Headline Partner

Megan Reutin, Global Head of Data Science and Strategy, Grunenthal

Describe your career to date

I have over 20 years technology-related experience: originally a software engineer that loved to blend customer experience with digital and web technologies. I joined Accenture as a Digital consultant within their Technology Labs where I discovered a passion for bleeding-edge technologies, and very quickly upskilled in a variety of different technologies and capabilities to develop data-driven assets for our clients including Minority Report touch screen reporting, video analytics determining if safety measures were respected, Facebook integrations (both from a technology and customer journey stand-point – what data can be obtained? How can this be used to better the customer experience? How can this be blended with other data to personalise the experience and increase adoption?), data-driven immersive experience creation (VR), palm vein and finger print analytics for money withdrawals at the bank, shop product placement optimisation based on footfall analytics, marketing analytics optimisation (from data-driven campaign optimisation, to content optimisation, improved customer segment targeting), pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics lab creations, enterprise-wide data and AI vision and strategy definitions including data governance operating models, and frameworks and data role definitions. I enabled multi-lingual Centre of Excellence capabilities at our clients’ enterprises (at the time) enabling AI and advanced analytics and data-driven actionable insights previously unattainable.

I was also tasked with specific data-education roles (training up CDOs on digital analytics, CDO social media reputation building advice, and making sense of the analytics to determine what works, as well as reporting directly into C-Suite as a Social Media Analytics or Digital Analytics Directors).

After 12 years cross-industry consulting experience (CPG, FMCG, pharma, finance, government, telecoms, …) , I decided, three years ago, that I would like to move into industry in order to be able to propel data-initiatives through from start to finish, but I wanted to find a company whose mission resonated with me so I could really make a difference. I chose to work with Grünenthal, a global leader in pain management and related diseases with a long-track record of bringing innovative treatments and state-of-the-art technologies to patients worldwide. Grünenthal’s purpose is to change lives for the better, and innovation is our passion. All activities and efforts are focused on working towards our vision of a world free of pain. A further reason for joining this science-based pharma company is that I wanted to demonstrate just how much value there is in good quality data and how pivoting to being a data-driven company, ensuring data is part of our DNA, could help us better serve our patients. I am now the Global Head of Data Science and Strategy for Grünenthal, my role encompasses:
– The strategy around our commercial data, encompassing what data we use, how we use our data with regard to artificial intelligence (AI), data science and advanced analytics, how the data is blended, how it is stored and how it is shared across the business.
– Enterprise-wide data literacy and education.
– Technology adoption and enablement strategies, encompassing all sorts of data-driven analytics from omnichannel to content analytics.
– Providing guidance on the latest data-driven innovative solutions (including generative AI) or innovation itself evolving across industries (not just pharma) as I love following the latest technological developments and seeing how these can be applied both in and across industries.

Data literacy is a key enabler of the value and impact from data. How are you approaching this within your organisation?

Data literacy across the business is key. Every person, let alone individual departments within the company, differ in their level of understanding of data. It is key that every single person is brought along the data journey that is defined – that each business has an active data culture and that is what I try and foster within our company. I have a defined a long-term data and analytics vision with a yearly focus that simplifies the emphasis the business will have each year.

To complement our data and analytics strategy, I have drafted a training MESH on our current analytics technology stack that covers a range of topics from the value of data itself (eg the kind of benefits it can bring a company, what being data-driven means), through the type of analytics we have already deployed throughout the business, to the type of data we have, how it is used, the dashboards we have created for everyone to use, right down to a granular hands-on creation of dashboards, and a complete walkthrough of how the data science models that have been implemented actually work, increasing visibility so everyone (no matter their level or role within the business) is able to vouch for how the models work and explain them, in turn, increasing trust and confidence in what is being implemented. Each of the training modules combines into one of several training paths that can be taken. Depending on an individual’s role a specific training path is assigned automatically but each individual can choose if they would like to do further modules and deepen their data and analytics knowledge. The end-goal is for everyone to feel completely at ease with data and for there to be no unexplainable black boxes anywhere within the business.

Have you set out a vision for data? If so, what is it aiming for and does it embrace the whole organisation or just the data function?

Yes, I have set out a vision for data – our vision is “To become an enthusiastic data-obsessed company that delivers tremendous customer experiences and outstanding company performance, fuelling growth and innovation through solid company-wide data literacy that enables actionable insight derivation and implementation across all data.”

This is a company-wide vision, embracing all functions (not just data functions), with collaboration across a variety of departments ensuring a fantastic solid data foundation upon which great reporting is built and even better advanced analytics is implemented. The vision itself is split into multiple parts – the first ensuring that, as a business, we become data-obsessed. This means that everything we do is data-driven (not experience-driven), that we eat, sleep, and breathe data, and that we opt to obtain data (eg set KPIs and monitor metrics) in whatever we do, whenever possible to improve what we’re doing. Secondly, we are customer-obsessed, this means putting our customers at the heart of everything we do, and ensuring their experience with us is something to shout about. Thirdly, a huge emphasis on data culture and data-literacy across the business, making sure that not one single person is left behind on the journey of understanding how critical data is to the growth of our business and finally, ensuring that we are continually innovating around data, ensuring that we have the hottest actionable insights using the latest technology advances (or modelling advances) in order to propel our business forward into the era of generative AI and beyond.

Megan Reutin
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