From silos to multidisciplinary teams
Axel says that current technology makes so much possible, but that companies are mainly struggling with the question of how they can reinvent their organization to meet today's challenges. "It is difficult for companies to fully empathize with the customer," he says. And according to him, this is primarily caused by the current organizational structures, where silo thinking is still rampant.
So, break out of those rigid organizational structures if you want to make a serious transformation towards a customer-centric and data-driven organization.
Axel advises not to immediately turn the entire organization upside down, but to first start working in multidisciplinary teams. Multidisciplinary teams that are given the space to experiment, to discover and, more importantly, that are also allowed to fail.
Only then can you develop a clear picture of what you need to change and where your focus and priorities should lie. Because that is different for every company. Suppose that within a company the willingness to share data is not very great. Then you are talking about a transformation that affects the corporate culture to the core. No small matter!
Fragmented data at RS Components
This is also clearly evident in the presentation of RS Components, where Axel Schaefer provides the introduction the day before. Gavin Williams (vice president digital analytics & data) explains how his company started from maximally fragmented data and organizational silos. There was no trust in the data, and due to the lack of transparency between departments, there were sometimes even downright hostile relationships. Not a good basis for being able to transform into a more hong kong mobile phone numberdata-driven organization.
Data: reliable and available in real time
The starting point at RS Components was that they really wanted to use data as a practical tool. That means: always reliable data and always available in real time for everyone in the organization. That should ensure that every decision that is made in the field of digital is substantiated with insights that the data provides. Data-driven marketing, in other words.
Also read: From data to actions: 3 tips to optimally deploy your data analyst
Data integration
My conversation with Axel goes a bit deeper into the more conservative organizations, which traditionally carry risk avoidance with them. The organizations where there are many specialized functions and departments, all of which operate separately. While they really have to serve one and the same customer, who wants to be helped as much as possible and yearns for an optimal experience.
All those departments and teams work with their own technological solutions. There is hardly any data integration, or the integration is flawed on all sides. “With the use of all those different tools, the customer experience will never be seamless,” says Axel. “A company will never be able to operate completely data-driven.”