Driven by Data: The Podcast

In Episode 8 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Vijay Yadav, Director, Quantitative Sciences; Data, Digital & Analytics, at Merck, where they discuss what modern-day data leadership should consist of, which includes; 

• The reality of why most data initiatives don’t start from the business objective, despite everyone knowing that should be the starting point  
• Why many Data Leaders don’t really understand what the business wants  
• Why ‘the business' should be in the driver’s seat, at least in the passenger seat, but not in the trunk/boot (where it often is)  
• Why Data Leaders are often guilty of mystifying data for business leaders/consumers  
• How he learnt the hard way by delivering many technical projects that failed  
• Why your success as a Data Leader is directly linked to the ability of the people you can attract and retain  
• Why ‘People’ trumps both ‘Process’ and ‘Technology’  
• The tangible benefits of putting people first  
• The fundamentals of retaining great people  
• What Data Culture really means  
• Why culture can’t be “changed” 
• The relationship between culture and literacy  
• The role of internal data communities in building a great data culture  
• Practical tips on how to build one effectively   

In Episode 7 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Vlad Jiman, Director of Data at NBrown Group, where they discuss formulating a winning data strategy to secure investment for phase 1 data transformation, which includes;

• Being involved in the largest IPO on London Stock Exchange
• The overinvestment in Data Science
• The award-winning Data Transformation at Pets at Home
• In charge of one of the 5 key strategic pillars of a UK Top 10 online retail organisation
• The heritage of NBrown Group and how they were the first organisation to send products direct to consumer via post
• How they moved Data from an enabler to a key strategic pillar within the PLC
• Why you have to have a holistic approach, not a tactical one
• The three pillars of the data strategy that he has put together
• The importance of speed
• Building a cloud native, end to end data platform
• Why most organisations are still paying lip-service to Data Culture
• Why everything has to start with “Why?”
• How data immaturity can mean investment in data has better returns than investment in other parts of a business
• Why most CEO’s no longer need to be convinced of data
• Why you can move a lot quicker than people think
• Why the organisation will drive the transformation if done properly
• Why a breaking point in a transformation with new people can be a good thing
• Why the operating model should be the first priority to get right
• Why tech is one of the things that can help you outpace the competition if you know what you’re doing
• Why Data Governance is now done in a more sophisticated way
• Identifying Data Champions in the boardroom
• Why there are so many issues with “Data Literacy”
• Data Culture = The trifecta of; curiosity, access, and knowledge
• The reasons why most Data Strategies fall down the hole
• The skillset/experience that Data Leaders require to succeed with Data Strategy and Transformation
• Faith, Fear and Finance; the 3 pillars of a business case
• Why data is likely to cost 10-15% across every transformational project

In Episode 6 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Randy Bean, Founder of NewVantage Partners (A Wavestone Company), where they discuss the struggles of the Chief Data Officer, which includes;

• The average tenure of the CDO Tenure
• The increase in organisations that believe the CDO role is established and successful over the last 2 years
• The future of the CDO role
• A shift from reporting into Technology
• Stats behind the challenges that organisations face in becoming data-driven
• Why businesses shouldn’t be making investments in data without being able to quantify the business value
• What CDO’s need to do to be effective
• What the most successful CDAO’s do
• The gap that most organisations have between the data capabilities and the ability to use them
• How the language you use demonstrates your credibility
• Navigating the risks of an economic downturn
• The role of lip-service in Data & Analytics
• Finding the balance between innovation and ethics
• Why data isn’t a substitute for human judgement
• Whether it's possible to quantify value that isn’t related to financial returns
• The skills businesses should look for in a CDAO
• Why Data Leadership is an art, not a science
• The importance of organizational readiness
• Navigating reporting lines and organizational structures
• Advice for aspiring CDAO’s
• Why operating in the C-Suite is an additional set of skills beyond Data & Analytics

In Episode 5 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Malcolm Hawker, Head of Data Strategy at Profisee, where they discuss why Data Literacy isn't the key to success, which includes;

• The benefits of starting his career in Product
• His time at Gartner; the 1500+ conversations he had with CDO’s and why he left
• Why there are so few successful use cases of Data & Analytics initiatives
• Why so few Data Leaders do what they’d advise others to do
• Why we talk a good game about failing fast but no organisation incentivises that to happen
• Why it’s up to the Data Leader to instigate the required change required to improve the current dysfunction
• Why most CDO’s are walking into Lions dens
• How it is absolutely possible to quantify the commercial benefit of our data initiatives despite some claiming it’s not
• How models can help us to quantify the value we create
• Why we need to stop debating semantics
• Why organisations continue to (rightfully) invest in Data & Analytics despite not seeing great success
• Why the data community can come across as “preachy” and “finger wavey” in communicating best practices
• Why data literacy is a loaded term that turns the table of accountability
• Why it’s a product problem and not a user problem
• Why it always come down to centralisation V decentralisation and why you need to do both!
• The future of data sharing and the economies of scale it can create

In Episode 4 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Kelly Hume, Lead Partner of Data Analytics & AI at Baringa Partners, where they discuss the resurgence of data modelling, which includes;

