The Data Chief

How can data be activated to create better healthcare outcomes? Dr. Victoria Gamerman, the Global Head of Data Governance and Insights at Boehringer Ingelheim, offers that part of the answer is that data is changing to be thought of as part of the broader healthcare “ecosystem.”  Listen in for how some of the philosophical frameworks concerning data can help to improve healthcare.Tune in to learn:Changes in how data is being used in healthcare (07:00)How a system could be set up to share health data safely and wisely (13:05)How design thinking can apply to healthcare (25:41)What data mentality needs to change (28:26)Mentions:HBS Professor Linda Hill Says Leaders Must Engage with Emotions as Never BeforeClayton Christensen - "Jobs to be Done" theory“Coded Bias” (movie)Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Victoria on The Data Chief.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.Show Notes for YouTube:How can data be activated to create better healthcare outcomes? Dr. Victoria Gamerman, the Global Head of Data Governance and Insights at Boehringer Ingelheim, offers that part of the answer is that data is changing to be thought of as part of the broader healthcare “ecosystem.” Listen in for more of Victoria’s takes on how data can improve healthcare.Key Moments:00:00 Getting to know Victoria and her career journey04:26 What sort of work does Boehringer Ingelheim do?07:00 What are some changes in how data is being used in healthcare?10:24 Is sharing health data becoming easier?13:05 Creating a system to Share health data safely and wisely16:42 Will wellness data become more integrated?19:47 Are regulators behind technologically?25:41 How does design thinking apply in healthcare?28:26 What mentality about data needs to change?30:37: Data and academia36:54 How can we bring people along in terms of data?38:33 Learning from data disasters42:11 How does Victoria continue to learn new things?Mentions:HBS Professor Linda Hill Says Leaders Must Engage with Emotions as Never BeforeClayton Christensen - "Jobs to be Done" theory“Coded Bias” (movie)Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Victoria on https://www.thoughtspot.com/data-chief. Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at https://mission.org. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

What does it take to turn a new position that never existed into one that delivers transformation for an entire organization? As the first Chief Data Officer at Prudential Financial and the initial Chief Data Analytics Officer at a prior career stop at State Farm, Kjersten Moody knows the answer. Tune in to learn how being a constant learner has consistently allowed her to see challenges as opportunities for growth.Tune in to learn:How Kjersten’s role model influenced her life and career (04:08) How Prudential is thinking differently about its strategy and data (32:28) About the role that a good culture can play in supporting transformation (36:19)How Kjersten has elevated data science at Prudential (42:33)How to meet stakeholders in a place that’s helpful to them (47:38)Mentions:“The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul GawandeGet even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Kjersten on The Data Chief.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How do you make innovation truly come alive? For Abhi Bhatt, the AVP, Technology, Data & Analytics at CarMax, innovation is about using data to change “business models.” Abhi also describes the need to train up teammates and others who use the data concerning technological advances. Additionally, he shares his career journey and how his positive experience as a CarMax customer initially activated his interest in the company.Tune in to learn:How did Abhi end up working at CarMax? (13:00)How can companies make the most of their internal data? (17:18)How do you train up relevant parties concerning new technology? (23:41)How does Abhi find talent? (27:56)How does Abhi keep up with so much innovation? (37:07)Mentions:Top Trends for 2022Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Abhi on The Data Chief.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How has the Chief Data Officer role changed? Heidi Lanford, CDO of Fitch Group, shares that “it’s gone from stewarding and protecting data to monetization of data.” She explains how CDOs can be effective by working together with other company leaders and communicating simply. Learn from Heidi why there can be great career value in being willing to be uncomfortable.Tune in to learn: How does Heidi work with the leadership team? (10:03) How does Heidi suggest CDOs communicate to CEOs?(13:05) How can a CDO work with the technology side to update the tech stack? (18:58) How is Heidi helping her workers become more data literate?(27:50) What’s the benefit of choosing to be uncomfortable in one’s career journey? (37:48)Mentions:“Getting to ‘Yes And’: The Art of Business Improv”Building CDO Influence in the C-SuiteGet even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Heidi on The Data Chief.