Data-Driven Work Cultures: Mike Capone of Qlik on How to Effectively Leverage Data to Take Your Company to the Next Level
An Interview With Pierre Brunelle
Make smarter decisions that benefit all of us
The world can no longer afford to use once and throw away — we must become more conscientious about our products, our pollution and the impact they are having on our planet. Sustainability isn’t a buzzword — it needs to a core tenant of our lives and the way we operate our businesses. C40 Cities is a network of the world’s megacities and has built a data-driven Knowledge Hub, leveraging Qlik, to allow cities in and outside of its network to take a closer look at a number of topics, including waste, air quality, transport and clean energy. With the crucial data needed to act and improve decision-making, city officials and policymakers are better equipped to make smart choices when dealing with climate change and its many side effects.
As part of our series about “How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Capone.
Mike Capone is the CEO of Qlik, a private SaaS data and analytics company serving more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries that offers a platform delivering end-to-end, real-time data integration and analytics cloud solutions to close the gaps between data, insights and action. Mike joined Qlik in 2018 and led a robust effort to transform the company to help it stand out in a white-hot, crowded BI market. The key to this effort has been the quest to leverage the cloud and unlock data from operational systems where it can be used as Active Intelligence by staff across any organization to solve real-life business challenges and add greater value than before.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
My path to leadership began early in my career. I was 24 when I was promoted to MIS Manager. Like many first-time leaders, I was initially unprepared for my first opportunity — I had received no prior training. But I learned quickly and ended up really embracing the challenge of leadership. I was fortunate to be in a position to step up when someone above me resigned.
If I am honest, it was very intimidating at the time. I was quite a bit younger (about 10 to 15 years) than everyone on my team. I was fortunate enough to work with a team of individuals who were helpful and patient; they allowed me to get my feet on the ground as a manager, which was really important for my development.
I also was willing to ask for help. I quickly learned early that humility is an essential part of being a good leader. I was fortunate that there were people in my immediate network and around the company who were great role models and leaders. There were a few people I gravitated toward who helped me learn and grow and ultimately shaped my path to leadership.
Looking back on my career thus far, I often think of the words of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, one of the all-time great leaders. He said there’s no substitute for hard work, and I agree with that 100 percent. There may be some worlds in which things are just handed to you, but more often than not, the people who work hard get rewarded. After that there are a few things that can help put you on the path to success.
The first is to never be afraid to volunteer for the difficult jobs that nobody else wants to take on. There have been projects in which people said, “If you take on the project that it’ll end your career.” One in particular was an Oracle Financials ERP Implementation. I’ll never forget it — two people had lost their job as head of that effort. Somebody came to me and said, “Look, we don’t know what to do with this thing, but you seem young, smart, aggressive. We’re going to give you a shot at it.” And everyone said, “No, don’t do it, that’s where careers go to die.” I saw it as an opportunity to do something nobody else had been able to do. It was a big team, about 50 people, and we pulled it off. It proved to be a huge stepping-stone in my career.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’ve been lucky enough to be asked by Orlando Bravo, the head Thoma Bravo, the firm that owns Qlik, to speak at his annual Bravo Family Foundation events for young entrepreneurs. When I present to this group, which is just an incredibly rewarding experience, I share three books that I recommend for inspiration and insights. One is Think Again — The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant. It’s a great guide on how to approach challenges differently and not get locked into patterns of thinking, which can limit success. The second is a classic — The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. Doing something new or innovative is by definition hard work, even at established companies where you’re looking to reinvent and remain competitive, and Christensen’s book continues to be valuable in those areas. And the last one is The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. It’s all about different perspectives and bringing those together to be successful, and I think there are a lot of hidden lessons there about the value of diversity and teamwork.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
I’m very excited about the power of education and what it can do for both organizations and their staff. Consider the importance of data literacy — our latest research shows that US executives are prepared to offer employees a 20 percent salary increase if they are data literate. However, just 11 percent of employees feel fully confident in their data literacy skills. Businesses may have the data necessary to take swift, meaningful action, but team members lack the skills to understand what the data means and how they can benefit from that information. This holds back both employees and employers from achieving their full potential.
Digging a little deeper, our research reveals that 90 percent of global employees want data to be shared openly, believing it will make their organization both more fair and more responsible. More than half of employees (59 percent) say they want to become more data literate, but 45 percent say their employer isn’t taking responsibility for nurturing the skills needed to succeed in this future workplace.
These are just some of the reasons why all of us at Qlik are so dedicated to building a more data literate world. It’s the socially responsible thing to do, and it’s why we started The Data Literacy Project and continue to invest in the Qlik Academic Program, both of which provide qualified university students, educators and researchers with free training and resources. By helping to prepare students and employees for the data-driven workplace of today, we can do our part in ensuring that every person is equipped with the necessary talent to make better decisions tomorrow.
Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about empowering organizations to be more data-driven. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly it means to be data-driven?
Data-driven organizations empower workers at all levels to ask the right questions of information and machines, build knowledge, make decisions, and communicate meaning to others all through data. Data-driven businesses are more likely to produce data literate employees (and vice versa) who contribute more to their roles and help businesses refine their competitive edge in this highly demanding global economy.