• How she was persuaded not to study astrophysics but went on to work at NASA
• Why she suffered from Imposter Syndrome by being surrounded by Nobel Prize winners
• Why Baringa have one P&L to drive better levels of collaboration
• How their strategic focus is on sustainability & climate change
• How Baringa built the world’s leading climate change scenario model
• The resurgence of data modelling
• Why we’re back at 1st principles
• Why data platforms are here to stay and aren’t another hype cycle
• The challenge with modern-day data architectures
• Where Data Platforms are currently failing
• The importance of understanding the specific use cases
• How to design with the end in mind
• The importance of cross-functional teams lead by the business
• The challenge of adopting new and rapidly evolving technologies
• The importance of rationalising your genuine master data
• Where data duplication and storage sit on the carbon footprint agenda

In Episode 3 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast our CEO Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Liz Henderson, Executive Advisor (and NED) at Capgemini, where they discuss how data is ultimately a people sport, which includes;

• How a bad experience shaped her appreciation of change management
• Why the resistance to change occurs
• Why you’ve got to get the key influencers in a business to drive the change
• How to identify and engage those key influencers
• The ‘top down’ and ‘bottom-up’ questions to ask
• Why you shouldn’t highlight top down business objectives
• Why most data strategies are too high-level and don’t include people or actions
• Why there’s minimal investment into change management
• The trend of siloed data strategies and the associated risks
• How to make data relatable to people on an individual level
• Why data is just a hype train
• How to deliver value without support from senior leadership
• Why you shouldn’t jump in feet first
• The 5 “Why’s” of Data
• How to benchmark an organisations data-driven status
• Why the non-exec table needs to be convinced of data
• Why being challenged demonstrates a data-literate organisation
• The term “data” switches people off
• How 90% of organisations are investing in data, but 90% claim their biggest challenge is a people/cultural one
• Why data will be a P&L asset in the future

In Episode 2 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast our CEO Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Niresh Rajah, Managing Director; Data, RegTech & Digital Advisory, where they discuss how to obtain the balance between Offence, Defence and ESG, which includes;

• The role of CDO in tomorrow’s world
• How to obtain a balance between Offence and Defence
• Why defence is more than regulation
• Why no one is “buying” Data Management
• Why many data operating models aren’t fit for transformation
• Why building a balanced team is so important to win in both offence and defense
• Why any business leader worth their salt understands that they need data to run, grow and control their business
• Data Leaders don’t communicate in the language of the business; benefits and outcomes
• Where ESG sits within the conversation of Offence and Defence
• Why ESG is on the agenda of every boardroom and why Data is at the heart of it
• The legal, regulatory and perception challenges of ESG that make it more complex
• The challenges of acquiring accurate ESG data
• The 4 differences between ESG regulation and “traditional” regulation
• How ESG will drive consumer behaviour and play a role in market share
• How this impacts who your organisation partners with
• Why you need to have a separate ESG data strategy & ESG data teams
• How to tackle the 34-38 sub-components of E, S & G
• The 7 steps to consider to become ESG ready

In Episode 1 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast our CEO Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Davin Crowley-Sweet, Chief Data Officer at National Highways, where they discuss how to value your data like you value any other asset, which includes;

• Why CDO’s shouldn’t expect organisations to know what they want/need
• How data is an intangible digital asset that can be valued like any other asset whether you do something with it or not
• The difference between “value” and “benefits” are how we’re confusing them
• Why it makes no sense that our balance sheet tells us more about our furniture than it does about data
• How he was able to value the data asset at £60 billion which was 50% of the value of the roads and 10x more than their technology assets
• Why valuing your data drives proportionate capital investment into it
• Data Literacy V Business Literacy
• How the data strategy took 12 months to complete, included input from 300 people and identified circa £1 billion of potential upside
• The role that Anmut played in helping to value their data assets
• How they calculated it would cost £300m to realise £1bn in return and the strategy to do that cost £3m
• How one project cost £400K to deliver over 6 months and returned £60 million
• The difference between quick wins and being opportunistic
• Why you must be a business leader first and a data leader second
• Why you have to frame data in a language your business understands
• How being able to quantify & articulate the value and benefits of data has made attracting talent much easier
• The mistakes he made at the start
• Why you need to be disruptive but not cause disruption

In Episode 50 of Season 2, of Driven By Data: The Podcast our CEO Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Joe Bradley, Chief Scientist SVP Data Science & ML at LivePerson, where they discuss Conversational AI, which includes;

• What the business benefits are of Conversational AI
• Hype V Reality of Conversational AI
• Who is doing it versus who isn't and why
• How organisations know when they are ready to implement this
• The Pros and Cons of Conversational AI & Personalization
• The relationship between Conversational AI & Personalization
• How it differs from building a general DS/ML capability
• The learnings of working at mammoth brands such as Nike and Amazon
• The future of Artificial Intelligence
• Top 3 tips for anyone looking at either entering into, or improving their Conversational AI journey

In Episode 49 of Season 2, of Driven By Data: The Podcast our CEO Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Zoher Karu, Vice President Chief Data & Analytics Officer for Blue Shield of California, where they discuss the framework of change & transformation, which includes;

• How to spot evidence of transformation
• The key ingredients of transforming organisations through Data & Analytics
• Why most organisations very rarely make a start with change
• The playbook to getting the change management piece right
• The role of the Data Leader in Change/Transformation
• How we know to start with a business challenge/opportunity and work backwards but why that doesn't happen
• The role of reporting lines and team structures in the ability to drive change
• The relationship between change/transformation and innovation