Posted on

Karin Immenroth: Developing Competency In a Data-Driven Business Culture

The advent of readily available data has fostered a new era of fact-based innovations in corporations, where exploring innovations and new systems can be backed up with empirical evidence. And with the disruption caused by COVID-19, there is accelerated adoption in data technology.

So why is it hard for businesses to adopt data as part of their organizational structure?

The biggest obstacles do not stem from the technical side of things; it’s about the culture. In this interview, Chief Data and Analytics Officer for RTL Deutschland Karin Immenroth shares with us how a business needs to transition into a data-driven culture and the approaches that a modern chief data officer (CDO) needs to adopt in today’s digital landscape.

 

The New Landscape of Data Culture

Over the past decade, data has steadily become an influential factor for decision-making processes. Especially in the past year where almost 60% of the global population is constantly online, businesses are looking into data analytics to better understand their customers and employees.

As with the aftereffects of the pandemic and the changing demands of today’s market, Immenroth highlights how the role of the data officer today has changed significantly while pointing out the underlying driving force for data transformation.

 

How has the role of the Chief Data Officers (CDO) changed and what challenges do they face in a post-pandemic market?

Companies didn’t have Chief Data and Analytics Officers ten years ago. That role didn’t exist yet. But because the market is changing dramatically due to progressive digitalization, “Data” as a topic is becoming more and more important. 

The biggest challenge, however, is cultural – it is not enough for a central data area to drive the cultural change, rather the entire company must start working in a data-centric way. 

The DATA Alliance is the central catalyst for RTL Deutschland on its way to becoming a content, tech, and data powerhouse. The pandemic has permanently changed the way we work. 

For us, as the DATA Alliance, the development surrounding the “mobile office” is very positive, as it means we can now work across Germany and in a completely flexible way. This helps us find and attract the best talent in the German market.

 

Why are companies still struggling to implement data competency and how has the pandemic affected their hesitancy towards adopting data culture?

We are in the middle of a cultural change, transitioning into a data-driven company. 

RTL Deutschland is a company with over 3,000 employees – a cultural change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, and it’s also important to have a few lighthouse projects that carry the topic of “data” into the organization and help spread awareness. 

We must make it easier for our colleagues throughout the company to access data, support them in interpreting data, and, of course, show them how to make better decisions based on this data. 

Just like the motto goes, “Use data, be better”. The pandemic has been a positive and driving force behind our cultural change – greater digitization has also brought the processing and implementation of data more broadly into society.

 

Developing and Simplifying Data For Organizations

Without a solid foundation for data culture, businesses will often miss out on the chance to fully utilize the data they’ve collected, or even encounter issues with data consistency or internal processes.

Deloitte reports that only 21% of the global workforce is confident in their data literacy skills. And with 70% of organizations expected to shift to new analytics techniques known as “small data” and “wide data”, businesses that are not data literate will get left behind.

Immenroth dives into how the leadership in RTL Deutschland has steered the company towards developing its analytics sector and advises those who are still trying to find success in building a data-competent organization. 

 

What can those in leadership roles do to improve data literacy within their organizations?

We have launched various projects that help our colleagues make better use of data for themselves and their day-to-day work. 

These are, for example, projects like our Reporting Center or our quota tool, Key Vision. We also support various stakeholders in the company by building data products and decision-support tools for their businesses. 

At the moment we are particularly active in the marketing, content, and digital sectors. And it’s also crucial for us to continue developing in the analytics sector, as it will enable us to make even better use of the treasure trove that is data analysis.

 

For companies and organizations that are struggling to find success in data, what key metrics and best practices should they focus on to drive the importance of data?

Our experience shows that it makes sense not to overcomplicate the initial steps. Very exciting and useful insights can often be found in simple descriptive data metrics. 

If you then go one step further and use analytics or even machine learning, data science, etc., you’ll often find unexpected results and insights that have been “fleshed out” by the data. 

I recommend a good dose of courage to use unconventional methods and approaches – we have had very positive experiences here and have been very pleasantly surprised on more than one occasion.

 

Starting Small and Establishing Data Competence Centers

In 2021, global big data and business analytics was forecasted to grow to $215 billion while connected IoT devices are expected to create 79.4ZB of data by 2025. 

With global economies adopting data analytics at an accelerated pace, businesses might be tempted to “go big” with investments in a data-driven culture. Immenroth believes that CDOs and organizations should do the opposite instead while building on Data Competence Centers to kickstart their digital transformation.  

 

In the pursuit of a data-driven culture, what pitfalls or common mistakes should CDOs or organizations be aware of?

More doesn’t always mean better. My experience is that it’s best and most sensible to start “small” and then expand gradually. In concrete terms – it is better to always start with a small proof of concept and then decide whether something bigger can emerge from it.

