Steve Janoo is Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Diageo, where he leads the company’s global data, analytics and AI agenda to drive growth, performance, and competitive advantage.
He brings more than 25 years’ experience shaping strategy and delivering business transformation across the end-to-end value chain in large, complex global organisations. Across his career, Steve has led programmes of rapid, profitable growth and supported major shifts towards consumer-first operating models, working within both highly innovative private organisations and some of the world’s most recognised brand-led businesses. A consistent enabler of this impact has been the design and implementation of enterprise-wide data, analytics and AI strategies, alongside the operating model changes required to embed them at scale.
At Diageo, Steve is responsible for shaping how data, insights, and digital technology are used across a portfolio of more than 200 brands, operating with around 27,000 people across 180 locations worldwide. His remit covers the development of differentiated data products, advanced analytics and AI-enabled capabilities designed to improve decision-making, unlock value and strengthen trust across more than 90 global markets.
Steve’s focus is on ensuring data and AI deliver tangible business outcomes, supporting Diageo’s ambition to be one of the best-performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. He views AI as the next frontier of digital transformation, building on strong data foundations to create sustained advantage through insight, innovation and execution at global scale.
As a data and AI leader, which traits and skills do you think matter most, and which of those have been most influential for you in your current position?
“For me, the critical traits and skills needed to be a successful data analytics and AI leader would be resilience, learning agility, commerciality, and system thinking.
“Resilience to drive forward in the face of adversity or resistance. Driving data transformation is first and foremost a business transformation with a need to drive human behaviour, not something that will be easy!
“Learning agility to continue to stay up to date in the most rapidly advancing field of technology development.
“Commerciality to ensure that the value of where data analytics is driving results is effectively captured and communicated.
“And system thinking because as data and AI transformations require focus on inter-connected complex systems and processes, understanding how best to improve these systems to drive results is critical.”
Reflecting on your career, what is one non-traditional piece of advice (outside of technical skills) you would give to an aspiring data or AI leader aiming for the C-suite?
“My advice would be to focus on understanding business problems first and seeing how data is really being used in action within your business. Get out there and get a sense of the reality of how things work!”
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