Headline Partner

Camilla Bjorkqvist, Director EMEA Commercial Data Strategy, Johnson & Johnson

What has been your path to power?

Over the last 20 years, my passion for people, data, transformation and knowledge has been my guiding light. Having professionally grown up in risk advisory at Deloitte, I quickly became fascinated by the possibilities online and what kind of power solutions could provide to people, making their jobs easier, quicker and more strategic. How do we remove the transactional piece and leave the value-add piece to the people? This, of course, means that human beings need to change and adapt. Another fascination of mine is the absolute resistance to change we have built into us and how we support massive change.

After 14 years at Deloitte, both consulting and global internal roles, I moved into this area at ING Bank, where I set up the global HR portfolio and ultimately become the global HR data officer. After having set up those teams and worked with them to achieve our first successes, I moved to the chief data management office, becoming responsible for all global data change programmes. It was a fascinating time in the banking world, being at the interception of digitalisation and human transformation with the weight of regulatory pressure on us all the time.

Finally, in 2020, I left the banking work and joined Danone as its global data transformation director. And here my passion and energy could really be put to use with the FMCG industry one of the last industries, to transform – all Danoners were needed to make this company more data-enabled. Covid-19 threw some curve balls into the mix and that led my career into a new industry which is super exciting.

As of mid-March, I will be joining Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices as its EMEA commercial data strategy Director, with plenty of transformation in the years to come. I just love this journey I am on!

What impact has the pandemic had on the role of data in your company/organisation?

At Danone, the data strategy shifted quite significantly when the pandemic hit. A lot of effort went into larger strategic shifts and, therefore, data teams moved into joining the tech organisation.

Does data now have a seat at the table during strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get it there?

At Johnson & Johnson data and transformation is at the forefront of what we do. There we have a clear seat at the table and the board is highly involved. Now it is time to get cranking!

What are your key areas of focus for data and analytics in 2022?

Getting a good understanding of the foundations; identifying the top priorities; and stakeholder management. This is the A and O (as we say in Swedish) to moving the data agenda forward. Do we have the right support from leadership and do we understand what is number 1 on the business agenda? Only then will we be successful.

Tell us what leadership means to you in the context of your role as a senior data leader.

I lead from within, together as one team and one organisation – only then will we be successful. As a leader, we are as strong as our weakest link, so you better work on the full picture. I love working with my team, thinking through solutions or just simply hearing how the weekend was.

What key skills or attributes do you consider have contributed to your success in this role?

My listening skills are my strongest assets. If I am talking, I cannot hear what the other person is saying. This especially goes for the data community. Many times, we know what needs to be done and try to explain why data governance is so important, or how data quality should be done. In the meantime, the business is not feeling heard since it is dealing with some key challenges at this moment in time.

How did you develop – and continue to develop – these skills or attributes?

I will continue to develop myself until I die. I am a true learner and love to learn new things; implement new things with knowledge from before; or just do something again that worked really well. If you would ask my family, they would tell you I am always reading or listening to some podcast. However, I do the most learning through dialogue and exchanging of experiences.

Is the data tech you have keeping pace with your goals and requirements? Are your providers leading or lagging behind your demands?

We have too many data providers out there with too many sales pitches. There is so much diversity out there, we do have enough options and sometimes, even too much!!

Camilla Bjorkqvist
has been included in:

100 Brands 2022 (EMEA)

Enabling data and AI leaders to drive impact

Enabling the success of Data and AI leaders and their teams.

DataIQ is a trading name of IQ Data Group Limited

DataIQ INC is a wholly owned subsidiary of IQ Data Group Limited

Registered office: 6^th Floor Charlotte Building, 17 Gresse St. London, W1T 1QL