Fail fast and have the courage to make and admit mistakes… This is the best way to learn and then use what you’ve learned in your organization.

 

How would you advise CDOs or data leaders who want to seamlessly integrate competence centers?

My recommendation is to look at where topics related to data are anchored throughout the company. 

Then, based on that, you can build the core for the so-called Competence Center. It is advisable to define central topics and make them the heart of the Competence Center, and it is also fundamentally important that enough “data” ambassadors are distributed throughout the company in the areas correlating to each topic. 

In my opinion, it’s this balance that counts. In any case, our experience shows that a central Data Competence Center can be a very successful catalyst for the transformation of a company.

Posted on

Marco Hoppenbrouwer: Fueling Growth Through Data-Driven Culture

With remote work expected to become a mainstay in the foreseeable future, IT and business leaders are looking at new ways to ensure that their employees are equipped with the necessary critical insights needed to make business decisions.

One of the key approaches is to develop a data-driven culture: the utilization of emerging technologies to drive business value, pushing an organization to be insight-driven as opposed to gut-feeling and operating in the dark.

Marco Hoppenbrouwer, Chief Data Officer for Global Functions & Finance at Shell, understands the value of data to drive value for businesses in today’s modern landscape. In this interview, Hoppenbrouwer shares his insights on how the chief data officer (CDO) role has evolved and why a data-driven culture is a necessity for corporations.

 

The Power of Digital and Data and The CDO’s Role

To compete in an age of rapid acceleration, companies need to be data-driven, but the transition from a feeling- to a fact-based organization is not an easy path. With only 24% of companies truly fostering data-driven cultures, it is up to the CDO to push the initiative of cultivating data technology in a business.

However, before CDOs can achieve that, Hoppenbrouwer points out why the components of Digital and Data are important for a business and what the focus needs to be for CDOs to streamline the transition towards a fact-based organization.

 

How has the role of the chief data officer (CDO) evolved in today’s data-driven culture?

 

Let me first set the scene as to why digital and data are so important for any business and one cannot do without the other:

The energy transition and digitalization are two mega-trends that affect the world in the coming decades. Both are expected to have a profound impact on the way everyone lives their lives.

Digital technologies can play a key role in the transition to a lower-carbon future. Furthermore, we see a rapid increase in digital products, services, and processes coupled with increasing expectations for a seamless digital experience from both our customers and employees. 

Digital is not new, but what’s different is the availability of technology, data, and capabilities that are growing at an exponential rate. Digital is also one of the few processes that require quality data as input to be successful. 

I’ve seen projects fail because a Proof of Concept was successful as it was run on manipulated datasets but this was not the reality in the field when the solution was to be deployed.

Maximizing the benefits of digital technology is heavily dependent on the readiness of an organization and its workforce, meaning:

  • It is key to upskill the workforce with new tech skills
  • The entire organization needs to be data-savvy

This also means that if the organization cannot keep up, it will rapidly be taken over by a competitor that leverages digital technologies and can deliver a more compelling value proposition faster and at a lower price point. A good example of digital disruption is SpaceX which disrupted the entire launch industry.

As to how this answers your question, the role of the CDO has changed from an information & compliance management role into a strategic value generator role. With digitalization and the emergence of the CDO, data is now at the forefront and is seen as a key-value driver that drives business outcomes.

 

What role should the CDO play in streamlining the transition to a fact-based organization?

 

There are three key areas the CDO should focus on:

  1. Accelerate digitalization and drive business value from data, meaning:
    • CDO knows how data enables the business strategy and what value it can drive
    • CDO knows what data is needed, who owns it, where it’s mastered, whether it can be trusted, and how it can be accessed
    • CDO formalizes roles & responsibilities for Data Management
  2. Increasing organization’s data literacy so that:
    • employees understand the importance and their role in data management, including data quality beyond their line of business. For example: if the quality of data you create is not good enough for downstream usage by another line of business, you create a problem in the value chain.
    • employees have the technical skills to drive value from data through citizen developer tools such as the Microsoft Power Platform. This can be achieved through developing role-based learning paths, setting up a community of practices for sharing key data-related best practices, and running DIY boot camps or Hackathons.
  3. The CDO should strive for data-based decision-making by ensuring that the required analytics & insights are timely available in the decision-making process
 

Eyeing The Potential and Opportunities of Data-Driven Culture

The field of data analytics has consistently grown, in terms of acceptance and importance, and will play a critical role as a decision-making resource for executives in modern companies. 

Gartner predicts that by 2024, at least 30% of organizations will invest in data and analytics platforms, increasing their business impact for trusted insights and encouraging new efficiencies. As such, CDOs must take the initiative in fostering data technology as an organizational asset for digital transformation.

