Transformation and the Fourth Industrial (Data) Revolution

Opening speech at ESOMAR’s Congress in Edinburgh.

300 years ago, Edinburgh and Scotland were nurturing the seeds for a radical transformation of not only Scotland, but the whole western world. What is known as the Scottish Enlightenment transformed a poor and isolated land into a prosperous, well-connected nation, a beacon of the latest trends in all sort of fields: medicine, engineering, philosophy, architecture, law…

Adam Smith, David Hume, Thomas Reid, Walter Scott, Robert Adam and James Watt are just some of its protagonists. A combination of the world of ideas, knowledge, experimentation and practice that expanded Scotland’s transformational effect to the entirety of Britain, the then British Empire, continental Europe with a major influence on the founding Fathers of the United States and their Republican principles.

Today, at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is transforming the way we create, exchange and distribute value, it is appropriate to honour two of these universal Scots: Adam Smith, the “father” of the notion of Capitalism and James Watt, the optimiser and successful promoter of the implementation of the steam machine as the power driving the First Industrial Revolution. Adam Smith, the conceptual frame. James Watt, the technological.

New landscapes

Let’s jump to the present and our profession. Our industry has been in constant transformation for the last 100 years. However, the speed and acceleration such change has taken in the last decade is configuring a totally new landscape. The digitisation of society has enlarged our capability to know what people do, think, use, view, purchase, and share. New technology provides new data collection capabilities, new treatment and analysis of data and an immediacy of insights delivery never imagined before.

In parallel, this new potential has attracted new external capital, new investors, that have heavily invested in consumer and customer understanding. This new capital, these new players are also transforming the concept of the profession bringing a new financially led angle to our activity. And it certainly has effects in our eco-system. But this is not the only conceptual-frame shift.

Technology, the digital world, has changed our mind-set. Today, there is a common belief that everything is possible. Data is easily available, collected, treated, matched and interpreted. Yet reality says it is not.

The global Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics industry is valued at $80 billion. The portion representing “data analytics” is constantly growing, capturing 49% of the total spend in 2018. The Voice of the Customer within all organisations is diverse and enriched with new techniques, professionals and skills. Traditional market research is no longer the gatekeeper to information. A central focus for ESOMAR is understanding the needs of data scientist professionals and data-driven companies in order to make our community even more attractive to them. Our final objective is to show that the Voice of the Customer within all organisations needs the smart symbiosis of all practices and experiences.  

Let’s build bridges

A fast-changing environment requires fast adaptation. Transformation implies a basic change of character and little or no resemblance to the past configuration or structure affecting the identity which comprises the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and/or expressions that make a person or group.

Some years ago, I discussed change and identity with one of the most prominent French philosophers, André Comte-Sponville. I asked him “How can, societies, organisations, how can I preserve my identity while adapting to change?” His answer was “You must identify the profound core values and principles that make you who you are, keep them, reinforce them, and get rid of the rest. Embrace change!”

Will this enlargement of our community transform our profession as a whole and ESOMAR in particular? Certainly, it will. Which core values must we keep as fundamental in order to maintain our essential Identity? I believe the two central values we must retain are:

• Human centricity: The honest willingness to understand people
• Ethics

Let me focus on ethical behaviour. Today it seems that technology is everything. The current business culture makes us believe that our companies will lose market share if they do not invest heavily in Artificial Intelligence and automation. And as it was certain with the steam machines in the First Industrial Revolution, it might be certain in the Fourth. However, allow me to reinforce one message: Technology is NOT neutral. Technology is the reflection of the values, principles, interests and biases of its creators.

Our industry has an outstanding reputation for its rigour and high standards of personal data collection and treatment. We have been capable of self-regulating our activities and safeguarding best practice. To uphold these high standards is particularly crucial at this moment in history. The trust and credibility of our activity cannot be put at stake. Let’s all be vigilant in complying with this. This is not an old-fashioned concept as many would try to say – it is more important now than ever before. This is a call to all stages of the value chain and particularly to its main influencers, the end users and end clients.

Do the right thing

As an industry, we must do the right things and do things right. We cannot run the risks that AdTech has incurred in with its Real Time Bidding (RTB), the so-called “programmatic advertising”.  The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in its June 2019 “Update report into adtech and real time bidding”, lists their concerns “that the creation and sharing of personal data profiles about people to the scale we’ve seen, feels disproportionate, intrusive and unfair, particularly when people are often unaware it is happening”. Two key words are linked to this statement: Transparency and Consent.

ESOMAR will continue safeguarding the highest standards, and its role of adapting our profession to the new techniques and advocating the strengths and benefits of our community to legislators and stakeholders. This is a critical element of our successful transformation, and ESOMAR will keep on building the bridges of cooperation with all institutions determined to elevate the voice of our profession. The challenges we all face oblige us to work in the same direction and join forces, maximising the strength of our global community. Let’s build bridges!

ESOMAR will continue to inspire our members and the whole profession in its transformation. A transformation that sparks the emergence of a new and most needed professional profile: the translator.

The translator is the professional who carries the heritage of 100 years of expert practice and is capable of assessing the best approach to merge more traditional practice with the new analytics world. The professional who will boost the value of our practice, making it relevant in answering those business questions that end users need to have answered. And believe me, in a US$ 1.3 trillion market, the value of the Global Advertising & Marketing market, there are plenty of questions to be answered.

In the First Industrial Revolution, steam was the power behind the technology; whilst Adam Smith’s capitalism concept set the mental frame. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, data is the current power and human centricity must be the mental frame. We control the data management; we command the power. Our identity is characterised by our human centricity. It is our opportunity to be the James Watts of our time, the ones who set the standards and lead this revolution.

I invite you to build the Bridge to Data Enlightenment. Let’s all open our minds, exchange ideas, learn and connect, and boost our businesses as the Enlightened Scots did 300 years ago in the streets, taverns, clubs and the University of Edinburgh. Have fun and enjoy the transformation.

Joaquim Bretcha is ESOMAR President and International Director of Netquest.