When decisions are driven by data, enterprises can act with confidence, which is crucial in a world that continues to regularly throw uncertainty at us. Instead of instinct or gut feeling, data allows businesses to navigate challenges, more quickly identify the waves of change and pivot to new opportunities.
On a practical level, what does it look like to use data to make decisions?
Data-driven decisions help businesses overcome challenges by empowering them to make new discoveries that create actual and meaningful change. Whether it is providing retailers with the supply chain visibility they need to keep stock flowing or helping health systems uncover variations in care so they can treat patients more successfully, data makes all the difference.
For example, Qlik is deeply involved in healthcare, and we have amazing relationships with large customers who conducted meaningful work to combat coronavirus from both a medical/clinical and development standpoint. We worked with nursing homes to help predict outbreaks and get them better prepared to manage population needs. We worked with payers and providers who were running analytics from Qlik to help them figure out how to potentially distribute a vaccine to billions of people worldwide.
Currently we’re working with organizations like Direct Relief to surface data to help the universe of NGOs pinpoint refugee support needs coming out of the war in Ukraine. These are just a few examples of the power of data to create change.
Which companies can most benefit from tools that empower data collection?
Every single one of them. There is not a single organization, public or private, for-profit or non-profit, that can’t benefit from getting more value from data and solutions that enable the wider use of data by everyone.
We recently delivered a real-time data dashboard to the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference (COP26). As a result, leaders and their teams were able to understand the live status of commitments from their allies and other countries. This created a groundswell of social capital that impacted commitments related to an entire range of issues, including deforestation, methane emissions, and zero-emission vehicles.
Another example is Sephora, a leader in the beauty retail space. We empower their managers with a mobile application that informs their decision-making with a single source of truth for all HR-related data. Designed to help transform Sephora’s human resources management system amid strong international growth, the application delivers real-time data regardless of the country in which its managers are based, helping them make better informed decisions on a daily basis.
We’d love to hear about your experiences using data to drive decisions. In your experience, how has data analytics and data collaboration helped improve operations, processes, and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.
One example is Novartis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Novartis relies on the power of Qlik to drive enterprise-wide data democratization and optimize business processes. The company empowers over 45,000 employees with over 500 Qlik applications, regardless of their location or device. This ensures that there is one single source of truth to inform decision-making across the entire organization. The end result was quite significant: by taking full advantage of data-driven insights across all business units, Novartis realized savings in excess of six figures through optimized budget and resource allocations.
Another example is BT, the UK’s largest fixed line broadband and mobile service provider. BT is a great example of how data has helped operations, processes and customer experiences drive improved business outcomes. Over an 18-month data transformation journey, BT’s Consumer unit worked with Qlik to put data directly into the hands of more than 1,200 consumer team members. BT encourages data-driven decision-making among employees by empowering their actions with Qlik. This resulted in £2 million in cost-savings for BT while equipping teams with the necessary data to cross-sell, up-sell and re-engage customers.
Has the shift toward becoming more data-driven been challenging for some teams or organizations from your vantage point?
Both organizations and their teams continue to be challenged by data silos. It makes little sense — in a day and age when data can and should be governed and shared with everyone who needs it, many enterprises are still putting up unnecessary barriers. Every time data is denied from those who could benefit from it, or at least delayed in getting to those who are prepared to take action, organizations suffer.
The need to break down data silos has never been more apparent. With fierce competition and a growing number of unpredictable events, businesses need to react quickly and eliminating data silos is crucial to that effort.
What are those challenges and how can organizations best solve them?
Data silos exist mainly due to outdated thinking about the stability and security of the cloud. Forward thinking organizations were already making the move to the cloud before the pandemic. Embracing the cloud is a key driver of enabling data decision-making at all levels of the organization. The cloud makes it easier to access and analyze data in real time, and scales to the challenge when organizations need to respond to unexpected events.
The other area as I have mentioned earlier is data literacy. As you break down data silos and make more data available to employees, businesses should assess where those employees are in their data literacy journey and put a plan in place to help employees fill their skills gaps. The most important thing to remember is that the plan needs to be tailored to the specific needs of the employees. Leaders should assess their staff’s abilities (there are a number of free tools available to get started) and proceed from there.
Based on your experience and success, what are five ways a company can effectively leverage data to take their operations to the next level? Please share a story or example for each.
1.Create and Drive Opportunities
The art of sales involves more than buyer persuasion — organizations need to first determine which businesses to go after and figure out how their products or services will benefit each prospect. This was a challenge that SDI, a digital supply chain company, experienced while fielding countless request for quote (RFQ) inquiries. Though it may be tempting to handle as many opportunities as possible in the hopes of leading to more clients, it’s not the most scalable or effective strategy. Instead of targeting every prospective client, SDI used historical data in Qlik to run every RFQ against its database of millions of annual transactions. SDI was specifically interested in clients that it could win while creating operational efficiencies. The analysis resulted in a strategy that drove savings and a higher rate of wins while also reducing its RFQs overhead by more than 50 percent.