But, what are the challenges and how should CDOs approach this transition?

Hoppenbrouwer delves into the main points of how the CDOs should facilitate the data strategy for an organization, and the perspective needed to overcome the challenges of digitalization in a post-pandemic market. 

 

With data having the potential to transform functions into a high business impact model, what initiatives should the CDO take to help this transition?

 

Ensure that there is a data strategy for each line of business. This helps pave a clear roadmap for the usage of data, the business value it enables, and the capabilities required to deliver this value.

Secondly, businesses will need to get the data into good shape, meaning:

  • Identify data ownership and resolve where ownership is unclear
  • Identify the data that matters, which means not all data, only the critical data
  • Make data issues transparent, such as data quality & remediation or master data management & replication
  • Embedding of data quality management in daily operations for data that matters
  • Drive fit for purpose improvements

Lastly, there needs to be a focus on upskilling the employees on data skills.

 

Are there challenges for the adoption of data technology skills and culture? How has the pandemic affected these challenges?

 

There are many challenges and plans that have been impacted, but I prefer to look at the opportunities.

I am heading our European Data & Analytics community and normally we hold local and focused events on specific data topics. These can be lunch & learn or deep dives on how to start on the AI journey, sharing best practices from a recent analytics project, etc. 

Due to the pandemic, we organized virtual sessions. These events offer the opportunity for staff to virtually meet other colleagues outside their daily routines and join with D&A communities in larger events across the organization, such as data literacy programs or DIY boot camps.

At the same time, the pandemic has accelerated the business’ digitalization plans, putting much more emphasis on data enablement. As a result, it has increased the need for Data, Data Strategy, Data Governance, Data Quality, Data Skills, and Data Capabilities in the organization.

 

People At The Core of Data and Digitalization

The explosion of available data has given corporations the potential to fuel a new era of fact-based innovation and new ideas through solid evidence. All this culminates in improving operations, clear strategies, and better ways to satisfy customers. 

Yet for many organizations, a strong data-driven culture still remains elusive with data rarely being the foundation for decision-making.

What makes it hard for corporations to be data-driven?

The answer lies beyond data technology. It is about kickstarting the culture at the very top through leadership that sets expectations and decisions anchored in data. The lack of data awareness is something that Hoppenbrouwer believes is one of the major pitfalls for those in leadership roles.

Not all employees are sufficiently aware of the importance of data for the organization. People have learned to store certain data, but they are not really sure why this is important and what other departments do with it.

As a result, data provided by one department to another is often incomplete or contains errors on more than one. Supplementing or correcting this leads to additional work and additional costs. It’s key for employees to understand the data value chain and the role they play in it.

 

What pitfalls should the CDO be aware of when pursuing a data-driven culture?

 

Culture is made up of people, and changing a culture means you need to get a change going with the people. People don’t change naturally unless there is a reason to do so.

Everybody wants to deliver their digitalization strategy due to the value it enables and this is a key catalyst to improve data culture. 

However, data is a foundational enabler, and data responsibilities were considered an add-on to the day job without recognition for good performance in data-related activity.

Leadership needs to change here and needs to step up, from the top, all the way to the supervisors on the shop floor.

What can the leadership do to make these changes? Some examples include:

  • Publicly speaking about the role and importance of data 
  • Clearly articulate how data enables the business strategy and the value it unlocks
  • Data roles & responsibilities need to be formalized AND effort recognized
  • Visibly recognizing the good work done in the organization to get the data right
  • Sharing of success stories and lessons learned
  • Encouraging staff to become more data literate, through sponsoring data literacy events, citizen data science boot camps, and inclusion in personal development plans

Ultimately, the CDO plays a key role here in supporting the leadership to drive change through the organization.

Posted on

Digital Healthcare: How Is Technology Transforming Health?

In a post-pandemic world, it’s clear that the need for digital transformation in healthcare has become important. A survey done by McKinsey with 213 European physicians claims that more than 50 percent believe that telemedicine will be a significant part of a modern healthcare system. 

With the digital healthcare revolution underway in European nations, it’s evident that hospitals and clinics will need to adapt to emerging technologies and integrate digital health solutions as part of their strategy. 

But what is digital healthcare? And how is technology transforming healthcare?

In this article, we take a look at some of how hospitals and clinics are integrating health digital solutions, how digitalization is used to fill the healthcare skill gap, and why data will be a significant tool in the care industry.

 

Adoption of Digital Technologies In Hospitals

Europe has been facing unprecedented pressure within the healthcare system and the pandemic has shown that despite the improvement in quantity and quality of care, there is still a gap in efforts toward digitalization.

