Hub & Spoken.

What's in this podcast?

In this episode, Elyette Roux (Chief Sales & Marketing, Communications officer at Nexans) talks about how data can affect business transformation, how it is effectively implemented, and the present challenges and risks in adopting too many changes.

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One Big Message

Data only has a lifecycle because it’s created in the process. If transformation is about changing what the organisation does, or how it works, then you’re changing the narrative for data.

[00:41] Elyette shares her background and being a part of the executive committee at Nexans

[02:42] What is Elyette’s concept of transformation and how has it changed over the years

[09:24] Does the lens on digitising things make a big difference in transformation?

[11:42] Can transformation be a small iterative incremental improvement, or does it need to be big?

[15:49] Can we measure the success of putting in a new system?

[19:26] Are there things that we can’t get from data and something else that needs to come in during transformation?

[23:08] Where should the responsibility for transformation be set – and how is it different from the usual business role?

[25:28] Should data be the responsibility of the people responsible for the transformation?

[29:07] Cultural challenges that have to be managed in data transformation.

Learning from the changes

The changes come from things that work and the things that don’t. An iterative process is better as long as it’s not taking too long. That’s why Agile Methodology works well versus the more waterfall type of projects. You put more value into acting faster; not to make changes, but to learn from what works and what doesn’t work in the transformation. Sometimes when you have a big transformational plan, the tendency is to overplan everything and get lost easily.

The beauty of the human side of new transformation

We already have what the data can bring, but there is also intuition. It might sound contradictory but if you have the data to tell you what you need to do, or if you are going in the right direction, why would you use your intuition? This is actually the beauty of the human side of new transformation.

It’s that you have to be able to combine both reliving fact-based database insights; and at the same time, leverage your intuition as a leader of an organization to make the most out of it. Data and insights are there to augment the workforce. It’s a fantastic way, not a tool, but really an augmentation of our capabilities. Our capabilities still remain as humans are intuitive, the expertise, the experience and all the learnings.

The impact of values in the transformation

If we live by our values, it’s going to be much easier to operate the transformation and break the silos. This is really something interesting in the world of transformation, how the values are either impacting the speed or actually killing a potential transformation. Having those values and culture will help the transformation faster.

A transformation happens in an organisation where the culture is comfortable with change. If you have people that are used to change and understand it, they obviously make the transformation easier.

To summarise

Data is like a product. Every organisation has a place in the life cycle of data transformation. It’s not a silo or a block box, it is about data being everywhere – data as a life. We need to know how we manage data throughout its life and how we operate this life cycle. Business as usual is one way of the life cycle; transformation means that you are disturbing that lifecycle which means that it’s also how, as a company, you plan for the disturbance and the consequence of the disturbance you are bringing to the lifecycle of the data.