In this video, Christian Gladwell, CEO of Human Digital, suggests two critical points to consider before embarking on a business intelligence strategy.
Christian has a background in banking, starting at Morgan Stanley as part of the Global Associate Program. He graduated this course in 2006 when he joined HSBC investment banking as a derivative structurer on the global capital markets floor. In 2007 Christian left to co-found Human Digital, a human powered social media intelligence agency, which delivers insight to senior stakeholders in the corporate marketplace.
In 2011 Human Digital was acquired by the publically listed global advertising company M&C Saatchi.
He describes his company as being comprised of of a collection of consultants, scientist, analysts and researchers who use their skills sets to gather business intelligence, “we apply our skill sets to the new data set of unstructured opinion on the internet,”
Gladwell explains that they are doing this in support of high-level stakeholders in customer-oriented companies to understand their customers in more detail, “They did this for one of two reasons for answering specific business questions or to track the effectiveness of marketing and brand activities,”.
He makes an excellent point that the definition of business intelligence has not changed, that there is still much to encourage the synthesis of information into intelligence specific to the business strategy.
“Social media is changing the way that companies can collect information, as more and more people express their opinions about the growing number of platforms offering,”
“This means that there are now more structured, unsolicited opinion that may apply to your organization,”. Christian warns however, that although this is good for business, there is also a downside. “Traditional market research is often very difficult to understand,” he said. “The current fashion is to use technology solutions to try to understand human behavior and at the moment is not doing well,” “There are more opportunities for leaders to understand their customers, the challenge is actually how you are doing.”
Christian offers these two practical tips that SMEs need to consider when thinking about business intelligence:
1. Take time to ponder
“Why are we doing those things? What’s the objective? What are we measuring?
2. Adopt a new mindset
Encourage senior executives to stop thinking about social media or the internet as a variety of channels down which you broadcast messages. Instead see the virtual world as one where your consumers now exist.
image credit:Domo
Hayden Richards is Contributor of IntelligentHQ. He specialises in finance, trading, investment, and technology, with expertise in both buy-side, sell-side. Contributing and advising various global corporations, Hayden is a thought leader, researching on global regulatory subjects, digital, social media strategies and new trends for Businesses, Capital Markets and Financial Services.
Aside from the articles, interviews and content he writes for IntelligentHQ, Hayden is also a content curator for capital markets, analytic platforms and business industry emerging trends. An avid new media explorer Hayden is driven by a passion for business development, innovation, social business, Tech Trading, payments and eCommerce. A native Trinidadian, Hayden is also a veteran, having served with the Royal Air Force Reserves for the past 10 years.
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