This is in part, due to several challenges such as bureaucracy in healthcare and the costs of technology for organizations to implement digital technologies.

However, it does not mean that digital technologies are not being experimented with and utilized at all. In fact, due to the pandemic, certain countries are accelerating their adoption of digital and telemedicine solutions to help improve the quality of healthcare services provided.

One such example is Portugal’s use of the ePatient system for centralized and real-time patient data management. ePatient allowed clinicians to monitor and communicate with their patients remotely if they were not able to be present. 

 
 

This adoption of a digital healthcare solution has made home care easier for healthcare professionals in Portugal as they can communicate with each other over the application.

 

The Skill Gap In Digital Healthcare

With digital systems in place, hospitals and medical professionals will need to learn how to fully utilize these solutions to deliver care. However, many in the workforce, especially in the nurses’ field, are still lacking the skills and proficiency to handle digital healthcare solutions and technology.

Before organizations can scale up these digital systems, the digital divide and skill gap within the workforce need to be acknowledged. The workforce that delivers care to patients needs training and support to use new systems, and to use these technologies effectively to deliver high-quality digital care. 

How should organizations overcome this skill gap challenge?

Everything starts at the top and clear strategic directions from those in leadership roles to integrate and train the workforce to embrace new technologies and skills must be the priority. It’s important, however, that when investing in new systems, it needs to be guided by the organization’s long-term visions and account for sustainability.

Beyond that, investing and supporting educational initiatives that provide a platform for the workforce to develop these skills will be essential in filling the medical skill gap. One such initiative is the NURSEED program by a Danish collective company that seeks to address the nursing shortage and skill gap in Denmark through a digital platform.

 
 

Future of Health Is Digital and Data

Putting digital solutions in place and equipping the workforce with the necessary skills will lay the foundation for a digital healthcare revolution for many organizations. The next step is to fully embrace the healthcare digital transformation and understand the role of data analytics.

In recent years, big data tools have played significant roles in healthcare decision-making. This is in part due to the pandemic, which resulted in an enormous surge of health data being available, allowing for bigger and better analytics.

How can the health industry utilize these data?

Through descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics, healthcare providers will have immediate access to necessary information, and improve overall efficiency. 

 

For healthcare professionals, this would mean improved predictive modeling that can alert them of potential risks of chronic illness or even self-harm. And on a larger scale, it can even predict outbreaks.

With predictive and prescriptive analytics, organizations can expect a reduction in overall healthcare costs by reducing appointment no-shows, preventing equipment breakdowns, decreasing fraud, and even managing supply chain costs.

Bottom line: better data leads to better healthcare.

 

Technology Is Transforming Healthcare

There is no doubt that the healthcare digital revolution is underway and technology will transform the solutions and approaches in modern care. The question is now whether organizations are changing fast enough to keep up with the demands of modern healthcare.

Posted on

Egmont Philips: Driving Growth and Digital Transformation

The chief marketing officer (CMO) role has always evolved with the market landscape. Egmont Philips, Marketing Director of DAS, believes that the time for change has come and executives now need to evolve their roles as CMO. 

What does that have to do with cooking?

In this interview, Egmont shares with us his perspective on how CMO roles have transformed to meet current markets, the challenges they face in strategizing transformation, and why you need to think like a cook.

 

Evolving The CMO Into a Digital-Driven Role

 

CMO has always encompassed numerous roles, from bottom-of-the-funnel lead generation and sales support to brand development. This has always set the role for failure as they lack the strategic, longer-term strategy of other C-level roles.

However, digitization has disrupted the traditional CMO position and has forced many executives to rethink what the term “CMO” means in today’s landscape. The effects of the pandemic are a catalyst for this development.

 

Has the role of the CMO changed dramatically since the pandemic? And is the change here to stay or for the short-term?

 

The role has changed. As a marketeer, you always need to anticipate, adapt, and change the organization. But some market developments went faster than planned. 

On one hand, digitization has a steeper development curve, which is good news for marketers. On the other hand, as platformication increases, this will lead to a faster shift of power based on customer ownership and causes many traditional players to rethink their business models.

With over 4 billion active users, the CMO needs to be able to bridge the gap between marketing and technology to successfully forge meaningful connections with its customers. Given the diverse platforms available and channels such as Clubhouse, catching the attention with the right content in the right context will require a shift from the traditional behaviors of marketers.

Of course, there are challenges when making that transition, and 2021 looks to be as challenging for the CMO as was the pandemic for businesses last year.

 

Achieving Sustainable Growth Through Data and Transformation Strategy

 

What are the major challenges you foresee in 2021 and how should the CMO overcome them?

