July 27, 2014

Alignment between “big data discussions” and “people”; a delicate, yet important balance

There is no doubt that the UK economy is continuing to enjoy significant growth and organisations of all sizes, across every industry sector are talking about data; these discussions include talking about the data they have access to as well as what specifically this data means. Information and the meaning behind it is becoming increasingly important, with companies embracing new technologies such as speech analytics within CRM systems that can analyse not just the words that are being said but the tonality and inflections in a person’s voice. There is also increasing importance being placed upon the analysis of external sources such as the plethora of social media platforms which are widely used. Whatever the approach, the outcome is clear, organisations are looking to identify (by maximising the benefits of advanced analytics) the ‘right’ business decisions and also they seek to forecast future events and customer behaviour patterns, thereby allowing them to conduct more meaningful ‘what-if’ analysis to predict the effects of potential changes in business strategy and/or customer preferences; with the ultimate being to provide competitive advantage.

However, some things have not changed i.e. information is only as good as the inputs from which it has been derived, this paradox also needs to consider the fact that the actions (and reactions) of a company’s client facing representatives can significantly alter their customer’s actions (and reactions); thus compounding the inaccurate data collection view.

As the interim market has continued to grow during 2014, alongside the desire for more meaningful and accurate customer information, organisations are engaging Interim Managers to work with them as part of, or indeed leading significant business transformations, quite often looking at supposedly ‘intangible’ areas such as organisational culture. Working at the highest level within an organisation allows Interim Managers to make effective recommendations and introduce meaningful measures to ensure the desired business outcomes are fulfilled and to enable maximum benefit from adoption of new technologies (and resultant data derived from deploying new technologies). These measures can include improved internal communications and behaviours, performance evaluation, training and workshops, though the key aspect is that ALL of these measures are people related.

At Rawson Downey Recruitment we work closely with our clients to understand the specific (and sometimes unique) challenges they face within their organisation; our objective is to ensure we identify the ‘right’ Interim Manager, someone who will fulfil their needs and assist them in delivering the business change they desire in order to maximise the full potential of data analytics and to maximise competitive advantage.