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Your data will never be clean and it will never be perfect. So how do we create meaningful models anyway? As Dr. Katia Walsh puts it, data leaders are facing a “tsunami of data.” But that tsunami shouldn’t stop you from testing, iterating, and moving quickly. Dr. Walsh is the Chief Global Strategy and AI Officer at Levi Strauss & Co. and today she shares how her team has leveraged a mindset of “think big, start small, scale fast” to create cutting-edge data models and digital capabilities quickly. Tune in to learn:(4:22) Why every business is a data business and how building out new digital and AI capabilities is about improving the 3Cs (connections, commerce, and creation.)(8:21) How Levi Strauss & Co. leverages data to create custom experiences no matter where a customer engages with them. As Katia says, “It’s not business; it’s personal.”(18:43) Why Katia’s motto is “think big, start small, scale fast.”(19:43) What do when you don’t have perfect data (and why you will never truly have perfect data).(27:55) Where to look for your organization’s next data leader - it’s not where you think.(30:36) How Levi Strauss & Co. is using bootcamps to increase data literacy at every level of the organization.Mentions:Levis.comGet even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Katia on The Data Chief.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

With every passing year, a new batch of data tools comes available, and a new crop of data professionals enters the job market. The Chief Data Officer has evolved into a position that acts both on the offensive and defensive sides of these changes. Our guest today, Cara Dailey, the EVP, and CDO at LPL Financial, has helped shape and define the role of data leaders in the C-suite as she’s moved through her career. Her experiences at companies like Nike, Bank of the West, and Silicon Valley Bank have led her to embody a spirit of data-enablement – rather than governance. She also begs the question, “Is all data created equal?” Tune in to find out on this episode of The Data Chief. Mentions: InvestInDataTom DavenportRandy Bean - Fail Fast, Learn FasterSimon Sinek - Start with WhyMonte Carlo Barr MosesHarvard Business ReviewKey TakeawaysGreat CDOs balance offense and defense. Primarily, the role of the CDO started with the idea that organizations needed someone focused on protecting the data, keeping it safe and secure. Now, as the world has evolved, so has the role. Modern data leaders need to also be able to impact their organization by bringing value through performance data analytics for clients, customers, and employees. Cara posits that it’s not enough to simply protect; you must also ask yourself what are you actively contributing? Focus on data enablement. The best data executives can think of themselves as part of a data enablement forum, inviting a collaborative attitude in the increasingly important world of data governance. Make it such an integral part of the program you’re creating as the data leader. Think of yourself and your team as the data glue that holds the organization together. Not all data is created equal. While data is a powerful tool for decision-making, it’s important to remember not all data needs to or even should be valued the same. In highly regulated environments, absolute accuracy may be required. But for internal use cases like improving a product or process, directional indicators are just as good.Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Cara on The Data Chief.   Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

If you look around your home, it’s very likely you have at least one item from the Unilever family of brands lying around. From the soap in your shower to the ice cream bars in your freezer, Unilever delivers everyday products that help people get more out of life. And they rely on data to ensure they’re doing so sustainably. Today’s guests are Unilever Director of Digital Finance Transformation, Vandana Khanna, and Director of Data and Analytics, Deeksha Singh. On this episode, the two leaders join Cindi to share exactly how they’re using data to impact everything from supply chain decisions to employee belonging. They also dive into how they are demystifying data at every level, eliminating manual reporting and data visualization work, and using data and AI to be a more sustainable company. All of this and more in today’s episode with Vandana Khanna and Deeksha Singh. Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Vandana and Deeksha on The Data Chief.  