 
  1. Growth via new business models: Digitization, platformication, the energy transition, and the need for a more inclusive world are trends that create new opportunities. It will also disrupt current business models. The speed of change is much faster than before and to succeed, the key will lie in the talents you hire and the business ecosystem you build to signal changes and develop new propositions.
  2. Resilience: For many industries, market dynamics have changed due to the pandemic. 

The way to overcome this is to develop scenarios. Use scenarios where you exaggerate variables. Think of ways to deal with extremes. This will fuel your creativity and it helps in decision-making for the short term.

While growth and resilience stand as the key priorities that Egmont highlights, there is also a growing awareness to develop sound customer experiences in both B2B and B2C markets.

The need to be an experience-driven organization is becoming important as more and more consumers (59% in a post-COVID-19 survey) are prioritizing customer experience in a post-pandemic world. 

Egmont delves into the reasoning as to why CMO is needed in this transformation and the approach that they should adopt.

 

Why is becoming an experience-driven organization increasingly important? And what is the CMO’s role in this transformation?

 

Many products have become commodities. The only way to differentiate is by building bespoke experiences, experiences that are built around a strong company purpose. The CMO is the chief experience design officer and is at the forefront of setting design criteria and building multidisciplinary teams around customer journey optimization themes.

 

How should the CMO strategize their marketing plans to improve and strengthen customer experience?

 

The struggle is often how to determine the ROI of investment in customer experience optimization and figure out how to allocate a budget. The recipe for strategizing CX is to use journey maps to pinpoint which part gets what KPIs and what investment is needed in capacity and budget. 

This allows for a simple overview that will help convince boards to invest.

As for the tools needed to help the CMO improve CX and strengthen the customer journey, there are a few emerging technologies that Egmont believes will be key for organizations to invest in.

 

What are the key tech tools that the CMO needs to focus on investing, especially in today’s “new normal” market?

 

RPA and digital assistants are most effective when used to automate processes that are of low value to the customer as well as to your company. Such as changing your address, categorizing and directing incoming emails to the right person, etc.

Data analytics are the real thing, no doubt that the CMO needs to invest in market intelligence, customer intelligence, and algorithms that help to personalize the customer experience and create higher conversion rates.

 

Reinventing the CMO role

 

Given the drastic change that industries around the world have experienced due to Covid-19, it is not shocking to think that the marketer’s role has changed alongside it. 

For Egmont, the title of the CMO has to be re-imagined, and he offers his advice on how marketers should approach the shift in marketing roles.

 

There have been talks in the industry about changing and re-inventing the CMO title in today’s “new normal” markets. In your opinion, what should it be changed to and why?

 

I am spreading the gospel of changing the CMO into Chief Customer Officer. Marketers do not only translate market developments and change customer behaviors into propositions. They have also become the orchestrators of customer journeys.

 

What is your advice for the CMO on how to prepare for the shift in marketing roles?

 

Maybe the most fundamental way to prepare is to change your self-image.

I see myself as an experimental cook. I build various propositions for several customers and personalize them by combining a basic set of ingredients in completely different dishes. Restaurants and food are like fashion. It changes every season. When it comes to experimentation with the ingredients, you need to be a bit of a chemist. 

I use this analogy when approaching market research, data analysis, creating propositions, and managing the team in the marketing kitchen.

Posted on

How to Fully Utilize Data for Improved Customer Experience

Every great business recognizes the importance of customer experience (CX) – a critical strategy in engaging and retaining customers to your brand.

With the e-commerce landscape booming amidst impacts from COVID-19, it’s apparent that CX has transcended through both digital and physical sales channels, and is a key competitive differentiator for brands.

But with the extensive research and analyses on achieving great customer experience, why is CX still an ongoing concern for businesses?

 

THE CX CHALLENGE

 

However, as straightforward as it may sound, it’s becoming harder for companies to achieve the customer experience that consumers expect due to:

 
 

Customer touchpoints are especially significant as these are the areas in the customer journey where the consumer interacts with your brand, and have a direct impact on their overall experience.

 
 

According to customer service provider, Help Scout, “a poor experience at one touchpoint can easily degrade the customer’s perception of multiple positive historical experiences at other touchpoints.” And Qiigo claims that it can take between 13 to 20 touchpoints, or touches, to convert a prospect into a customer. 

Fortunately, as businesses become more digitized, it’s much easier to identify customer behavior patterns and to improve touchpoints in their journey.

However, the amount of raw data available combined with the challenge of analyzing and acting on customer insights are factors as to why organizations are still lacking in quality customer experience.

 

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS IN CX

 

Unlike prior generations, the consumers of today have higher expectations and a clear idea of what they want and how they want companies to deliver it to them.

