Tom Johnson, data scientist at MSQ is one of the cornerstones of the insights consultancy providing exquisite analytical offerings for clients, resulting in massive improvements in revenue total and reducing manual analysis by over 5,000 hours. Tom’s input to the organisation creates high-impact, high-value products that consistently return in-depth insights into new opportunities, market trends and consumer habits.
“Impressive! His absence was felt so keenly when he left, they tried to get him back.” – Judges’ comment
Tom joined in 2017 with a passion for data and the ability to speak fluent French, where he made waves analysing French-speaking markets. He has always brought collaboration to the table and worked closely with the senior data scientist where he learnt coding, web scraping, statistical modelling and app development. Within a short period of time, Tom was contributing to the data science output of the organisation, training new hires, upskilling colleagues and had gained a reputation as the expert for internal tools. Tom developed a web-based tool to automate processes including topic clusters, data extraction and formatting and data visualisation.
Tom briefly left MSQ Freemavens to broaden his knowledge within the more technical analytics space led and worked as a consultant, advising clients such as L’Occitane, LVMH and Zwift on how best to leverage their data. Within just two months, he was deemed to have enough expertise to deliver multiple full-day workshops to long-standing clients on the best possible ways to utilise their first-party data. LVMH’s feedback on these workshops praised them as “the best they had ever experienced”. His departure left a noticeable hole in the team at MSQ, and he was brought back into the organisation where he has flourished. In the last four years, Tom has risen from a Junior Data Scientist to the leader of the data science team, taking charge of high value, high impact, multi-market projects for clients including GlaxoSmithKline, Pernod Ricard, Unilever, L’Oréal and Levis.
“Tom is a unique combination of obsessing over the utility of his efforts while facing ambiguity with a calm and smiling face,” said Andrzej Moyseowicz, founder and innovation and analytics partner at MSQ Freemavens. “He is an utter joy to build with, especially in an uncertain world of data, tech and insight. Tom is a catalyst for clients and colleagues alike. I foresee his leadership and generous spirit will continue to scale in the years to come.”
In addition to all of this, Tom is adept at storytelling and explaining complex data into easily understandable forms for non-technical clients. He is frequently lauded for embodying the culture at MSQ and goes beyond by organising multiple social events such as quizzes, running badminton sessions and organising role playing board game evenings.