Key TakeawaysChange starts with inspiration: When an organization is used to manually creating dashboard reports for every business question or visualizing data in Excel, it can be hard to break these habits and change behaviors at scale. The key is inspiring people with the art of the possible. Show users what good looks like and how technology can empower them to be faster and smarter, and the rest will follow.Digital transformation goes hand in hand with opportunity: It’s common for business people to run for the hills when they hear the word “transformation.” As a leader, it’s important to communicate that there's nothing to fear. There is no transformation without people. You need both to move the needle, and often people’s roles become even more important because they’re needed to ensure the technology is working as it should.You may never be bias-free, but you can be bias-aware: People and data are inherently biased, but thankfully bias awareness is growing in corporate culture. One of the most effective ways that global brands like Unilever are achieving less bias and more diversity is by bringing more diverse leaders into the fold. These leaders bring new perspectives and context to processes that increase the inclusivity of your product and organization overall. Key QuotesVandana:“So an example would be when we started working on RPAs, we started taking away all the manual reporting. Imagine the width and the breadth of the manual reporting we had! As soon as RPA were put in place we had triggered momentum across the sourcing units with these RPAs. They became the biggest hit because people said, ‘Oh, wow, I'm able to save so much time.’” “Human beings have biases. We cannot eliminate our biases. No matter how we try, we will never be bias-free. We will be bias-aware.” Deeksha:“I also believe that data is one of the key strategic assets for any transformation to happen for any organization for that matter. And it's growing, it's growing in variety in volume in velocity. Any organization will be able to manage the complexity and make sense of this data in a timely manner, which I think will thrive when it comes to digital transformation today and in future.” “Sustainability is at the core, the heart of everything we do. Unilever's purpose is about making sustainable living commonplace, and yes, a large amount of data is being used – in terms of how we enable a reduction in carbon reduction in plastic deforestation and its impact and even sustainable sourcing. So if I were to pick an example, a case in point of sustainable sourcing. We've partnered with a third party who provides us with the cloud services that, along with the satellite data that is available – in terms of monitoring the impact of these ingredients that are being sold from different locations across the globe, coupled with the power of AI. We mix all of this [and] we get very rich geospatial data, which we are using in a lot of decision making when it comes to, where we are sourcing from. So for example, if these ingredients are being sourced from a location, which is impacted by deforestation and has a future impact of deforestation, we can take a quick decision of not sourcing from those locations, from those places where there is deforestation in act.”“I feel that as an organization, what we have also realized is the power of data and digital literacy, which is around raising the floor and bringing people along – in terms of making them literate [and] making them aware of things that are coming their way, rather than just giving them a surprise, blow to their heads to say that we are changing tomorrow.”“Everybody wants change, but nobody wants to change.” MentionsUnstereotype - Unilever’s bias awareness and trainingMagnum Ice Cream - Mentioned guest productInvisible Women - Book recommendation BiosVandana KhannaAs a digital transformation Leader and Director of Digital Finance Transformation at Unilever, Vandana has extensive experience in Finance, IT, Supply Chain, and Product Management — delivering analytics, data science, and automation capabilities that help companies thrive. With deep expertise in CPG, Telecommunications, Retail, and Pharma, I lead diverse teams of direct and indirect reports and drive results through finely-tuned business acumen using Agile practices. She is responsible for leading the design and delivery of complex projects leveraging BI and Data Analytics to answer critical business questions, detect consumer behavior and provide creative solutions for a wide range of business challenges.She incorporates technologies like IoT, Cloud, Big Data to improve the financial performance of any organization. I have developed business intelligence and reporting solutions through ETL, Data governance, and Data Visualization.Deeksha SinghDeeksha is the Director of Data and Analytics at Unilever, who is an information technology  leader, with more than 10 years of experience. She is well-versed in Platform, Operations Management, Data & Analytics, and Digital Transformation. She has proven expertise in managing complex transformation initiatives, navigating ambiguities, and partnering with Senior Stakeholders. Deeksha is recognized for cost-effective system improvements, operational streamlining, efficient change management, and a positive leadership style. Currently, she is setting up the Global Analytics Platform for Unilever simplifying access to data and insights, while crafting seamless user experience and joined-up user journeys. