Hub & Spoken.

What's in this podcast?

In this special episode (the first one in our series to mark 100 episodes of Hub & Spoken!), we’ve curated some of the conversations host, Jason Foster, and our guests have had on data strategy. We explore the role of the data strategy, the important ingredients, the need to focus on outcomes – and how the strategy needs to evolve and adjust with your organisation.

Listen to this episode on Spotify, iTunes, and Stitcher. You can also catch up on the previous episodes of the Hub & Spoken podcast when you subscribe.

What are your thoughts on this topic? We’d love to hear from you; join the #HubandSpoken discussion and let us know on Twitter and LinkedIn.

For more take a look at our white paper on data strategy.

One Big Message

A data strategy is a framework that allows you to deliver business value through the application of data and analytics. It’s a vital asset to support buy-in, get approval, and create a data-guided organisation.

[1:08] Increasing new readers and engaging them through the use of advertising

[1:31] Tailoring the experience to the individual reader

[03:03] Challenges that are more generic to the role of data and insight

[05:28] Engaging and cooperating cross-functional teams

[08:21] Getting information from customers through the customer services team and response to these issues 

[09:13] Understanding the goal as a chief data officer

[11:55] The challenge of delivering the promised benefits

[13:57] Having the right capabilities within the organisation

[19:42] Readiness to fail

[20:27] Setting the desired “destination”

Connect with Readers

First and foremost, before engaging in business, advertising and marketing are important to attract customers. This also applies to organisations that offer valuable information as their product. The goal is to attract and retain readers and implement rigorous marketing strategies to increase the number of readers. 

Tailoring the experience is a good idea to engage with readers. The feeling that they can relate to the situations addressed, and their sentiments represented will be a great strategy for them to patronise the information source.

Agility and adaptability in your strategy is important

As the proverb says, “the only constant thing is change”; the preference of customers always evolves. What could be in trend now, may be obsolete tomorrow. The competition nowadays is poignant, so your strategy must be adaptive to the current changes of trends, and recent innovations. Your plans should be agile and a ringleader of the current market. Developing excellent strategies might be a challenge, but what matters is being the forerunner in the market. 

Obtain information and process data

Experienced customer service teams play a key role in determining the needs of customers. Being the frontliners to the queries and issues of customers, they are able to gather vital data on the main issues customers face. The organisation can then take this data into consideration to ensure that they are giving relevant information back as required. 

This is where the role of data officers becomes essential. Alongside the data obtained from the customers, joined with the goals and objectives of the organisation, data officers are able to come up with strategies that can respond to the requirements of their organisation.

Advertising typically shares the benefits that may arise from using a product. However, there may be a challenge to deliver the promised benefit, so it’s important to be realistic regarding capabilities. 

Capabilities, contingent plans, and goals of the organisation

As an organisation evolves, and keeps pace with the most recent innovations, resources must be capitalised to widen and strengthen the capabilities of the organisation. Plans should be sophisticatedly schemed according to the extent of the company’s capacity. However, even though mainstream plans are carefully decided on, organisations would be wise to devise contingency plans to assist the mainstream plan in case of unforeseen circumstances. This is more of a damage control plan. Businesses must always be ready to fail as it can be a blessing in disguise. The mantra is true, “fail fast, learn more.” What’s important is the overall achievement of the organisation’s goals.

To summarise

Customers are the soil where business is rooted. Their needs as well as their wants must be considered for the organisation’s continued success. Also note that while satisfying the needs of customers, the overall goal of the company should not be forgotten. It is also important to study the organisation’s capacity. Well-devised goals assist in overall success.

If you would like to review the full episodes of the podcasts included in this special episode, you can find them here:

Episode 32, How the Guardian uses data to drive the digital revolution with Catherine Brien
Episode 61, Using data to grow an eCommerce business with Ed Child
Episode 5, Getting Leadership Buy-In and Generating Momentum with Tim Carmichael
Episode 43, Agile data strategy at AXA Healthcare with Nirali Patel
Episode 45, Delivering value from data is a journey not a destination with Graeme McDermott