But 71% of consumers are still receiving “An offer that clearly shows they do not know who I am” while 41% are seeing “Mistakes made about basic information about me.”

Such errors are taken as signs that the brands are ‘intentionally’ not placing importance on their customers when actually, it shows that organizations are not using their customer data to the fullest potential.

 

Pre-Purchase, Purchase and Post-Purchase

 

By leveraging data and artificial intelligence (AI), companies can improve all stages of their CX journey.

One example given by Capgemini showed how Amazon used AI and predictive analytics, before the browsing prospects even made a purchase, to:

 
 

Qymatix Solutions also emphasized the cruciality of using predictive analytics in the pre-purchase and purchase stages through predictive lead scoring while utilizing churn and cross–selling predictions in the post-purchase phase.

Micro-Segmentation and Personalization

 

In the past, segmentation was sufficient to deliver an ‘adequately personalized customer experience’, but today, brands need to micro-segment their potential consumers for hyper-personalization.

Using machine learning, predictive modeling and data mining, predictive analytics help to:

 
 

In a use case by Wavicle Data Solutions, a restaurant chain’s consumers were segmented into multiple groups and clusters based on gathered data. Following that, “predictive analytics and machine learning created both macro and micro-segments of customers, with matching customized offers for each audience”.

At the end of their process, the restaurant chain was able to develop personalization and loyalty programs that engage customers with more customized offers and meaningful messages, increase customer retention, and grow revenue.

 

Resource Efficiency For Higher CX

 

Aside from giving consumers exactly what they need, predictive analytics also help in the efficient allocation of your resources. 

For instance, a coffee shop saved 38% of their marketing costs by predicting which of their customers were more likely to churn and sending them targeted offers to convert them into loyal customers.

Other examples, given by MarTech Series, show how predictive analytics can reduce resource wastage and streamline costs by planning staffing levels in advance for smoother and more timely customer experience, and upgrade delivery timelines by conveying transport route adjustments for on-time deliveries.

These efficiency strategies not only lead to savings for the company, but also ultimately improve the interactions and experience of the consumers.

But predictive personalization cannot be made without quality data, and data strategy is where some organizations face roadblocks.

 

MAPPING ORGANIZATIONAL DATA JOURNEY

 

While businesses often map out their customer journey, companies should also map out their internal data journey, which can involve multiple functions and C-suites, to determine weak areas in the sharing of their CX data.

For instance, are there information silos between the business departments? Which function has decision authority over data?

In a CX team proposed by TechTarget, the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) is responsible for the customer experience metrics and research while the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) “creates customer journey maps that use data to predict future consumer actions”.

On the other hand, Dion Hinchcliffe, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research and Brian Hopkins, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, both talked about data-sharing and partnerships between different C-suites.

Hinchcliffe mentioned that the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) each have a vital part to play in delivering quality customer experience.

Meanwhile, Hopkins believes that the Chief Data Officer (CDO) and CIO can form a powerful partnership to drive data strategy, where IT supports the CDO to maximize the impact of customer data.

To quote Hopkins, “The bottom line is that control over data is neither a pure tech decision nor a pure data decision.”

With more specialized C-level roles and functions emerging, organizations need to tear down data silos and establish active communication between all business functions for a joint effort towards better customer experience.

Posted on

After COVID-19: The New Manufacturing Normals

sparks from manufacturing process

It’s a well-known fact that many organizations outsource their industrial and manufacturing operations to countries across the globe for lower labor and production costs.

The era of hyper-globalization brought about the creation of global value chains and high interdependencies between businesses and suppliers, interconnecting the world’s economies and supply chains.

However, the emergence of the coronavirus exposed the vulnerabilities of such interconnectivity, with lockdowns, closed borders and slowed productions causing worldwide supply shortages.

The unprecedented disruption has caused manufacturers to rethink their strategy for post-COVID-19 business continuity and growth, from the near-term actions of accelerating adoptions of digital technologies to shifting their operations for a longer-term solution.

 

INDUSTRY REINVENTION

 

Over 75% of the world’s global manufacturing outputs were impacted by the pandemic, and throughout the past months, it was evident that digitally-matured organizations have greater resilience in enduring such crises.

Unfortunately, not all manufacturers were technologically prepared for the effects of the outbreak, but many took the chance to quickly ‘adapt and adopt’.

 

  • Enhancing Data Infrastructure

 

From additive manufacturing to extended realities, Industrial Digital Technologies (IDT) were used in full force during the pandemic, proving how these smart technologies can bring resilient productivity to manufacturers in times of crisis. Among the IDTs, data infrastructure in particular is seen as a strategic asset.

