If your company was compared to a football team where would the data scientists play?

We have the most amazing data here at Intertek.  We've been providing market leading services across the assurance, testing, inspection and certification space for over 100 years and because of that, the data which our experts have created is huge.

And that's where I, and I'd hope anyone in a data services role, get massively excited.  

Opportunity to deliver deeper insight, to create correlations between test results and customer criteria, to model predictive analytics on high risk scenarios - thus enabling focus on the right area etc.  All of these helping customers improve their risk, safety and quality profiles.  

Using data effectively is a team game and we've had some great success in building this over the past few years.  The first question that is often asked is "who do you need in the team to really get value from the data?"  Is the data scientist that hallowed centre forward who will score all the goals for you?

As well as being a fan of Ronaldo, I'm also a fan of the Data Chief Podcast and in the episode link below, with Daniel Seymore from Investec, there is a great quote "that domain expertise is the most important thing", i.e. the real understanding of the business and a strength in knowing how to implement change within a business is key - not just the magic that the data scientists can bring.  

The data scientist, the algorithms, the big data are absolutely all key players in the team to be able to bring real value.   However the complete team and the ability to convert that magic and put the ball in the back of the net consistently only really comes when you also have the business expertise involved and the business leadership to kow how to use the new data tools effectively for your customers.

And that's where our Intertek data team is exciting - it's not just made up of centre forwards but also some brilliant business domain experts and client managers that have years of experience in knowing how to bring that magic to life for our customers.  

The podcasts keep us thinking about what else we can do - and hopefully may stimulate ideas for your as well in your team.  Please do contact me directly if you have any ideas on how we can continue to use the data available to help our customers bring safety, sustainability and quality to life.