#178 Delivering Value Through Analytics with Kari Jones Head of Analytics and Insights at Woolworths NZ

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Technology and data science specialists are not the only ones responsible for leveraging big data, business analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver solutions to complex challenges. Rather, organisational leadership is responsible for understanding and directing these approaches to achieve their business goals.

However, doing so carries a heavy intimidation factor for most leaders, which is often exacerbated by job descriptions for leadership roles related to data, analytics or AI featuring laundry lists of skills.

How can analytics leaders cut through the whirlwind of obstacles to help their organisation capture a larger piece of the advanced analytics prize than their competitors?

For the first episode of 2022, Felipe speaks with Kari Jones, Head of Analytics and Insights at Countdown (Woolworths NZ).

Don’t miss all the gold in this episode as Felipe and Kari talk about leadership, analytics and more!

Enjoy the show.

Thanks to our sponsor Talent Insights Group!

“We’re working hard about how we actually create a strategic insight. How do you drive action and change from the work that you’re doing? People talk about insights, but they’re actually talking about observations. An insight is truly an Aha! kind of moment, telling your senior stakeholders something they didn’t know before.”

— Kari Jones, Head of Analytics and Insights at Woolworths NZ

What We Discussed

0:00 Introduction

06:05 What new learnings that you find coming in house at such senior levels? And what were some of the things that you had to learn at that point?

11:00 Could you tell us a little bit about blending the technical approaches with where the organisation is at, and how to get that adoption, or the leading people that come from areas outside of your background and expertise and be, as a result, be able to have more impact in the organisation?

17:20 How did you develop those philosophies? What are some of the benefits that you've seen?

34:15 You really do well in this area, how do you feel about it? How do you self evaluate and decide?

38:07 I wanted to ask you about your experience having analytics reporting to different parts of the business, and how is it for you at the moment?

40:32 It is important to have both leaders that focus on bringing the analytics team into the conversations about the right time, and obviously, having the head of the analytics function focus on that, too. Do you have a similar perspective? Do you share that view?

43:04 What do you think are some of the components that can help increase the likelihood of finding an insight? 

Episode Highlights

“I fell into the world of E-commerce and some of the analytics that was required for E-commerce right back in the day, so to speak. And that's where my passion for analytics and data and really seeing how analytics can drive business to form.”

“When I moved to New Zealand, I had an opportunity to continue to stay, you know, fairly technical and is a type of consulting type of role, or to actually pivot slightly. And so I, you know, everything else was changing in my life at the time. So changing countries, changing jobs, why not just change this type of work that I did as well, I mean, let's just go for it right?”

“I love the diversity of thought, like I, one of the questions I asked myself is, how can I be wrong. And I love getting a different perspective. And I got, I think I got very comfortable very, very quickly, I suppose through the consulting activities, both technical consulting, and then in management consulting. And actually not being the person that knows everything, but actually going from being you know, the person that might know something to that brings that curious person. Okay. And so I think I got quite comfortable, quite quickly, saying, I don't know, I don't know what that means, but I'm pretty sure I can find someone that can help us. And what I rapidly found was that I had a skill for translation.”

“I'd created that many roadmaps and that many strategies, and that many run that many sorts of data governance types of activities in a consulting capacity, I really thought that, well, let's just see if anything's this stuff that I'm actually producing works, right. So I sort of eat my own dog food, so to speak. So I switched over, and I changed from being considered in a consulting organization, you know, to being an industry side.”

“Countdowns made a great decision where analytics is under the strategy and transformation business function under the Director of Strategy and Transformation, Josh Glickman, and that is well-positioned because we're really close to the business strategy, where we're involved very early on in the program. He is a great advocate and champion for analytics. He drives a lot of conversation about how analytics can play a role.”

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