Scientists, Storytellers, Problem Solvers: The Analytics All-rounder
The role of the analytics leader is undergoing significant change. No longer are you just expected to churn out statistical or predictive models’
you’re expected to have a deep understanding of the business and to be a partner in its performance.’
But’
the road to development is fraught with a number of strategic and operations challenges.’
Corinium interviewed CAO Forum Africa speaker Greg Nichelsen, Director of Data Speaks Up!, about what he sees as the biggest challenges analytics professionals face today. His top 3 are:’
- Engaging and telling powerful stories
over the past few years we have seen a huge rise in data capability and data tech but we still see difficulty in these organisations that have made an investment making an impact
I think this is due to a lack of skills in the data teams to build true engagement with their stakeholders and to tell truly compelling stories about what the opportunities are in the data - As alluded to above we often develop interesting and powerful data solutions but we find it difficult to embed these into our operational processes
to make this our standard way or marketing, to build analytics into our call centre processes etc’
without doing this a lot of our analytics becomes throw away - The third area we have struggled with is data governance
we need a new model for this that copes with the rapid shift in customer needs, the huge deluge of data, the need to be agile and innovative, the need for privacy and compliance and finally the need to govern and maintain knowledge. I think the secret here is to not treat all data equally and to at least have a governance process to classify what type of governance process the data needs and then have the process in place accordingly
Greg will be leading an in-depth masterclass entitled ‘The Data Dialogue & the Art of Storytelling’ on the day before the main Chief Analytics Officer Forum.’
Building on from storytelling the CAO Forum Africa will feature sessions that will cover the big strategic challenges most analytics (and data) leaders face. These include:’
- Driving Business Performance through Data, Analytics & Data Science’
What are the Critical Success Factors to Monetizing Data? - Building Trust in Big Data & Advanced Analytics’
Getting the Business to Buy In to Your Vision - Data, Analytics & Effective Marketing Campaigns’
A Discussion on how Data Analytics is Changing Campaign Development & Driving Better Results - Building a Great Analytics Team in a Skills Starved Market
- Creating a Culture of Data Sharing Across the Organisation
