This is a profile from the 2021 version of the DataIQ 100.
The latest list is available here.
How is your organisation using data and analytics to support the corporate vision and purpose?
As with most organisations at the start of a data journey, we have used data for reporting purposes aligned and driven by business verticals. The newly-developed data strategy is linking the use of data to the three pillars of our corporate “more than TV” focus, to transform broadcasting; to grow UK and global production; and to expand direct to consumer. The biggest shift is moving to a model that uses data in a more predictive way and starts to join the data dots across business functions.
Looking forward to 2021, what are your expectations for data and analytics within your organisation?
Having set out a data strategy that is linked to the corporate strategy, 2021 is about enhancing our capabilities across talent, technology and process. We have three core areas of focus:
Is data for good part of your personal or business agenda for 2021? If so, what form will it take?
Absolutely. ITV has a well-developed corporate social purpose strategy, we plan to use data to achieve four key outcomes:
What has been your path to power?
I first realised the power of data when I started in investment banking in Australia, seeing the value that could be created was both eye-opening and terrifying. I wanted to get a broader understanding of how other businesses worked, so I moved to New York to join PwC as a management consultant. I was fortunate to work with progressive companies that were shifting from being product to customer centric and were launching direct to consumer digital experiences.
As the internet bubble was taking shape, I built a number of start-up digital businesses in Silicon Valley. In 2001, I moved back to the UK and acquired expert understanding of data and analytics at dunnhumby, where I was responsible for developing customer-centric strategies for clients in the media, online and financial services verticals.
At Channel 4, I developed and delivered a data strategy to create value in three core areas:
I’m now at ITV with a group-wide role and developed a strategy for using data to drive revenue and EBIT growth spanning studios, broadcast, and media and entertainment divisions.
What is the proudest achievement of your career to date?
Starting at a green field site at Channel4 with no data, technology or people capability to building an amazing award-winning team that has continued to focus on delivering the data strategy, resulting in a number of world-first innovations. We developed an outstanding culture, one that balanced creativity and academic research with applied business value, resulting in the team having a direct and material impact.
Tell us about a career goal or a purpose for your organisation that you are pursuing?
As a creative business, we know how to tell compelling stories through content. Embracing our creative culture, we plan to dial up the stories we tell with data to help showcase the “art of the possible” and, in doing so, will make it accessible and easy to understand.
How closely aligned to the business are data and analytics both within your own organisation and at an industry level? What helps to bring the two closer together?
In the wider industry, you often see a few themes:
In order to better align to the business there are three key steps we take at ITV:
What is your view on how to develop a data culture in an organisation, building out data literacy and creating a data-first mindset?
All too often, companies embark on large-scale training and development programmes that rarely succeed as the training is often too conceptual and lacks application to the immediate day-to-day. A more sustained approach is to secure top-down sponsorship as it helps to signpost the importance to the rest of the organisation and opens doors. Spending time with stakeholders to identify pain points that can directly benefit from improved data literacy will allow the training to be applied and is far more likely to be retained. Continue to build and share these case studies to build momentum and deliver a bottom up change.
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