The formula that brings together better informed and more demanding clients with changed consumer habits, accelerated by the global pandemic, is forcing companies, regardless of their area of business, to gain muscle and flexibility in order to adapt and respond. Gymnastics that wouldn't be possible without a data strategy that enables us to extract knowledge from the terabytes of information flowing through organisations' systems. Galp is no exception and, in the opinion of COO Sofia Tenreiro, “data strategy is at the heart of digital transformation”. Without these well-defined guidelines, the company would more than likely struggle to maintain the focus and stay on the path towards energy transition and the digitalisation of business. “We are transforming our business through new products and services and different ways of connecting with clients. Data is what enables us to get to know our clients and provide them with whatever they need at all times. We won't be able to achieve energy transition without data”, admitted the executive in a conversation with Tiago Monteiro, executive director of Microsoft Portugal, on one of the debating panels at the Building the Future conference held in virtual format.
By way of example, Sofia Tenreiro recalled the impact of the first period of confinement in March 2020, when Galp had just a few days in which to decide which of the approximately 1500 stores in the Iberian Peninsula would close and which would remain open, taking the forced changes in clients' mobility patterns into account. “We needed to understand what was happening. Behaviour has changed, mobility has changed, people are no longer living in urban areas and have moved to less populated settings. We had to measure in order to obtain data and assess the situation”. Our rapid response and subsequent adaptation to the circumstances would not have been possible without access to the huge set of data generated by this operation and without our internal business intelligence tools, acknowledged the COO.
WHAT ISN'T MEASURED DOESN'T EXIST
The exponential growth of data, together with the human tendency of wanting to know everything can be factors of risk when the objective consists of making strategic and business decisions. This warning, proffered by Sofia Tenreiro, implies the management and balance of both sides of this coin. “This balance is one of the biggest challenges faced by companies”, she stresses. We need to bear in mind that data management tools are only means of supporting decision-making, and not the decision itself. Hence, recommends the Galp executive, “mastering the data and not letting the data master us is of paramount importance”.
Metrics are, however, essential to good business management, and one of the few things that are impossible to copy at an organisation. “We live in an increasingly rapid and agile world, with an absolute focus on the client, which is highly demanding. Moreover, everything is copyable, which is why it has never been so important to work on data”, reinforces Sofia Tenreiro, who also points out the human factor and corporate culture as two other key ingredients in differentiating businesses, which are also impossible to copy. “Now more than ever, analysing the human factor and corporate culture is extremely important, as these are the real differentiating elements in existence at organisations”, she concludes.