Daryl D’Cruz, head of data innovation – CMI Europe, Samsung

Path to power

Throughout my career, I have applied my passion for creativity with data and technology to help organisations deliver great customer experience and commercial results. This has taken me around the world, from London to Sydney and a few stops in-between, perhaps inspired by my first ever business trip on Concorde while working at British Airways on my placement year.

In the early segment of my career, I worked in financial services between London and Chennai, delivering digital creative publishing solutions to organisations listed on the London Stock Exchange. I built an outsourced operations team of 25 strong creatives, to deliver scale and speed for client success.

I then spent eight years in Australia, leading data and digital strategy and operations with two ASX listed retail groups covering ten brands. During this time, I helped over 8 million Australians with company missions to “look good, feel great” and to “be more active”. I held roles with data at the heart across analytics, CRM, loyalty, ecommerce, social media and customer service.

On returning to London, I spent time agency side at Havas Helia as planning director, supporting customer centric programmes at easyJet and Westfield. However, my calling was a move to Samsung Europe. As head of data innovation in the European office I have led several data driven initiatives to advance our data maturity, most notably in the analytics space which culminated in our team winning the DataIQ 2019 Award for Best Data Aggregation Initiative.

What is the proudest achievement of your career to date?

I have met some incredibly talented people over the past four years since returning from Australia; at industry events and at roles both agency and client side, so it is an absolute privilege and my proudest moment to be included in the DataIQ 100 and be recognised for my achievements.

It’s a testament to delivering great work, placing culture at the heart and having the voice to share valuable stories so the industry can advance. At Samsung, the analytics program I lead covers 15 subsidiaries and over 34 countries, bringing together many data sources to deliver solutions for campaign, commercial, market, retail, consumer and executive use cases. The team also has a focus on data literacy to drive change and our success was underlined by the DataIQ Award win and plans for growth this year.

Did 2019 turn out the way you expected? If not, in what ways was it different?

It was an eventful year with lots of challenges, travel and fun at work. I have always adopted the career mindset to say “yes” to a challenge, but last year I decided to be vulnerable more often. I accepted several invitations: to speak at the Government’s Cabinet Office Townhall in Whitehall; to deliver the customer keynote at Qlik’s Data Revolution Tour Conference; to share the Samsung story with presentations at DataIQ Transform and the Big Data London conference. I also helped to lead roundtable discussions with peers at the British Retail Consortium and as a Qlik Luminary, I took the opportunity to feed into to Qlik’s 2020 development roadmap.

What do you expect 2020 to be like for the data and analytics industry?

We’re seeing an ever-increasing rate of change from both business and technology perspectives and I’m excited that our industry will underpin this change.

Firstly, an agile approach to data and analytics architecture is an area I expect businesses to increasingly invest in, especially given the cost, performance and integration opportunities that cloud technologies provide.

Secondly, I expect further democratisation of data in the organisation, supported by always on and more effective data literacy programmes that reach more people.

Third but not least, a shift in people, process and technology. I expect a new wave of data scientists to come through and have access to the tools that help automate more of their workflow, ultimately delivering increased ROI.

Data and technology are changing business, the economy and society – what do you see as the biggest opportunity emerging from this?

I firmly believe that humanising our approach to data and technology will ensure a better future. Whether it is the latest devices, 5G, IoT, artificial intelligence or augmented reality, the use cases are endless. Our biggest opportunity is to create genuine positive change and to create the force for good, both of which take many forms. We’ll be more connected, enjoying more meaningful experiences with each other. We’ll see improvements with our safety and in health, wellness and medicine to name a few. We’ll also see more businesses that understand and reduce their environmental impact while delivering ROI. I look forward to seeing a genuine positive change thanks to data and technology.

What is the biggest tech challenge you face in ensuring data is at the heart of your digital transformation strategy?

The challenge we face is maintaining, optimising and enhancing our data and marketing technology stack against the backdrop of innovation and competition across the landscape. We need to continually demonstrate value to the European markets and product divisions and the velocity, volume, variety and veracity of data at Samsung ensures this is a challenge and opportunity to be taken; after all, our team aims to deliver more effective and creative marketing, closer relationships with our consumers and improved business performance alongside our retail partners thanks in part to a powerful, innovative and robust technology stack.