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Professor Andy Neely, Co-Founder, Anmut

What has been your path to power?

I’ve spent most of my life on the boundary between University and business. I trained originally in manufacturing engineering at Nottingham University. During my PhD, I explored how leaders achieve goal congruence – generating alignment across the organisation they lead. This sparked my early interest in key performance indicators. In particular, I was interested in how you identify and design KPIs that best match the organisation’s strategy.

 

I’ve spent time at Cambridge University, Cranfield School of Management and London Business School, always working closely with business partners to try and solve practical problems that organisations face. Currently, I am the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations at the University of Cambridge and a co-founder of Anmut.

 

As Pro-Vice-Chancellor, I am responsible across the University for innovation, commercialisation, spin-outs, start-ups and links with business. At Anmut, we are focusing on transforming how organisations value and manage data. By measuring data’s value and performance, enterprise-wide, we help our clients realise that value in the most effective and efficient ways. Data – and the value it can deliver – is a theme that has run throughout my professional life.

What impact has the pandemic had on demand from your clients?

The last two years of the pandemic have drastically altered our clients’ needs. In year one, the acceleration of data transformation focused Anmut on helping clients quickly measure data’s value and improve the fitness-for-purpose of priority data assets, often prior to the uptake of cloud storage and analytics. Recently, focus has shifted to improving organisational operating models. With the ever-increasing volume of data, clients are wondering how the business and centralised/federated data teams should interact amidst increasing complexity. Consistently, our role in guiding senior-level ownership, investment and strategic direction has been critical in driving real results.

Do you get a seat at your clients’ strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get you there?

From Anmut’s inception, we have been aiming to elevate data to the most senior levels possible for our clients. This is a fundamental principle behind why we developed data valuation. One of valuation’s benefits is the translation of data from the technical into something that everyone across a business can understand. By creating a shared language for data, we often find ourselves sitting with clients and their senior leadership to discuss data’s ROI and strategic direction. Hopefully, this will continue with the increasing business appetite for quality data.

 

What are your key areas of focus for the business in 2022?

We’re focusing on three things at Anmut. Firstly, developing our offerings. By keeping our ear to the market, we are always iterating, and the data eco-system moves fast. Secondly, we’re continuing to work on educating the market on the importance of measuring data’s value and performance. We truly believe many data leaders can feel lost without doing so. Finally, looking after and managing our team of brilliant employees. It’s been a difficult couple of years and we are all keen to enjoy spending time together now we’re getting back in the office.

 

How do you apply your leadership skills a) within your own business and b) on behalf of your clients?

From a business perspective, I’d switch these two items round and start with our clients, before thinking about our business. At Anmut, we have a laser-like focus on delivering for our clients. So as a leader of the business, I’m focused on making sure we help our clients achieve their goals. We do that by having great people who are engaged, talented and really know their field. Making sure we create an environment in Anmut where people can learn and grow, explore new ideas and innovate is critical to keeping us at the forefront of thinking about data.

 

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

I’m naturally curious and inquisitive – I like exploring how and why things work and how to make them better. When I think of leaders I have admired, it is always because they role model behaviours that I aspire to. I hope I do the same for colleagues at Anmut, helping them see how we can make the business even better.

 

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

You develop and hone skills and capabilities across your career. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have been given a wide variety of roles over the years that have helped me learn and develop. There have been some constants – an interest in data and how to make better use of it. Constants help you develop deep knowledge and expertise. New situations, environments and experiences help you develop new – and hopefully valuable – skills. Getting the balance right between the two is the trick to having a successful career.

How do you ensure that your proposition keeps pace with your clients’ goals and requirements so that you are leading rather than lagging behind their demands?

Though we are continually developing and improving our offerings at Anmut, fundamentally, we believe our proposition is market-leading. Most of the market continues to focus on later stages of data’s value-chain, such as storage and analytics. While these tools are incredibly sophisticated and important, without prioritising data based on value, it can be hard to focus investment on what matters and reap the rewards. As organisations are forced to collect, store and use more and more data to keep up with demand, the need to prioritise based on objective evidence will only increase as well.

Professor Andy Neely
has been included in:
  • 100 Influencers 2020 (EMEA)
  • 100 Influencers 2021 (EMEA)
  • 100 Influencers 2022 (EMEA)

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