2.Respond to Rapidly Changing Conditions
Time is an important consideration for every organization, but it doesn’t mean the same thing to every institution. For Direct Relief, a non-profit organization that provides medical resources in emergencies, time can be the difference between life and death. At the height of the pandemic, Direct Relief leveraged Qlik to analyze vital real-time information to continuously track the changing dynamics of COVID-19, including the growth rate of new cases and fluctuations in COVID-19 testing. Heart disease and diabetes were among the co-morbidities that were also considered because they were associated with higher chances of hospitalization. With Qlik, Direct Relief was able to improve the speed and accuracy of its response, work that’s now being leveraged to help in the refugee crisis in Ukraine.
3.Drive Efficiency and Operational Excellence
With more than 592,000 consultants in 46 countries, Tata Consultancy Services has helped the world’s largest businesses succeed in their transformation journeys. The company has succeeded in its own transformation of internal processes by driving data democratization and by bringing the power of actionable insights into the hands of 20,000 decision makers with Qlik, including the CXO level. This empowered TCS with notable gains in efficiency, increasing availability of critical operational information by 80%. The company also reduced its reporting development from months to weeks, and reduced analytics-related data storage requirements by 90%. Most recently, TCS used data through Qlik to enable tracking and proactive measures related to organizational-wide COVID vaccination efforts for more than 400,000 employees in 2021. In addition to reducing the spread of disease, these efforts saved $2 million in people hours by reducing leaves over a five-month period.
4.Driving a Culture Centered on Data
It can be difficult for manufacturers to keep track of their parts, but for Airbus — the world’s largest manufacturer of airliners — the challenge is astronomical. With numerous orders for new planes (and every aircraft assembled from thousands of components that are designed and manufactured in different parts of the world), Airbus has a lot to keep track of while growing their business. What’s more, many of their processes are unique to the company, increasing the complexity of their supply chain and inventory management needs.
Airbus’ growing demand inspired the company to reimagine its data management processes and move to a single source of truth for all relevant data. The company achieved by deploying Qlik, which that empowered Airbus to seamlessly pull data from double-digit sources in near real-time into a single instance. This allows Airbus teams across departments — including design, customer service and production — to quickly access the relevant data they need when they need it, all from one trusted source. Airbus is now able to track every part, process and design drawing in every plane, providing the various teams with incredible confidence that they have the complete picture they need to make the right decisions.
5.Make smarter decisions that benefit all of us
The world can no longer afford to use once and throw away — we must become more conscientious about our products, our pollution and the impact they are having on our planet. Sustainability isn’t a buzzword — it needs to a core tenant of our lives and the way we operate our businesses. C40 Cities is a network of the world’s megacities and has built a data-driven Knowledge Hub, leveraging Qlik, to allow cities in and outside of its network to take a closer look at a number of topics, including waste, air quality, transport and clean energy. With the crucial data needed to act and improve decision-making, city officials and policymakers are better equipped to make smart choices when dealing with climate change and its many side effects.
The name of this series is ‘Data-Driven Work Cultures.’ Changing a culture is hard. What would you suggest is needed to change a work culture to make it more data driven?
Data-driven work cultures can only be established when data is embraced from the top down. The C-Suite can’t simply preach it or invest in solutions — they have to show it by embracing and showcasing data-driven decision-making to the organization. A big sign of commitment to building a data-driven work culture is bringing on a Chief Data Officer to drive an organization-wide data and analytics strategy across the business. These steps, along with breaking down data silos and investing in data literacy training at all levels, will help transform the culture over time from one that relies on historical excel docs and gut instinct to a truly data-driven organization.
The future of work has recently become very fluid. Based on your experience, how do you think the needs for data will evolve and change over the next five years?
Between fluctuations in COVID-19 cases, rising gas prices and the challenges brought forth by inflation, the polar vortex in Texas and the delays at the Port of LA, uncertainty is here to stay. Businesses cannot simply write them off as black swan events any longer — they’re far too common for that. Data needs will only increase as a result. Instead of reacting with outdated information after the fact, enterprises will need to respond immediately with real-time insights. By taking proactive steps to mitigate negative results in the moment, organizations can better manage the unexpected, regardless of the level of uncertainty.
Does your organization have any exciting goals for the near future? What challenges will you need to tackle to reach them? How do you think data analytics can best help you to achieve these goals?
We are eager to move even more rapidly into the data transformation space. This is an area in which we have already developed some incredible capabilities, and our progression will only continue in the months and years ahead. As we build out our cloud platform, you will see us continue to make moves and round out our initiatives in this space.
Next up is something we call Data Transformation as a Service (DTaaS). This goes well beyond extract, transform and load (ETL), in which “transform” was smack dab in the middle. ETL requires all of the data to be transformed before loading, creating a lengthy wait up front. But as the world started to shift, this process has since become extract, load and then transform (ELT). This allows data to be moved into modern cloud platforms much faster and create significant agility in working with data.
We are working hard to continue to innovate our platform to take advantage of ELT and other innovations to empower businesses to use their data faster. We are also adding more artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, especially in more vertical use cases.
How can our readers further follow your work?
You can follow me on Twitter at @MikeCapone and connect with me on LinkedIn.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