 

“The COVID-19 crisis has made having access to reliable, real-time data an absolute necessity for coordinating the right medical response. In the near future, data will become an even more strategic resource across multiple facets of business and society.”

– What Will Manufacturing’s New Normal Be After COVID-19?

IndustryWeek

 

In fact, in a recent survey, Management Events discovered that over 50% of manufacturers have placed data science and analytics as their topmost technology adoption for 2021 while almost all the surveyed manufacturing executives agreed that data-driven digital business models are imperative for long-term survival.

The greater emphasis on data also means a higher adoption of data connectivity, which include the deployments and accelerations of 5G networks, Industrial IoT, cloud platforms, and cybersecurity.

 

  • Intelligent Automation & Robotics

 

Manufacturing robot armWith physical-distancing measures still ongoing for the foreseeable future, automation and robotics are key necessities in the post-coronavirus manufacturing industry. However, the machines of the future are expected to be highly adaptable and reprogrammable through artificial intelligence (AI) and software.

“Rather than having a very complex hardware manufacturing,” Maurizo Cremonini, head of marketing at COMAU, commented in an interview, “the trend is going to very lean factories where the robotized and automatized cells are managed by software, loading different recipes as needed so they can easily modify the production process.”

Suppliers such as Bright Machines, a software and robotics company, offer highly roboticized machinery, combining software, machine learning, and adaptive robotics for a more responsive production line.

“[The] key to unlocking the promise of intelligent automation,” Amar Hanspal, CEO of Bright Machines explained in an article, “is the connection of individual machines to an AI-powered software layer that configures, monitors and manages machines and operations, creating programmable and autonomous factories. We call this approach Software-Defined Manufacturing.”

According to Research and Market’s report on COVID-19’s impact on the smart manufacturing market, a positive growth in collaborative robots is still forecasted for 2020 albeit lesser than the pre-virus prediction while Fortune Business Insights expects the global industrial robots market to reach an estimate of $66.5 billion by 2027.

 

  • Improving Digital Capabilities

 

Over the past months, under-resourced manufacturing teams faced great challenges in solving COVID-19-related issues.

With necessity driving determination and innovation, the manufacturing industry found itself rapidly changing, adopting technology and enhancing digital capabilities to solve issues of distance, remote visibility and labor shortage.

There is no doubt that the industry will see five years of innovation in the next 18 months as manufacturers move to boost efficiency, cost-effectiveness, optimization and competitiveness, or risk falling behind their counterparts.

 

SHIFTING OUT OF CHINA

 

 

According to an article by the Oxford Business Group, representatives of the world’s largest economies are “publicly encouraging companies to shift their manufacturing operations out of China as part of plans to diversify global industry.”

But it’s important to note that the relocation is not wholly dependent on the pandemic.

Even before the outbreak, businesses were contemplating relocating or expanding their factories and manufacturing operations due to reasons that included trade wars, high tariffs, rising costs, and other pressures. COVID-19 only hastened the move.

However, experts relate that shifting out of China may not be as easy as it seems.

“Most companies cannot afford to consider a wholesale relocation of their factories out of China or replace their Chinese sourcing vendors,” as mentioned by multidisciplinary professional services firm, Dezan Shira & Associates.

“This is because supply chain infrastructure takes time to establish and China is at the heart of most of the world’s production, sourcing, and procurement needs.”

Instead, it seems that businesses are adopting a ‘China+1” strategy, where China remains as the main source of operations with diversification in other countries.

 

“Ultimately where we’re heading to is more fragmented manufacturing — many small factories of the world.”

– Gerry Mattios, expert vice president of Bain & Company, Singapore,

China May Become One Of Many Hubs As Companies Diversify Manufacturing After Coronavirus Shock

 

  • Spreading Throughout Southeast Asia

 

Based on Kearney’s annual Reshoring Index, the report shows that U.S. manufacturing imports are shifting away from China to other Asian low-cost countries (LCCs), with Vietnam taking the lead.

Out of the $31 billion in U.S. imports from Asian LCCs, Vietnam absorbed 46% of the imports due to the multiple benefits the country offers to manufacturers, such as:

 

  • Access to the ASEAN free trade area,
  • International trade pacts with Asia, EU and U.S.,
  • Major developments in industrial infrastructure, and
  • Lower labor costs than China.

 

Apple has already stated that the organization is seeking to relocate 30% of their AirPods productions to Vietnam, while Google and Microsoft are shifting parts of their manufacturing lines to Vietnam and Thailand.

In spite of the increased relocation to Vietnam, Kearney’s report noted that “not all of Vietnam’s gains represent a true relocation of production from China to Vietnam” as part of the shifts may be “temporary tactics to avoid tariffs.”