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Nitish Mathew, the Global Head of Data Engineering and Governance at Afterpay, joins The Data Chief to discuss measuring the impact of analytics, the rise of the analytics engineer, the importance of taking risks, and much more.Tune in to learn:Why you can't take a data center mindset to the cloud (6:30)Why stakeholder satisfaction is the ultimate KPI (15:00)Inspiring your team through purpose (19:10)How to build a “walled garden” for business users (22:40)The importance of taking risks and celebrating failures (30:40)Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Nitish on The Data Chief.Episode mentions:Afterpay BlogNetezzaBlockCashAppChristian IdiodiFive Dysfunctions of the TeamFail Fast, Learn Faster: Lessons in Data-Driven Leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI Risk: A User's GuideINSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love--The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Whether you’ve passed your cursor over their logo on a streaming service, spotted it on the front of a Golden State Warriors jersey, or use their cash-back rebate system, the Rakuten brand is everywhere and actively expanding. Today’s guest, Takuya Kitagawa is the Managing Executive Officer & CDO at Rakuten. On this episode, Takuya joins Cindi to discuss how the company has found massive, international success across multiple industries by integrating data across lines of business to deliver better customer experiences. He also dives into the importance of data fluency at every level, and elaborates on how Rakuten is leveraging the concept of “digital twins” to better connect with customers. Stick around to hear all of this, plus exciting details regarding Rakuten latest moonshot projects.Key TakeawaysIntegrated data delivers better customer experiences: Rakuten has seen major success in offering enhanced services and experiences to customers around the world. Their secret? Integrating data across multiple lines of business, starting with customer login credentials. This approach makes using multiple services a seamless experience and builds customer loyalty.You don’t have to reinvent the wheel: Before building a new technology from the ground up, see if anyone else has already done it. There’s so much you can learn, borrow, or buy from others. If you can learn to leverage the innovation that’s already happening around you, you’ll be in a better position to accelerate your own digital transformation. Invest in data fluency at every level: It’s important that executives be just as data fluent as anyone else in your organization. For Rakuten, investing in data fluency at the highest levels of leadership manifests as quarterly AI bootcamps and mandatory data trainings.Key Quotes“We discovered when we acquired the credit card company, that it is much, much cheaper to send traffic from one internal service to the other than down going through of course advertising companies such as Google and Facebook, even though this takes a little ingenuity and creativity. If you think about it, eCommerce and credit cards come really well together because, to shop online, you need credit cards and the key point is how do you connect credit card back to the shopping?”“Our CEO had a very, very clear directive - if we are going to acquire a company, integration of it starts from integration of ID. So log ID needs to be completely the same. This already has been a common practice across Google, in Facebook to align the log ID starting from there you really have to integrate the data. So that's a key point when you acquire a company one of the key agreements you have to make with the other company is we have to integrate ID and data.”“Algorithms [are] becoming a commodity at this point. The key differentiator of AI is data."“Frankly, the best practice is to learn from [the] outside, because venture capital money is flowing at this ridiculous amount, and there [are] so many people, so much money, and so much effort to try to make things easier. Before you try to build what’s necessary yourself, it's better to look around and see if there are other companies who can help you… Be humble. [We] try to learn from our site and leverage what is already there.”MentionsDr. Hisataka Kobayashi’s Discovery of photo immunotherapyHarvard University Partnership FC Barcelona and Golden State WarriorsAbout TakuyaTakuya Kitagawa is the managing executive officer and Chief Data Officer of Rakuten Inc, and serves as the director for Well-being for Planet Earth(WPE). As Chief Data Officer of Rakuten group, he is responsible for the end-to-end value creation and execution of AI & data strategy, and manages a global organization located across the world including Japan, U.S., India, France and Singapore. He also leads Rakuten institute of technology, R&D function of the group, as the global head. Vision of his group is the fundamental understanding of customers and their behaviors with AI and data; how business and service can empower customers to spend their money and time better. As a board of director for well-being for Planet Earth, he further extends and applies the understanding of human beings and society to contribute to more general domains of well-being across the world. Prior to working on AI, he worked as a theoretical physicist and published more than 20 papers in journals including “Science” and “Nature Physics.” Dr. Kitagawa obtained his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University and A.B. in physics and mathematics from Harvard College.--The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

