Q&A With Quadrant’s Senior Data Consultant, Glenn Harrison
As you know, Quadrant has been busy building out both its platform and its team over the past several months. A big part of that growth has been the addition of experienced sales professionals to grow our network of customers and enterprise partners. Leading the effort is Senior Data Consultant Glenn Harrison, who joined Quadrant in October. Glenn brings decades of sales experience in the data space and chose to join Quadrant due to its strong technical foundation and exciting roadmap.
We sat down with Glenn for a Q&A session about his background, thoughts on the data space, and goals for Quadrant.
Q: Tell us a little about your background.
GH: I’ve been working in the data-driven marketing industry for over 20 years helping businesses enhance their data-driven strategies and marketing campaigns. Prior to joining Quadrant I spent the past six years at Conexum, an Australian privately-owned data management company, as a Senior Sales Consultant. I was responsible for developing and executing the data content (acquisition) strategy for the business in accordance with the product roadmap and market demand, ensuring it was in line with the organisation’s aggressive goals. The role involved working with internal stakeholders, external suppliers and clients to ensure a framework for analysis, optimisation and performance of all data assets.
Prior to Conexum I worked at Acxiom, a global leading enterprise data, analytics and software-as-a-service company, for six and a half years as a Senior Sales Consultant. In this role I was responsible for new business, engaging with senior C-level stakeholders at large Tier-1 & Tier-2 accounts. My primary focus was working with clients by helping them to maximise the potential of their customer data and insights and apply those insights to deliver successful business outcomes.
I’m a passionate advocate for the use of data to drive customer experience and helping businesses unlock the value of their data assets through data-driven marketing, data commercialisation, digital transformation and actionable insights from analytics.
Q: Why did you decide to join Quadrant Protocol?.
GH: Having seen the huge growth in mobile location-based marketing in recent years and the opportunity it presents to businesses, especially here in the ASEAN region, I knew I wanted to be part of that growth trajectory.
Quadrant is uniquely positioned, having already laid the foundations, especially with our blockchain-based, data-enabled platform. I believe the business is well equipped to to grow and capture market share in this fast growing industry.
Q: What makes you most excited about Quadrant?
GH: The business has come a long way since it was founded in 2014. I’m excited to be joining at this time, as I truly believe Quadrant is well placed, with a great data technology-enabled platform that helps us to differentiate our product and our service offering, and will allow us to capture market share and growth in the ASEAN region.
Q: What is the most important thing most people don’t know about big data?
GH: Firstly, let me start by demystifying how I would define big data.
We all create a tremendous amount of data about ourselves every day. There has never been more data available to the world of businesses than there is right now, but it’s really hard for marketers to get their hands on the right data and make sense of it. Secondly, even if you have all of this data, it’s incredibly difficult to figure out what it all means — to transform this raw data into insights. And even if you have brilliant insights, the insights themselves are often not actionable.
From a global marketer’s perspective, the idea is to capture a bunch of information, and interpret it at a very granular level in order to have a better conversation and deliver a better customer experience.
Right now, there are still a lot of problems and challenges with big data that we’re all trying to figure out. They key thing to realize is that more data is always good and better quality data is always better. The challenge is: how do we transform all of this raw data into insights that help us to make better, more informed business decisions to drive outcomes? Existing data technology has not achieved the goal of delivering optimal outcomes based on interpretation of data.
Basically, there are three problems and challenges businesses are trying to solve with big data. Firstly, there is the raw data problem. How do I access all of the right data I need in the world? Secondly there is the refined insights problem, which is really about creating a “data refinery” that helps me take all of the raw data and process it in into high-octane, brilliant insights. Lastly, there’s this application challenge: how I can take those insights and connect them up to everybody who can activate them? How can I communicate those insights to Facebook, to Google, to a mobile marketing data audience platform, a direct mail partner, and to a television station?
Thankfully, technology has come a long way in the past decade. These problems can be solved. That’s what we’re working on.
Q: What initiatives or goals do you plan to set, both for yourself and Quadrant, now that you have joined the team?
GH: Apart from the obvious revenue-related goals, my main focus right now is helping to grow and expand the business footprint in the ASEAN region. My personal goal over the next 12 months is to have secured agreements with at least 20 of the leading Tier-1 and Tier-2 accounts in the region.
Q: Where do you see yourself, and Quadrant Protocol, in five years?
GH: I’d like to be seen as someone with deep expertise in the mobile location-based marketing industry, and I know that’s something that I’ll have the opportunity to do here at Quadrant.
In regards to the business and the strategic decision that’s been made in terms of shaping our future direction, and what we’re focusing our efforts on right now, I believe this will help to fuel our growth for a much greater footprint in the region.
Q: Where do you see the big data space more broadly in five years?
GH: The market for big data solutions shows no signs of cooling in the coming years. I believe those businesses able to leverage the technology stand to grow their revenues along with the growth of big data itself.
I truly believe that AI and mobile marketing are the future and the fuel for our new economy. There are so many aspects of business that can be augmented and improved using technology. One such area, which I’m particularly passionate about, is customer experience. Data technology like Quadrant’s changes the game substantially in this area, allowing every business, big and small, to treat customers as individuals, provide value and be respectful of their choices. This has not really been possible before.
AI has already made big waves in the marketing world, but we’re standing at the new frontier. As its intricacies are explored further, it will only become more powerful to mobile marketers.
Q: What advice do you have for data scientists? Why should they use Quadrant Protocol?
GH: My advice to data scientists would be to never stop learning. Always try and work with the best people in the industry, who can help you learn and grow your career. And as an old business mentor once said to me, if you can’t be constructive or add value, best not to say anything at all.
Stay tuned for additional updates on Quadrant’s platform, technology, team, and roadmap. Thank you again for your continued support!
