An eternal quest – the desire and challenge of building an insights organization that is the demand generation engine for the organization, not just insofar as generating the relevant information, but equally, if not more important, being tasked with embedding this within the organization.
While a lot is spoken of the former, the tools and alliances that companies are investing in to build an insights organization that is in-keeping with the digital revolution around it, much less is discussed about the slow burn it takes to embed them in the ways of working within the organization.
Companies that are at the forefront of this transformation have five critical assets that set them aside.
- First, a corporate vision that
elevates the role of insights within the organization, from being merely a
business reporting function, to one that is fundamental in driving business
decisions across the wider commercial and operational functions.
- Second, to translate this vision into
a reality the organization is willing to rewire the reporting structures, role
definitions and talent competency for; moving from functional research
specialists to business translators, people who have the competence and
visibility within the organization to embed insights tools into critical
business processes across the wider organization.
- Third, there is never an organization which has bottomless budget to enable the purist sense of transformation, and even if it were so, the pace at which technology is disrupting data tools and marketing vehicles forces the insights function to truly rethink the balance between standardized tools (which are seeded for years in the organization, thereby lending longitudinal “stable” reads) in favour of new cutting edge tools. Smart organizations are finding the right balance between developing proprietary tools in-house, and nurturing an eco-system of partners who offer the expertise and platforms to test, host and fund for the new tools and measures.
- Fourth, the best organizations find new ways of disseminating insights from videos, immersive experiences, co-development workshops, and custom targeted tools. Put simply, the days of the classic PowerPoint are numbered.
- Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the best organizations that have made significant progress on the journey to the intended state, have a corporate sponsor who is championing the cause, providing visibility, and helping channel connections and resources.
It is not rocket science, nor is it a very new idea. The vulnerability of the environment businesses are in today necessitates the change, and provides the insights function with the right impetus for change should they be open and willing enough to rethink their role and ways of working.
Madhumita Chakraborty, Associate Director – Consumer Insights PepsiCo
