This is a profile from the 2022 version of the DataIQ 100.
The latest list is available here.
Steph Bell, director of analytics, Sainsbury’s
What has been your path to power?
The analytics industry was still emerging when I took my first graduate role in a marketing analytics agency, so it was a happy accident that I found such a hidden gem. Being in an agency role I worked across a variety of sectors over five years, but I had a passion for making data and analytics actionable for our clients and wanted to have a bigger influence on the results they delivered. Therefore, I made the jump closer to the client side by joining the company that ultimately became Nectar360, the agency behind the UK’s largest coalition loyalty programme.
Nectar360 manages Sainsbury’s shopper marketing services, utilising its own insights and media expertise to connect the Sainsbury’s businesses, FMCG brands and their customers. It was therefore a brilliant opportunity to build a solid understanding of how Sainsbury’s uses data and how loyalty influences people’s behaviour in a unique blend of both internally facing analytics and client partnerships. It kept me busy for almost a decade and ultimately led me to my current role, leading an exceptional team of analysts, data scientists and visualisation specialists, where the little nuggets of information you find end up in the hands of millions of customers every day.
What impact has the pandemic had on the role of data in your company/organisation?
Data has been front and centre at Sainsbury’s throughout the pandemic and our use of it throughout the last 2 years has driven the business’s data literacy agenda in entirely new ways. With our centralised data asset and ability to respond quickly to the ongoing, fast paced changes we’ve seen throughout, we have been able to synthesise the realities of what is happening across our stores and channels at breakneck speed. We have supported colleagues in store and in our store support centres to enable them to make decisions informed by data.
Does data now have a seat at the table during strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get it there?
Data absolutely has a seat at the table, whether it’s reporting platforms being accessible on any device, anywhere, analytics helping to support, measure and model our strategic initiatives, or the automated decisions that are making the business more intelligent. We’ve achieved it by working in partnership with our stakeholders, truly understanding their needs and collaborating on the solutions that will drive change. We’ve also relentlessly focused on the incremental returns delivered by the analytical solutions we’ve produced – when you have compelling, proven ROIs to socialise it is significantly easier to gain traction with a data and analytics agenda.
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