If you’re looking for the latest trends in the market but don’t want to be late to the game, your best option? Look at the data outliers.
Data has become integral to the future success of a business. If your organization hasn’t made a place for it in the boardroom, today is a good day to start.
We speak with Sameer Rahman, Director of Insight at The Royal Mint. He’s here to talk us through data’s importance and where it’s headed next.
We talk all about:
- The modernization of data over time
- What data in the boardroom looks like & its impact on future success
- The best tools to leverage data
The modernization of data over time
Technology has changed a lot in the past two decades. Think back to the capabilities of your desktop computer from the 90’s compared to the simplest tasks you can perform on your smartphone today. The same can be said for data.
Already understood as a valued asset, data has rapidly become a tool of the utmost importance for companies—often leveraging the data to grow revenue. And, as we’ve all worked our way through the COVID-19 pandemic, how we view data has changed even more.
All of a sudden, predictive forecasting has become crucial to everyone’s lives.
This is what Sameer refers to as the modernization of data: How data is driving decision making at the highest levels, impacting every individual within the country.
Offensive & defensive modernization
Reflecting this trend of data use, Sameer has seen data used by businesses internally, but breaks down how it’s used into two categories: Offensive and defensive.
- Defensive: Making sure the data structure and data management is correct so that it can enable the organization.
- Offensive: Proactively recommending new products, business ideas, and innovation in order to find the outliers that will shape the market of tomorrow.
Sameer’s suggestion for the data scientists and analysts of today would be to get into the defensive, but to be confident enough to drive the business strategy through the offensive approach.
What data in the boardroom looks like & its impact on future success
When the question is asked in marketing: Who owns the consumer? The answer is everyone.
Asking the same question around data, you’ll get the same answer. So, while many companies are taking the right steps by integrating positions like the Chief Information Officer, it won’t be enough to take full advantage of the data.
Sameer suggests every executive in the boardroom must have a deep understanding of the importance of data if the entire mindset is to change:
- The HR director needs to know the employee data.
- Finance forecasting is always crucial.
- The CEO needs to be a cheerleader for the entire organization; they can only do that with a total understanding of the data.
Impact on scaling
Imagine an automotive parts business looking to expand. However, they’ve overlooked the data suggesting that their customers aren’t buying more parts from them after an initial purchase. Turns out that their parts were breaking down months after purchase.
But, because they only received the occasional complaint, they weren’t able to locate the true issue before it became much larger. The goal to expand is now put on hold until the pressing issue is taken care of.
Looking through a data lens will always be beneficial to a business.
The best tools to leverage data
In the same way that you cannot hire one person to handle your data so that it truly enables your business, the data tools aren’t what make Sameer and The Royal Mint stand out. It’s the mindset that moves through the organization that allows the data to be extracted and analyzed.
For Sameer and the team, once a job is finished, they take a few days to think about the outputs, give tangible recommendations to the business, and suggest next steps.
So, while the tools are important, and similar to those used by most companies to collect data, it’s the steps taken after that data is collected that make the difference.
Get in touch with Sameer on LinkedIn
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