Data is not king, but the way we use it can make us kings or queens.
That was the opinion of Doug Kirk, director of global business development for innovation, Sherwin Williams, who delivered the first session of the ARC360 Digital Event Series, held in association with I Love Claims.
The Series is taking place today (Monday), Wednesday and Friday, with two sessions per day, held at 10.30am and 1.30pm.
Launching the ARC360 Digital Event Series, Doug’s session, titled ‘There’s No Turning Back,’ highlighted the critical need for businesses to remain agile during a period of unforeseen and unprecedented change.
He said, ‘Agility is not about changing for the sake of changing, it’s about looking at the outside environment and changing your way of thinking and the way you work accordingly.’
To underscore his message, he took online attendees back to 1997 when Netflix was first formed. At the time Blockbuster held a complete monopoly over the sector. While still a start-up disrupter, Netflix offered Blockbuster its complete platform for $50m. Blockbuster rejected the offer, lacking either the vision or the agility – or both – to alter its model. It has now been consigned to history, while Netflix has continued to evolve and is today worth an estimated $160bn.
With this in mind, he urged businesses to be prepared to evolve, and to use the data available thanks to today’s technologies to help them evolve in the right direction.
Fundamental to that, he said, is understanding the cost of business. He wondered how much easier decision-making would be if owners and managers came into work every day knowing exactly where their break-even point was.
Doug said, ‘Think of that blue line in Olympic pools that represents the word record. Swimmers know at all times exactly what they have to achieve. That’s what we should aim for in terms of operational costs.’
Data window
To reach that level of clarity he said there are three data sets that must be absorbed and interpreted – what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen.
Equating this to our industry, he asked attendees to imagine making a familiar journey in a car first by using just the rearview window (lag data), then adding the view from side windows (real-time data), and then using the front windscreen (predictive data). He explained that only by taking all three views can you reach your destination is the quickest time.
He said, ‘Today there is reams of data available to us, but data is not king – it’s what you do with it that counts and you need to be the king of your own data. Knowing what has happened and what is happening will help us to understand what will happen.’
DBI
And to encourage and measure change within a business, he suggested introducing the Demonstrable Business Improvement (DBI) metric. But what exactly is it?
Doug summed it up with a useful analogy about a colleague whose mobile phone is always on charge. That way the battery never runs out and he is never able to measure how often he uses it. By charging it overnight and not at all during the day, he will adapt his practices to make the battery last longer.
‘The battery life is your Key Performance Indicator,’ Doug said, ‘and making it last longer is a DBI.’
He concluded, ‘If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always did. A lot of people say they wish they could go back to pre-covid times. But were the good old days really that good? I’m not so sure. I think companies that look forward are the ones that will survive. Charles Darwin said it’s not the strongest that will survive, but the ones that adapts the quickest.’
ARC360, in association with I Love Claims, is supported by corporate partners BASF, BMS, Copart, EMACS, Entegral, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Mirka, Nationwide Vehicle Recovery Assistance, S&G Response, Sherwin Williams and CAPS; partners asTech, The Green Parts Specialists, Indasa, Innovation Group and Prasco; and strategic partners AutoRaise; NBRA; RepairTalks; and TrendTracker.
