How To Rocket Your Company using Data-Driven Culture

“ We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” / Albert Einstein

AI will determine the fate of Companies, You need Your team’s help!

Disruption is happening faster than ever before. On average, an S&P 500 company is pushed out every few weeks, and nearly half of today's Fortune 500 companies will no longer exist in a decade.

Some of the most innovative companies like Netflix, Microsoft or AirBnB have used exponential technologies to disrupt their industries. Amazingly, most of these industries never saw the shift coming.

It's easy to attribute that success to awesome technology and data play. But in reality - the main ingredient disruptors use - is the ability to leverage empathy towards people and their journey in life. Without understanding their situation, needs, pains, you can't truly develop a solution that makes them happy, and keeps them coming back to you for more.

Establishing a Data Led Culture starts at Home - with Your People

Growing up as a Trekkie, something which caught my eye was how Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and later on Data would correct their “Bosses” and get away with telling them stuff like “your idea is illogical.”. Point being that as much as the input is based on facts, there must also be a reckoning at shareholder and mgmt. levels - The more we listen to data and to our people leading with expertise, the more we can be victorious.

Data Science is all about evolutionary, iterative experimentation. Which means that to win with data companies must break down their silos and leapfrog to lean collaborative methodologies. Arriving at consensus around a single-source-of-truth without trust and collaboration is rarely achievable.

Back at VEON the challenge of taking advanced analytics products to market across the company’s 18 country footprint was immense. Ticking the boxes around regulatory, data availability and quality, engineering and integration, business case formation and so forth required intense collaboration and process synchronisation across countries, business units and teams. Yet the COE and engineering teams I assembled consisted of over 30 nationalities with average age 28. The change and business impact was made possible kudos the lean and digital vibe the team spread across the company, breaking silos and cultures into a great work relationships.

Powered by Generation Z and Millennial talents as @Azaliya, @Prat, @Julien, @Vishnu and more brilliant young minds who together built one of Europe’s biggest Data Management Platforms. At Transdev a pleasure working with Generation G brainiacs as @Rui - Scrum coach who hacked a python app to extract insights bringing our R&D to enhanced efficiencies and @Koen who devised value propositions to help fight back on competitors. And there are so many more exceptional colleagues I had the fortune of working with. 

Through the years I realised that empathy and compassionate leadership are the baseline for company culture and business success. As a consequence my role and responsibility gravitated to help people succeed, give them trust and resources. Let them fly.

No matter how advanced your technology is, if you haven’t switched-on to listening mode, and you aren’t trusting and delegating - disruption to your business is inevitable. The time for HIPPO (highest paid person's opinion) decision-making is over.

The cost of inaction today is in Trillions of Dollars

While traditional businesses employ governance processes and expand their stack via steering committees and procurement tenders - Technology companies launch MVP projects based on multidisciplinary diverse teams empowered with trust and delegation.

Sources: Gartner  McKinsey & Company Forbes  Inc.com  R&D Mag. Inc.com Marketing Charts Financial Director 

Multiple sources show staggering numbers of the costs and loss of opportunity derived from inaction. This is ultimately where hiring diverse and native-digital talent helps companies leapfrog and become highly efficient. The cohort born into technology - Millennials and Gen Z is your company’s fountain of youth. 

Back at Appoxee we hired a 22 year old self-taught developer. Which is why as of the start @Ori was on “god mode” and stretched hack across the stack, at top quality. Years later he sent me a thank-you email calling me “papa”, thanking me for revealing his qualities to him - this gesture meant more to me than any formal performance review I've ever received.

Hiring @Yotam -Millennial techie benefited the company immensely as he stepped the company into an ultra automated analytics powerhouse. These relationships and shared experiences made my delegation and trust-centric philosophy go stronger. Empowering and promoting young talent in your business is a shortcut to exponential growth.

Steering a Company is a gamble without using data

So start with your people and audiences of relevance. Go with the people, be humble and trusting. Today's multinational companies can't personally meet every one of the millions of customers you're serving. That's impossible. Which is why your people, your team and your data deliver your best chance. 

Ultimately, the reason so many industries are disrupted by the Netflix's and Uber’s and never see the shift coming is because they don't have the structures designed to listen carefully to their people.

To fight back on disruption and align with competition companies should provide the baseline for any society - sustainable culture. Purpose and mission. Instil and delegate accountability and use flat democratised methodologies such as SAFE, LESS, Kanban and others to power an information-centric discussion and decision making. 

Those that win the battle for market growth are consistently companies whose core operating principles are laser-focused on people. When done right, this helps predict, adapt, and capture opportunities before they even mature. I believe this is the company culture of and for the future; a data and EQ led mindset we should all strive to achieve.

Where are you on your digital and data journey ? How is your company dealing with these challenges ? Feel free to feedback, comment and share your experiences.

Yehuda

#people #transformation #business #leadership #data #analytics #technology #digital