The field of data analytics is very important nowadays, considering how the business environment is going through continuous developments in terms of technology, innovation, globalization and sustainability. The field also faces various economic struggles and unexpected challenges. For these reasons, managers and executives must remain up-to-date with information and data to make the best decisions for their organizations and maintain their competitive advantage in the market by creating value for clients.
To do so, I recommend managers and executives join different professional groups on LinkedIn where they can ask questions and discuss any challenges they are facing. They should also have subscriptions to various research journals and business magazines. It also helps to attend conferences where they can meet researchers and professionals from both the academic and business worlds.
Furthermore, following business blogs, watching podcasts, and reading books are valuable methods to gather new data to make informed decisions. By being part of professional groups on social media and attending conferences, managers and executives can find out in real-time the challenges other leaders face, discuss them, and take on new ideas for implementation as early as the next day. These communities of managers and executives are valuable assets in today’s challenging business environment.
Over the recent years since Vision 2030 of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been initiated, the massive changes within the operations of government entities have led to a rise of expectations for better communications with the stakeholders to achieve effective citizen engagement. Communication strategies and initiatives have been developed and launched with the initiation of KSA’s Vision 2030 in order to streamline the strategic objectives and clarify the roles of stakeholders and staff as well as identify the target audience and communicate with them more effectively.
To implement the communication strategy of any public entity effectively and efficiently, the communication plans should include what information should be communicated, who should receive that information, when that information should be delivered, and how those communications are tracked. Also, some actions need to be considered within the implementation of communication strategy, such as opening two-way communication means, using technology to streamline the communications, and focusing more on engaging with the audience–not just listening to them and answering.
No matter where an organization stands on its journey, ensuring that its performance management practices are up to par can influence its progress. Done correctly, this could be the edge that sets it apart from the competition.
The KPI Institute (TKI), through the efforts of the dedicated members of The Global Performance Audit (GPA) Unit, has successfully collaborated with the Talent and Performance Management Department of the Tourism Development Fund (TDF) to evaluate the performance management practices of the organization. This evaluation encompasses various areas, such as strategic planning, corporate performance management, employee performance management, and organizational culture.
The TDF is a young organization established in Saudi Arabia in 2020 with the mandate of driving growth in the national tourism sector by enabling private investments. With nearly 200 employees, the TDF has set up a formal division dedicated to managing strategy and performance. It comes with specialized departments responsible for handling key processes like strategic planning, corporate performance management, strategic initiatives portfolio, organizational excellence, research, and insights. Similarly, people’s performance and organizational culture are guided by specialized teams.
The KPI Institute’s maturity assessment for the division adhered to a holistic approach in both project coverage and methodology. In terms of coverage, the following organizational capabilities were evaluated: strategic planning, performance measurement, performance improvement, employee performance culture, and organizational culture.
Figure 1. Integrated Performance Management Maturity Model | Source: The KPI Institute
Regarding the methodology, TKI’s Integrated Performance Maturity Model includes a review of formal procedures and other official documentation (outputs) and insights from employees in the organization obtained through surveys and interviews with key internal stakeholders. All findings were rated against best practices using a scoring methodology, and the final score positioned the TDF on maturity level IV out of V (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Performance Management Maturity Level | Source: The KPI Institute
To read the full article and know more about the stages of a performance management system maturity assessment, download the PERFORMANCE Magazine Issue No. 27, 2023 – Government Edition now through TKI Marketplace.
Unlock best practices that drive success in the government sector with insights from the Tourism Development Fund’s performance management practices evaluation. Get your hands on the physical copy of the magazine via Amazon.
Islam Salahuddin is a data analyst with a strong focus on storytelling and data visualization, growing statistical knowledge, and developing a set of technical skills and tools. As an expert in data analysis at The KPI Institute, Islam leads the generation of research on the domain of data analytics and the development of business analytics toolkits.
Jino Noel is a data science and technology leader with extensive experience in building data teams and practices across different organizations. His experience ranges from working in startups to large conglomerates across both Australia and the Philippines. At the time of this interview, he was the Chief Data Officer at Data Analytics Ventures, Inc. (DAVI). Currently, he is the Chief Data Officer at Angkas.
What are the key skills that a Chief Data Officer should possess nowadays?
A Chief Data Officer should have both data-related technical expertise as well as people leadership skills. Leading will always be part of the job, particularly for highly specialized technical people such as data engineers and data scientists. To be able to lead them properly, I believe it is better to be a technical person myself, so I can discuss technical matters fluently, which helps me gain their trust.
What data-related challenges have you faced as the Chief Data Officer of DAVI? How did you overcome these challenges?
Our data-related challenges are the same as any company. Being able to trust our data, cleaning up data from our sources, data latencies, and other related issues. DAVI overcame these by investing in people—hiring high-quality experts in our data engineering, data governance, and analytics teams to help us make sense of the data coming in—and building robust data pipelines that have increased the standard of quality of the data in our data lake.
How does DAVI make use of advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help its clients understand their customers’ needs and buying patterns?
DAVI has recently started using machine learning to model our users’ propensity to buy certain products. This helps us create more accurate target audiences for our precision marketing campaigns. We are also moving forward with a recommendation engine project, with the goal of improving user engagement with our retail partners and with our promos and campaigns. On top of this, we are improving our machine learning operations expertise to make our model deployments repeatable and robust.
In the digital marketplace, data analytics acts as a guiding compass for app developers, enabling the creation of personalized, high-performing applications that align with user preferences. By leveraging data, developers can understand nuanced user behaviors and preferences, allowing them to tailor apps to meet specific user needs and aspirations.
Dive deeper into these discussions by reading Jino Noel’s full interview with The KPI Institute. Download the free digital copy of PERFORMANCE Magazine Issue No. 26, 2023 – Data Analytics on the TKI Marketplace. You can also purchase a physical copy via Amazon.
Islam Salahuddin is a data analyst with a strong focus on storytelling and data visualization, growing statistical knowledge, and developing a set of technical skills and tools. As an expert in data analysis at The KPI Institute, Islam leads the generation of research on the domain of data analytics and the development of business analytics toolkits.
Jino Noel