Robert Bates, head of decision sciences, Currys
Describe your career to date
I’ve taken a more winding route across all aspects of data science (or analytics as it was called when I was starting out) and looking back at each stage I realise I’ve developed different skills and ways of looking at things from each one.
After my PhD, I worked in management consulting (strategy), which emphasised the importance of structuring the problem and the need to take stakeholders on that project journey with you.
I then moved into commercial finance roles, which taught me the power of setting appropriate business targets; not only do you get what you measure but you have to balance ambition with achievability. It may be the best idea in the world, but if the business doesn’t believe it (and won’t sign up) you won’t get the project funds.
At Currys, I moved back into pricing and marketing analytics roles, which provided experience of the wider business operations and emphasised decisions are rarely clear-cut. Breaking down the key dependencies by applying systems thinking means you can ask the right questions and manage compromise.
Finally, the past few years have been spent driving engagement and encouraging use of analytics across the business and leading a team to do so.
What stage has your organisation reached on its data maturity journey?
In some ways this is a trick question – few parts of any organisation will be exactly in sync, and the speed of advances in technology and platforms mean that you’re always evolving and looking for new ways of applying innovative technologies.
However, I believe we have solid foundations across the board – there is strong sponsorship and belief in the value of data and insights, coupled with a strong culture of innovation. This means we’re able to identify and utilise the value of data-driven insights across the business and, while there will always be areas for improvement and increased maturity, we’re able to get there quickly through agile methods.
Tell us about the data and analytics resources you are responsible for
Within Currys, we have a relatively small central analytics team at present – around 10 to 15 individuals – in addition to functional analytics teams who are dedicated to support in an individual area.
This central team supports a mix of larger, cross functional projects and those which require more specialist data science and modelling skills which may not be needed on a day-to-day basis, allowing us to benefit from combining in-depth operating knowledge with cutting edge technical skills to develop people across the organisation.
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