As the world continues to fill with impersonal, factory-machined goods, so increases the desire to see and feel more human creativity in the items we use in our lives. Etsy, a community marketplace for creative goods, was designed to help people sell their unique and homemade items online. The company continues to innovate and transform the small-business world, leading by focusing on innovation in their technology. Today’s guest, Chu-Cheng Hsieh, is the first Chief Data Officer at Etsy. On this episode, Chu-Cheng Hsieh joins Cindi to discuss his unique perspective on helping build a data-driven organization from the ground up and how he’s fostered a culture of experimentation that has led to rapid growth and transformation within the company. He also dives into trends such as machine learning and data observability, and explains some of the most helpful mental frameworks he’s learned in his life and career.Key TakeawaysCheck human intuition with data: Your gut feeling might be right, but in today’s world it’s critical to remember the importance of being able to back up your thinking and your decisions with facts. Hsieh emphasizes the importance of trusting the data that’s in front of you, even if the answer goes against decades of personal experience.Create a ‘regret minimization framework’: Popularized by Jeff Bezos, the ‘regret minimization framework’ is a way to help you more clearly define what career decisions you should make. It encourages the thinker to imagine being at the end of their life, looking back at what they’ve done, and asking themselves, “Is that really the life story I want to have?”Invest in insights: Hsieh shares that “You don't want to judge your success based on just [the] outcome. You should judge your success based on the decision quality.” By investing in thoughtful decision-making, you can increase the probability of success, even when you don’t have all the facts or data.Key Quotes“I only have one life, so I can either become a professor or I can do something different. So I use[d] something called regret minimization framework. I think Jeff Bezos mentioned this. I closed my eyes, imagined [myself] 30 years from today and I'm telling my life story to my grandson. And I think [what] kind of story will make me feel more excited and happy?”"One thing which I learned, this surprise[d] me, is that human instinct is often wrong. You [think] that if I change this color from blue to red that people will like that. [But] that's your opinion. You are just one person. Even [with] 20 years of experience in this field, you could be wrong. I can show you tons of examples that the data will show totally different[ly] [from] what you thought it to be.”“Your intuition, [is to] think one millisecond doesn't matter. It actually [does] matter because sometimes this one millisecond, especially for people who are using their mobile device, the user experience can be totally different, especially when the network is spotty.”“You don't want to judge your success based on just [the] outcome. You should judge your success based on the decision quality. And if you have good insight, this doesn't mean that you always [are] right. The only thing you can do is to invest [in that] insight, so that when you make a decision, you know the reasons and insight behind the decision. This gives you a higher probability of making the right decision. So this concept of ‘Thinking in Bets’ is what I [use] to help me to make a better quality decision.”MentionsBook: Thinking in Bets Jeff Bezos’ regret minimization frameworkAbout Chu-ChengChu-Cheng Hsieh manages the data org across Etsy globally, including engineering, data science, and machine learning. Partnering with Etsy’s product and business executives, he develops the data strategy, represents data science, and drives high-impact decisions. He is specialised in search engine, recommendation systems, and machine learning technology. His primary responsibility is to deliver strategic and creative data science approaches that help achieve Etsy’s mission and goals.He received a PhD in computer science from UCLA, and has two master degrees. In his leisure time, he enjoys innovating and collaborating with academic researchers. He has brought cutting-edge research into products. He publishes papers in top-tier conferences, such as WWW, SIGIR, KDD, and enjoys giving talks/keynotes at a variety of academic or industrial conferences on information retrieval, recommendation systems, and data mining.--The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.