Robert Ogilvie, Formerly Data Director, The Automobile Association (AA)

What has been your path to power?

 

I started out 15 years ago at RBS back in 2007, just before things got very interesting in 2008! I worked in analytics supporting mortgages throughout the 2008 crisis, back when the base rate was changing on a monthly basis, and expanded more generally into areas of credit cards, marketing and private banking. From there I moved on to HSBC, this time in commercial banking supporting a number of areas across the spaces of lending, complaints and customer redress. Then a move into the AA, where having originally joined to support the financial services division, my remit expanded to analysis across the AA group before ultimately taking on responsibility for data more generally – changing from being an end user of data assets to the creator, curator and custodian of them in the data director role.

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

 

I think the pandemic has caused the role of data to be elevated within society more generally. There, persistent references of “follow the science” or “follow the data” has helped to ingrain the mindset of analysing available information and making judgements and recommendations based on what is being observed. That’s not to say the general population are all budding statisticians or analysts – but there’s an acceptance that analysing the trends is the right way to do things. Within the AA, there’s been a shift to more self-serve when it comes to analysis as we’ve rolled out self-serve tools but also, I suspect, as a consequence of people working remotely and having a go themselves in their own time before engaging others for help.

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

 

It certainly does, though it sits in a supporting role rather than front-and-centre. That’s perhaps where it sits best – after all data for data’s sake can be tiresome and relatively baffling to many. 

 

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

 

Value realisation and data governance. Or, in incredibly simplistic terms, ensuring that resources are focused on the areas and projects where data can make the biggest difference and that the critical data underpinning those projects is reliable and complete.

 

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

 

Data leadership is about continually showing where data can add value to business decision-making, so it’s about identifying and securing those opportunities for the team to showcase what they can do. My job as a leader is to keep promoting the work that is done while validating and verifying that the work is accurate and complete. 

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

 

The ability to reduce complex ideas and problems into simpler smaller components, and then explain them to non-technical audiences. Often the hardest part of answering any business challenge is framing the question correctly and understanding the extent to which it can be answered (or not) by analytical means. If you can be the person from whom others want to check their ideas or discuss their emerging concerns, then you’re invaluable at every level in an organisation.

 

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

 

I guess it’s a talent that I’ve generally always had but also something that requires constant training. That comes best from regular conversation with business stakeholders and staying close to commercial and operational performance metrics. You need to understand your business in order to support it.

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

 

I’d broadly say so. Clearly there’s always a push to increase compute power and reduce data latency but the vast majority of use cases don’t need anything like real-time decisioning, so it’s rare that the limiting factor on development is the tech itself.

 

Robert Ogilvie
has been included in:
  • 100 Brands 2022 (EMEA)

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