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Kyle Winterbottom, CEO and Founder, Orbition Group

Describe your career to date

 

My career focus spans three distinct arenas:  

Business Enablement – I have dedicated a significant portion of my journey to assisting businesses of diverse sizes and profiles, ranging from FTSE and Fortune 100 corporations to venture-backed startups, across various industry sectors across the UK, Europe, and the USA in developing robust data and analytics talent strategies and supporting them to build their data and analytics organisation and capability.  

Professional Development – A major component of my career has been in supporting data and analytics professionals in their career growth. I have played a pivotal role in helping individuals navigate and advance within the field.  

Community Building – I have been passionate about building a vibrant community for data and analytics professionals. This community serves as a hub for connecting the data and analytics ecosystem to promote collaborative learning, knowledge exchange, and idea-sharing aimed at advancing the industry. 

What challenges do you see for data in the year ahead that will have an impact on your clients and on the industry as a whole?  

 

I think 2024 will be the year that many data and analytics organisations are forced to the table to justify their existence. We are seeing Chief Data Officers now being held to revenue or value-generation targets and I believe that will be the direction of travel for many within the industry. The extent and pace of this shift remain to be seen, but it signals a critical juncture where Data and Analytics teams must demonstrate tangible contributions to the overall business objectives. In addition, I think many organisations will grapple with the escalating interest and hype surrounding generative AI (genAI) and large language models. The potential and promises of the technology present a double-edged sword, as companies may find themselves navigating the challenges posed by their adoption, whether they are fully prepared for it or not. Balancing the need to be perceived to be current and relevant with practical readiness will be a key challenge in the upcoming year. Ironically, those two challenges are in conflict with each other as one pushes justifying existence while the other encourages diving head-first into investments to cater for interest, without perhaps consideration of such value. 

How are you developing the data literacy of a) your own organisation and b) your clients?

 

I think the world of data literacy has changed dramatically over the last 12 months. GenAI has played a part in raising awareness of how these things are now a part of everyday life and incorporated into people’s day-to-day roles. In supporting our clients; we have seen (and helped) a large number of businesses build teams and capabilities that service data literacy, culture and communication initiatives. More importantly, for us, it is about having the right people to influence change and we see that the literacy programmes that do not talk about literacy or culture and are more aligned with the benefits of the business users, tend to drive to better adoption. Internally at Orbition; we are not merely passive listeners to the CDOs discussing the latest trends and the importance of data. We actively put these insights into action. Over the past year, we have rolled out a comprehensive data literacy programme for our internal team. This initiative ensures that every member of our organisation has access to segmented, clean data to support them in achieving their goals. Most importantly, before a key decision is made, the question “what does the data say?” has been asked. For our community; this has proven beneficial in two primary ways. Firstly, they receive only the most personalised and relevant content, ensuring that we serve them in the most effective manner possible. Secondly, they gain access to high-quality opportunities promptly. 

How are you preparing your organisation and your clients for AI adoption and change management? 

 

The majority of organisations are still working to build the fundamental and foundational components required to be in a position to utilise artificial intelligence correctly. We support our clients with AI adoption by helping them to design relevant AI strategies, that guide them to build their team with the required skills to ensure change and adoption occurs. In parallel, we consistently strive to be an aggregator of content across the data and analytics ecosystem to drive shared learning, collaboration, and ideation of best practices on the topic of AI adoption and change management. 

Kyle Winterbottom
has been included in:
  • 100 Enablers 2024 (EMEA)
  • 100 Influencers 2022 (EMEA)
  • 100 Influencers 2023 (EMEA)

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