THE CHIEF ANALYTICS OFFICER’S (CAO'S) JOURNEY CHANGING THE GAME WITH ANALYTICS

VIJAY RAJANDRAM

Agenda

1. Understand the starting position and the required journey ahead

2. Learning to walk when everyone else wants to run

3. It's not only the top line - identifying the breadth of how analytical insights adds value to your business

4. Changing Behaviours - forget the technology, driving value from data is about people

“Knowledge is power only if man knows what facts not to bother with” - Robert Staugton Lynd

1. Understand the starting position and the required journey ahead

“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot

Stakeholders?

Organisation Maturity

Appetite for Analytical Change

Are we all on the same page?

Begin with the end in mind – Stephen Covey

• A place that attracts & retains the best people

• A support network - Be great at different aspects of Analytics, range of skills & experience

• A Test & Learn Organisation

• Be able to tell the story at all levels

• Getting the balance right between strategic and reactive

• The cohesive forum to achieve greatness!

2. Learning to walk when everyone else wants to run - Convincing the business why the basics do matter

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamental-Jim Rohn

Quality

Capture

Structure

Analyse Create

Apply

Access, Collect and Own data

Available and Track

Understand So What?

How do we make this happen

Speed

Share

Ease

Information is giving out; communication is getting through - Sydney J. Harris

Others will get there, but how do you stay ahead …

By sharing & combining the information we gather, we see more

Make it simple and people will adopt it

But how do we do we convince them to walk right …

• Articulate what you are creating and how this translates to commercial business outcomes

• It’s a journey, you have to build trust and reflect that in your deliverables – top down and bottom up plans

• Work transparently, stay agile, build relationships

3. It's not only the top line - identifying the breadth of how analytical insights adds value to your business

Taking time to learn about what we don’t know …

Full Speed Ahead

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” - Martin Luther King, Jr

Expectations have changed …

• Being able to manage and measure risk and reward in a calculated way – not just intuition

• Be brave to fail but learn quick and change

• Being Nimble: The ability to gather real and right time information allows us to change & follow the demand better

Expectations have changed … • Businesses are lagging behind around adopting this change

and often too focused in repeating what they do

• Analytics are applied across all sectors – product design, workforce optimisation, targeting, Performance Management

• If you had a £ to spend, where would you spend this?

• And test, test, test !!!

• “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is the inability to understand the exponential function” - Albert Allen Bartlet

4. Changing Behaviours - forget the technology, driving value from data is about people

Be prepared for change … • Central to the change agenda has to be on "people“, our

employees, customers and partners.

• Harvard Business Review Articles • Data Science being the sexiest job in the 21st century • Why more and more companies are ditching performance

reviews

• Use data in a different way • Coupling intuition and data science • Building models from using past data

• Test and Learn - being rewarded for learning and evolving

Business

“None of us is as smart as all of us" -Ken Blanchard

Data

Technology

Working together is key for success – the interdependencies are highly intertwined!

Ensure you have the right mix of experience

Focus on the “why” as much as the what

Competition is healthy but avoid the “wrong” type of competition

Easier said that done… The HBR describes the new science of building great teams:

• Communicate frequently

• Talk and listen in equal measure, equally amongst members

• Engage in frequent informal communications

• Explore ideas and information outside the group

Reminding the analytical team around why the role of data has really become increasingly critical

If you are starting your new CAO role, here’s my tip:

• Understand where you are heading and your start point

• Get your recruitment right if you are building a new team or ensure that you have a good mix of people in the right areas

• Build good relationships and a deliverable plan that addresses strategic and quick wins

• Remember why you got hired!

• Set your rhythm and enjoy the role!

Q&A