the loop
• Building a team that can deliver
• Top pieces of advice for anyone about to embark on this journey

In Episode 23, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Caroline Zimmerman, Director of Data Product & Strategy at Profusion, where they discuss the research study she helped to conduct into how private equity companies are leveraging Data & AI to fuel growth and enterprise value, which includes;

• The catalyst for conducting the research study
• Why private equity has a very specific definition of value and how to measure it
• Why PE has a lot to teach the corporate Data & Analytics landscape
• The major differences between PE-backed firms and the rest when it comes to D&A
• Focusing on enterprise value
• Why time horizons are important and can create urgency with long-term thinking
• The differences between PE Data Leaders and others
• Why PE does ‘BI’ but not in the traditional sense
• The power of growth modelling and the relationship with investment/capital allocation
• The role of Data & Digital in value creation teams
• The career opportunities for Data Leaders in PE
• The two key ways that PE firms are using Data & Analytics across their portfolio
• Obsessing over understanding your most valuable customers
• Culture is still the main challenge to overcome
• The differences between PE firms who specialise versus those with diversified portfolios
• Why data monetisation affects multiple and not just profit
• Why horizontal investments into data infrastructure don’t exist in PE
• Why the D&A community should care about this research
• Why it still should be all about making better decisions
• Roles, titles and remuneration benchmarks of Data Leaders within PE
• Where you can find/access the research study

​A joint INSEAD research project by:

• ​Theodoros Evgeniou, INSEAD Business School
• ​Caroline Zimmerman, Profusion
• ​Olly Blaydon, Armstong International
• ​Shahbaz Alam, AWS

In Episode 22, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Simon Ferriter, CEO at Anmut , where they discuss why organisations are valuing their data like other balance sheet assets, which includes;

• The framework for measuring the value and fitness for purpose of your most important data
• The role of capital allocation in data assets
• How most organisations don’t understand which data assets are important to success
• If data teams lack the business/management acumen to communicate data effectively
• Why data isn’t treated or managed like other resources and assets in an organisation
• Not all data has equal importance to decision-making
• Why the 80-20 rule is likely in play when it comes to data
• Why data valuation is completely context-dependent
• The three financial methods for valuing data
• The importance of social impacts of data (environmental and community)
• The benefit of putting a financial figure on the value of data assets
• Why semantics around language are causing confusion
• Why the financial figure isn’t the end result, it’s what that allows you to do from there
• Why data valuation drives improved "value"
• Knowing which data asset is important for which business opportunities
• Why valuing your data captures the attention of the board and makes it their issue too
• The under-investment in data management capability and the overinvestment in technology
• Why the problem statements are fairly universal across industries and organisations
• Why complexity means intangible assets are overlooked and often undervalued
• Why accounting standards are no longer fit for purpose in the digital age of today
• If data should be on the balance sheet
• Investing in the upstream business process to prevent the need for new tools
• The benefits that organisations are seeing from valuing their data assets
• Why Anmut launched a product to help organisations to self-serve on this process

In Episode 21, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, we're airing the live interview that took place between Kyle Winterbottom and Ranil Boteju, Group Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Lloyds Banking Group which was recorded at the end of 2023 and then transcribed into 'Exclusive Leader Feature' article in the first edition of the Driven by Data Magazine, where they discuss how analytics practitioners are at the heart of value creation at LBG, which includes;

• The power of purpose
• Evolving views of value creation
• The future of analytics skills & value creation
• The potential and pitfalls of Generative AI
• Fostering a data culture
• Building an intentionally different team
• Whether the CDAO role will exist in 5 years

**Read the magazine here; https://orbitiongroup.com/driven-by-data-magazine-home/

In Episode 20, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Anthony Cosgrove, Co-Founder at Harbr, where they discuss how data sharing is improving the data consumer experience, which includes;

• Building a data platform in response to huge regulatory fines
• Creating a business that exists to solve the challenges he had personally faced doing the job
• Raising $50m to build Harbr
• The three key use cases that people use the platform for
• The challenges of data sharing and the implication on data democratisation
• Why the consumer user journey is often missing
• The importance of scalability and reusability
• The lack of empathy between the people creating data assets and the people using them
• The balancing act of value and control
• The journey of data products, data as a product, product management and data mesh
• Why data isn’t special - product management should be applied
• Why language is important!
• Why the number one challenge for CDO’s is complexity
• Why you have to cross boundaries to get value from data
• Why democratisation requires diversity, flexibility and choice
• Why value comes from the user and the use case

