Digital Acceleration, Turbocharged by Data
Businesses have come a long way in the last decade in terms of how they approach digital transformation. According to Rusbeh Hashemian, partner and new ventures leader at PwC Europe, there is a clear shift from a laser focus on profits and cost reduction to investment in technology to create experiences. “So you need to think about the tech stack, not only the monolithic applications that you put in place, but actually, the entire user experience that you're creating in your tech stack,” said Hashemian.
“So while we also started to focus on operating expenses versus capital expenditures, right now, the capacity of investment that we put next to technology is unmatched,” he continued. “The level of change management investments that we make is unmatched, and also the level of upskilling that we have to put in in order to actually get everyone up to speed and on board in this transformation is unmatched. Those three elements are extremely important.”
Harnessing the power of data and deciphering how that data is linked are key for firms today to get a better handle on business drivers and levers, and set themselves up for success.
Lesko believes that planning, budgeting, and forecasting should be top of mind for tech, media, and entertainment businesses, especially those saddled with legacy infrastructure. He believes that having a fully integrated tech stack will allow organisations to better run predictive models and make necessary course corrections. “I think really interpreting data and making it easy for our internal customers and our managers to get value from the system will make all the difference,” he said.
Technology has been a real game-changer in the war for talent, particularly CMT firms. Businesses have had to utilise tech in an increasingly competitive talent market. “I think one of the key elements, actually, for us in this talent war is data, and we've really had a focus, particularly in the last 12 months, in terms of how we build a more cohesive and holistic view of talent data across the entire employee life cycle,” said Phelps of Criteo.
“It is really about starting with understanding the talent landscape through what your data can tell you and then building your actions using the technology to support that as part of your talent approach,” he added.