Digital and Data Career Shifts

Magellan continues to watch the evolving nature of the human element in digital disruption. Our clients are dramatically increasing their focus on how best to integrate new digital and data technologies into value adding activities at the business unit level. For our candidates we are seeing an increasing demand for a combination of cutting-edge technology excellence combined with business acumen. The common refrain our clients relate to us from their clients goes like “we love the new technologies, but how do we make money with them?”

Our technology savvy candidates on the other hand often make mention of the “churning” of solutions to common repeated issues from their companies and their clients. One common example is associated with digital supply chain (block-chain issues are far more complex) where “data science teams” are tasked with improving data flow between fields operations, vendors and all the business units. In this case the critical path issues are fundamentally business oriented more than technology oriented. An ideal technology solution does not always work within the realities of the business, especially when linking to clients who are various levels of technological adoption.

The point is that ultimately technology adoption is a human endeavor that leverages technology. Our clients increasingly are asking us for those rare technology experts who understand “how businesses work”. This is likely the reason we are seeing an increasing number of data gurus going back for advanced business or engineering degrees in their respective industries. If you have examples of this happening in your industry we would be interested to hear about them.