Leaders of Analytics

In this episode of Leaders of Analytics, I am joined by Ada Guan who is one of the most innovative minds in the field of credit decisioning.

Ada is CEO and co-founder of Rich Data Co, a company that helps lenders make informed and accurate credit decisions by leveraging AI and machine learning.

Listen in as Ada sheds light on the role that AI and machine learning can play in transforming the lending industry and what the future may...

Data is revolutionising our world, yet many companies fail to harness its value. What needs to be done for CEOs to see the value of having analytics as part of the executive inner circle?

Unfortunately, many analytics teams struggle to move past the common challenges of fostering analytics literacy, getting executive buy-in for more investment in data and analytics and showcasing the value delivered into the business.

How can analy...

“Being an entrepreneur is basically like going from one crisis to the next”. Those are the words of Michael Kingston, co-founder and CEO of Seeda.

At a point in his career when Michael was thriving, he took the daunting plunge from successful executive to entrepreneur and start-up founder. Most people would be too scared to take such an enormous risk; however, this step has been Michael's key toward work-life satisfaction.

Three ye...

Digital transformation is rapidly changing the way we live and work, and governments should be leading the way forward, according to Victor Dominello MP.

As the Minister for Digital and Minister for Customer Service in the State Government of New South Wales in Australia, Victor believes government should be playing a central role in fostering a digitally-enabled economy across government, private enterprise and individual consumer...

As the digital landscape evolves, privacy concerns and regulations are becoming increasingly important for advertisers. With the decline of third-party cookies and the rise of individual data usage consent, measuring advertising attention is more crucial than ever.

One of the biggest challenges for advertisers in a cookie-less world is being able to accurately measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Without cookies, it's hard...

Inflation is rising, interest rates are up across the globe and cash is king again. How will this impact the flow of venture investments in start-ups and emerging technologies?

While traditional investments may suffer during a recession, the venture capital industry has historically been able to weather the storm and even thrive. One reason for this is that venture capital firms typically invest in early-stage companies that are no...

30 years of “corporate social responsibility” has left our planet in dire straits.

Biodiversity loss, climate change, water pollution, micro-plastic pollution, air pollution, species collapse, ecosystem collapse…the list goes on.

What can we all do individually and collectively as business leaders and responsible humans to turn the situation around?

According to Simon Schillebeeckx from Handprint.tech it is possible to create incre...

How does a traditional bricks-and-mortar retailer transform itself into an omni-channel business with strong digital and data science capabilities?

In this episode of Leaders of Analytics we learn from Bunnings General Manager, Data and Analytics, Genevieve Elliott, how the company is transforming its operations using data and analytics.

As Australia and New Zealand’s largest retailer of home improvement products, Bunnings is a hig...

Is your company good at customer success and retention? Chances are that you could be better.

For most businesses with a recurring revenue model, customer churn is a very costly affair. Whenever a customer leaves, you lose out on recurring revenue, forgo the opportunity of expansion (cross sell) revenue and have to pay for another round of acquisition costs to cover the loss.

In my personal experience, customer retention is both ar...

Do you really need a data-driven culture? Maybe not.

According to Bill Schmarzo, the CEO’s mandate is to become value-driven, not data-driven. For analytics teams that means one thing: no one cares about your data, they want results!

In this episode of Leaders of Analytics, Bill and I explore the economics of data & analytics and how to drive powerful decisions with data. Decisions that turn into business value.

Bill is the author ...

Great analytics teams understand that they are responsible for two things concurrently: production and consumption.

Most analytics teams master the production part well. After all, that’s why they exist, to produce analytics.

However, analytics only matter if someone consumes them and makes valuable decisions as a result. “Decision + value” is what we’re after.

To be able to make valuable decisions from analytics, consumers must be...

If you’re anything like me, you have a love/hate relationship with marketing. Marketing can be delightful, obnoxious or somewhere in-between, depending on content and context.

Most of us remember an ad from our youth that has given us a life-long emotional connection to a brand or product. Most of us also remember that obnoxious sales call or email campaign that made us swear never to buy from the offending company again.

In this e...

Business leaders are changing.

Today, it’s not enough to be a strategic thinker and good people leader to be successful in the corporate world. Why?

Modern business leaders are customer-centric and understand how to create a personalised customer experience using customer data.

Modern business leaders are data-driven and understand how to make decisions based on probabilistic outcomes, not just gut feel.

Modern business leaders und...

Most of us take for granted that food is always available to us when we need it. Our local supermarkets have shelves stacked with produce from all corners of the world. Rarely do we stop to think that the items in our shopping carts have been on a long journey involving months of work by many people.

How does all this food get produced in the first place, reliably, consistently and to a high standard? How do we combine and utilise ...

Professional sports have undergone a true data revolution over the last two decades.

Today, all major sports teams, regardless of sports code, use analytics and data science to drive team performance, optimise game outcomes and scout young talent.

Why has analytics become so popular in professional sports and how does it help drive a competitive edge?

To answer these questions and many more relating to the sports analytics, I recen...

It’s no secret that data and analytics can be used to create a competitive advantage for almost any modern business.

In fact, the customer data you capture in the course of doing business is one of the strongest differentiators between you and the competition.

So, how do we build an organisation that is capable of both producing and consuming truly differentiating data products?

It’s not enough to just have a great analytics team t...

Every company, regardless of size, is dealing with a barrage of data. In any typical organisation, there is more information on hand than we know how to use or manage.

While every team in the organisation is screaming for analytics professionals to turn data into insight, a strong data and analytics tech stack is foundational to being able to make sense of it all.

The need for a robust and efficient data and analytics tech stack ha...

In a recent conversation with data warehousing legend Bill Inmon, I learned about a new way to structure your data warehouse and self-service BI environment called the Unified Star Schema.

The Unified Star Schema is potentially a small revolution for data analysts and business users as it allows them to easily join tables in a data warehouse or BI platform through a bridge.

This gives users the ability to spend time and effort on d...

Modern analytics teams are central business functions directly and indirectly responsible for increasing revenue, reducing costs, optimising processes and improving customer and employee satisfaction.

But there are many obstacles along the way. Data needs collecting, projects need careful design and execution and stakeholders need convincing. Analytics teams are required to cover a wide range of technical knowledge, business acumen...