S4 | Ep 27 | Building a Group Data Function to Support Multiple Operating Brands with Tom Betts, Group Data Director at Kingfisher Plc

In Episode 27, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Tom Betts, Group Data Director at Kingfisher Plc , where they discuss the complexities, challenges and opportunities of building a centralised data function at a group level to support multiple operating brands, which includes;

• His journey from DJ to Travel Agent to CDO
• Studying Artificial Intelligence in the early 2000s
• Organising a centralised data domain to serve a multi-brand business
• Being the first data leader at group level
• The benefits and challenges of starting from a blank canvas
• The challenge of attracting talent as a group company that people haven't heard of
• Building a data-led customer experience as a pillar of a corporate strategy
• Deciding which capabilities sit within the operating companies versus what is centralised at the group level  
• Working out where the biggest opportunities lie across multiple brands
• Adopting different ways of working within different teams
• The importance of meeting each operating company where they are and not having a group approach to everything
• Dealing with different; cultures, literacy, adoption and maturity across the different brands
• The core use cases that are scalable and reusable across different operating companies  
• Building an orchestration framework for Generative AI tools
• Using gamification as a tool for education and upskilling
• The benefits of building working prototypes to drive buy-in and adoption
• Building a customer-facing generative AI solution
• Understanding and mitigating the risks of a customer-facing GenAi solution
• Considering the risks of inaction
• Why you’ll always learn more from just doing
• Why the role of Chief AI Officer is not needed in isolation
• Why it’s important to have teams that are delivering DS/AI solutions to go as end-to-end as possible in a cross-functional way
• Why it’s faster to build things than it is to leverage what has been built

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