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Elena Alikhachkina, Global Head Digital Customer Engagement and Insights, Hoffman La Roche, Switzerland

Elena Alikhachkina, Global Head Digital Customer Engagement and Insights, Hoffman La Roche, Switzerland

What has been your path to power?

Over 25 years ago, I started my career in management consulting by helping companies to evaluate global market opportunities. My passion for data and technology started from consumer and market insights. I’ve been lucky to partner with many amazing people and work for outstanding companies with opportunities to travel and work in many countries around the world.

At university I was introduced to modern marketing ideas. I became fascinated with how much technology and data could contribute to business outcomes, consumer and customer journeys and new market opportunities. Bringing together people, technology, data and my passion for insights defined my future as a digital transformation leader.

I joined the publishing and media industry to lead the digital and data transformation in the early 2000s. We were pioneers in shaping new technology, new customer journeys and data sources. In fact, we created some new technology for behaviour / programmatic targeting, which many companies are now using.

When smartphones, social networks and search engines started developing at full scale, many other industries started transforming. This opened up fantastic opportunities to join the healthcare and consumer goods transformations.

The pandemic has caused such disruption to how we live, how we engage and how we communicate. It’s also brought a new focus on population health which is why I am delighted to have recently joined Roche as a global leader for digital customer experience transformation.

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

We are experiencing a significant demand for data, analytics and insights at all levels of the organisation, from global therapeutic product leaders to local business affiliates. Data is a foundation for us to deliver differentiated insights and to engage our customers at the right time, with the right channels and with valuable, meaningful content. Customer journey, customer segmentation, channel attribution, competitive and customer insights are some of the opportunities we are focusing on.

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

The business and customer transformation doesn’t come from technology or data, the transformation starts with people. And I do believe that leadership during this time is key. Leadership during transformation means a few different things. Firstly, it’s important to support people through the transformation, helping them to feel connected and empowered, understand the purpose, be productive and effective. Secondly, it’s not to be afraid to roll up your sleeves as a leader and stand with your teams when required. Lastly, recognise people’s success stories, encourage learning, experience sharing and new skills development.

And what about the skills of your data teams and of your business stakeholders? How are you developing data literacy across the company/organization?

Acceleration of digital technology is causing skills gaps that we need to develop across teams and data literacy is one of the skills we must accelerate. We define it as the ability to understand and communicate data in a business context, including an understanding of data sources, the ability to describe the business case and desired outcomes.

It is a foundational component for Roche to deliver personalized customer experiences and so, to ensure we can realise our ambition, we are developing training and community groups. And while data literacy is a key priority, as we move towards a data driven culture we also need to consider other factors, such as improving data governance through defining roles and accountabilities for data owners.

Elena Alikhachkina
has been included in:

100 Brands 2022 (USA)

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