In Episode 19, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Phillip Dale, Head of Data Governance at Marks & Spencer, where they discuss how data governance by design is enabling them to the build for the future, which includes;

• Why the data & analytics community is the best community in the world
• Making data accessible for people to leverage it
• Why a good governance function is one of the best commercial enablers in business
• The importance of having the right controls in place
• The value of trusted data
• What data governance means for ‘the business’
• The role of DG in executing the data strategy
• How getting people to understand the benefits of good-quality data is the easy part
• Strategy versus Governance and understanding the true north
• Why you need a governance approach which keeps you fit for the future
• Why you need to show how commercial challenges of your organisation can be supported by governance
• Why keeping it simple makes things more robust and sustainable
• Why your job as a governance leader will never be done
• The challenges of being accepted by data & analytics professionals when you come “from the business”
• Choosing the right DG tooling and understanding your maturity
• Getting your tools used and minimising technical debt
• Prioritising what should be fixed and what doesn’t need to be
• Dealing with ad-hoc requests
• The importance of getting people on the same page with a unified narrative
• Why sub-par experiences and results live long in the memory
• Celebrating the governance trophies (wins)
• Why the exciting stuff is often delivered by other parts of the D&A team
• Data governance by design core principles and artefacts
• Why GenAI is a great opportunity for the governance community
• The eutopia of when organisations want governance rather than feel like they need it

Thanks to our sponsor, Data Literacy Academy.

Data Literacy Academy is leading the way in transforming enterprise workforces with data literacy across the organisation, through a combination of change management and education. In today's data-centric world, being data literate is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity.

If you want successful data product adoption, and to keep driving innovation within your business, you need to start with data literacy first.

At Data Literacy Academy, we don't just teach data skills. We empower individuals and teams to think critically, analyse effectively, and make decisions confidently based on data. We're bridging the gap between business and data teams, so they can all work towards aligned outcomes.

From those taking their first steps in data literacy to seasoned experts looking to fine-tune their skills, our data experts provide tailored classes for every stage. But it's not just learning tracks that we offer. We embed a deep data culture shift through a transformative change management programme.

We take a people-first approach, working closely with your executive team to win the hearts and minds. We know this will drive the company-wide impact that data teams want to achieve.

Get in touch and find out how you can unlock the full potential of data in your organisation. Learn more at www.dl-academy.com.

In Episode 18, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Susanna Moan, Chief Data Officer at Currys Plc, where they discuss how they're using data to create connections to create better customer experiences, which includes;

• Using Data to create customers for life
• The 4 key pillars of the Data Strategy and the thought behind them
• Defining the data strategy prioritisation roadmap
• Ensuring that you’re listening as a CDO
• Focusing on where you’ll get advocacy and usage
• Understanding the difference you’re making from a contribution perspective
• communications plan to market the story and benefits
• Aligning the business, data and customer strategies
• Why they have a tagline that surmises the data strategy
• Articulating the breadth of what a chief data office should do
• Segmenting the strategy into collect, protect and use
• The importance of thinking about usage at the beginning
• Reducing technology costs
• Why data platform projects aren’t exciting to CEO’s, but what does interest them
• Using data to create connected partnerships that create better customer experience and also make money
• Balancing the needs of intergenerational customer expectations
• Hyper personalisation needs and the relationship with security
• The role of GenAI in the world of retail and 3 internal POCs for internal use cases
• Managing GenAI interest from the ExCo

Thanks to our sponsor, Data Literacy Academy.

Data Literacy Academy is leading the way in transforming enterprise workforces with data literacy across the organisation, through a combination of change management and education. In today's data-centric world, being data literate is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity.

If you want successful data product adoption, and to keep driving innovation within your business, you need to start with data literacy first.

At Data Literacy Academy, we don't just teach data skills. We empower individuals and teams to think critically, analyse effectively, and make decisions confidently based on data. We're bridging the gap between business and data teams, so they can all work towards aligned outcomes.

From those taking their first steps in data literacy to seasoned experts looking to fine-tune their skills, our data experts provide tailored classes for every stage. But it's not just learning tracks that we offer. We embed a deep data culture shift through a transformative change management programme.

We take a people-first approach, working closely with your executive team to win the hearts and minds. We know this will drive the company-wide impact that data teams want to achieve.

Get in touch and find out how you can unlock the full potential of data in your organisation. Learn more at www.dl-academy.com.