Other Asian countries that are benefiting from the diversification or actively courting manufacturers include the Philippines, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

India, for instance, is enticing global smartphone manufacturers to set up factories with its new incentive program and a 462,000-hectare land pool for 10 sectors. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, a defence industrial complex has been created to encourage manufacturing plants from defence firms.

 

  • Moving Closer To Home

 

Countries such as Japan, the U.S. and U.K. as well as in the Europe continent are already underway with their plans for a local or regional manufacturing network.

In April of 2020, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, unveiled a massive $992 billion stimulus package, whereby $2.2 billion have been allocated to help local organizations shift their manufacturing plants back to Japan.

The U.S., on the other hand, had previously shown increasing manufacturing shifts to Mexico in 2019, according to the Kearney report. The finding is further strengthened by the 2020 International Trade and Trends in Mexico Survey Report by Foley & Lardner LLP, whereby respondents from the manufacturing, automotive and technology industries plan to move their business to Mexico within the next one to five years. 

 

“80% of those considering or planning a move to Mexico from another international location intend to do so within the next two years [while] two-thirds of respondents [not doing business internationally] are planning to begin operating in Mexico within the next year.”

– U.S. Executives Enthusiastic About Expanding Business in Mexico,

Forbes

 

For the U.K., the head of economics at the British Chamber of Commerce, Suren Thiru, commented to CNBC in May 2020 that “some U.K. businesses were already shortening their supply chains after coronavirus-related disruptions had affected operations.”

As for Europe, the sentiment of local productions is expressed in DigitalEurope’s paper on relaunching manufacturing in a post-COVID-19 world. The paper recommended increasing additive manufacturing technologies to substitute globally sourced parts with parts that are locally produced.

Meanwhile, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt are hailed as competitive manufacturing hubs for European businesses seeking nearshore alternatives.

 

  • Reshoring and Microfactories

 

For manufacturers seeking to reshore their facilities, the adoption of digital innovation is extremely crucial.

 

“A successful reshoring strategy must be coupled with a digital manufacturing strategy. If the current pandemic has demonstrated anything, it is the power of digital technologies to keep companies productive, even in the worst of times.”

– Paul Haimes, VP of Business Development & Technical Sales at PTC,

Manufacturers should ‘reshore’ and reinvent themselves post-COVID

As countries increase their reshoring efforts, the question that consistently arises is ‘Are there enough digitally-skilled workers?’

Factory engineersTo quote Cherie Wong, the general manager of Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT analytics services, “There is a shortage of expertise. Skilled people in developed countries don’t think about careers in manufacturing.”

“But now there is a trend towards reshoring,” she spoke at an analyst meeting by Siemens Digital Industries, “For that, we have to be thinking about microfactories.”

Microfactories, as explained by research and analysis firm, FutureBridge, are small-to-medium factories that are highly automated and technologically advanced, capable of a wide range of processes.

Through these agile and digitized microfactories, manufacturers are able to call upon local contract facilities for cost-effective productions and for handling mass customization and ‘markets of one’.

“You can automate processes without building in rigidity,” stated Alastair Orchard, digital enterprise vice president at Siemens, in an article by The Institution of Engineering and Technology. “You can’t easily personalize products halfway around the world, you need to run those lines onshore. With local production, you can scale down to a lot size of one.”

 

  • Overcoming Challenges

 

Although onshoring, nearshoring and offshoring from China are trending topics among manufacturers, business experts predict that the shift might be easier said than done.

From the availability of specialized skills and technologies to the breaking of a highly complex network of interdependencies and ‘deep-tiering’ of supply chains, manufacturers are keeping these concerns in mind as they seek to build a more sustainable and resilient value chain.

In the meantime, it’s expected that China will remain as the main manufacturing center while companies continue with a China+1 strategy and move towards industrial diversification.

 

MANUFACTURING RESILIENCE

 

The pandemic laid bare facts to manufacturers that they cannot stand idly by the traditional models of old and be content with existing global value chains.

With a potentially volatile demand environment over the horizon, manufacturers have to make plans for agile and flexible manufacturing processes while constantly reassessing and innovating their business models for the future.

 

“The resilience of [an] industry and its ability to perform and adjust to shocks hinges on its diverse, dynamic, innovative and collaborative capacity, which emerges from its industrial commons.”

– Why Innovative Manufacturing And Circularity Are Key For A Resilient Manufacturing Industry Post-COVID-19,

United Nations Industrial Development Organization

 

There are still other areas that have yet to be covered – workforce empowerment and upskilling, circular manufacturing models, and strategic inventory reserves – but it’s obvious that the post-coronavirus manufacturing industry has to take many factors into consideration in order to start a new era in resilience, sustainability and self-sufficiency.