First in a series of Q & As with CMA’s Marketing Technology and Database Intelligence Council
January 17, 2007
Getting marketing and analytics together can be a little like mixing vinegar and oil – each naturally retreat to their own side! How to bring them together, or more broadly speaking, create the right culture where the various business functions (including IT) can come together in support of your organization’s analytics program is the focus of this discussion.
CMA’s Marketing Technology and Database Intelligence Council recently flagged the importance of corporate culture as one of real significance in building and sustaining a successful analytics program. So when asked, “Is culture a factor in the success of your analytics program?”, several members of the Council weighed in with their impassioned response.
To delve deeper into this issue, the Council is hosting a Roundtable February 20, 2006 where you’ll hear from several leading organizations what’s working and why you should care.
Q. Is culture a factor in the success of your analytics program?
Emma Warrillow
Emma Warrillow and Associates Inc.
An emphatic “Yes”! I believe very strongly that for analytic success, you must create a culture of learning across your organization.
The most successful analytics programs get analytics out of the cubicle and into the boardroom. C-level executives must see the value of analytics – and manage by the results; the onus is on analysts to become better communicators, sharing their approaches and their findings with the business.
For the true benefits of analytics to be realized, organizations must be willing to ask the hard questions: “Did it really work?”, “Can we do better?”, “If we take some more time, can we achieve a better result?” This type of self-examination only happens when organizations reward curiosity and measure everything.
Andrew Storey
Director, Decision Support and Campaign Execution
Scotiabank
Corporate culture, in particular the way that a company communicates its experiences and knowledge and makes decisions, is critical to the successful performance of an analytics program. A well known and much discussed principle is that a strong dose of business knowledge, specific to the industry or application, be embedded within the analytical teams. The reverse also holds, that a certain amount of analytical knowledge be held by other functional areas. Although neither area could be expected to be experts in the other, increasing the overlap in terms of knowledge, methodologies and objectives between the two groups strengthens the bridge, in terms of a more common language and philosophy, through which the teams interact. The stronger this bridge, the greater the prospects are for developing innovative and successful solutions. A corporate culture that is conducive to this type of communication and sharing will considerably increase the chances of having a successful analytics program.
Peter Dzendoletas
Director of Customer Insights and Analysis
CIBC
A culture that embraces analytics is as important to the success of an analytics program as the quality of the data itself. Without the right culture the true value of analytics will never be realized and this has implications to customers, financials and employees. It is essential the culture be embedded throughout the entire analytics chain. This means that solid partnerships, not service-based relationships, be established between analysts, business mangers and IT. Service based relationships often lead to a series of hands-offs where data support is not sufficient, analyses are not be fully aligned with business objectives and analytical findings are not at times properly applied by business. In contrast, partnerships foster an environment where parties work more closely together, become more aligned as they get a better understanding of business objectives and how best to apply analytics to solve for them. This kind of culture delivers more engaged employees, a better bottom line, a better customer experience and last but not least a successful analytics program.
Steve Heck
Group Manager, CRM, Privacy Officer
Microsoft
Culture is one of the hardest things to pin down, yet one of the most important contributing factors in defining the success of analytic programs. I didn’t realize it at the time and only came to terms with the role of culture after I looked back on some successes and failures to which I contributed.
Difficult to articulate but easily felt, culture is a combination of inter-related, intangible drivers. Things like executive support and vision; clear and common objectives; collaborative project teams; effective communication processes; and organizational commitment to a learning organization to name just a few.
Your team may not be able to pinpoint the cause but they can tell you how the drivers come together to make them feel. You might have heard comments such as, ‘it felt like pushing string’, or conversely, ‘the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.’ The problem is that the best way to learn about creating effective culture for your analytic program is through experience, and that takes time.
Fortunately, there are people in the Database Marketing discipline that have survived the frustration of poor culture and were fortunate to have enjoyed organizations where it all came together. It’s their ability to share this experience which will prevent us from making the same mistakes again.
