2. Scott Joslin, senior vice president data strategy, data, technology, operations and innovation, WarnerMedia

Path to power

I am very lucky as I have a great role at a forward-thinking company. This is a hugely exciting time for us, and I am responsible for the oversight, direction and management of WarnerMedia’s international data strategy, data technology strategy and data platform management for all its divisions. We manage data as a strategic asset to drive revenue, increase yield on advertising inventory, and enable more targeted and efficient consumer marketing and commerce opportunities. Previously, I was responsible for overseeing the international advertising effectiveness efforts at comScore and, before that, my roles in research and business intelligence at AOL included the completion of the world’s most extensive enterprise web analytics implementation at the time. Before joining AOL, I held various data-based roles at some of Canada’s largest brands and agencies.

What is the proudest achievement of your career to date?

Building and leading a diverse team of exceptional professionals who are the heartbeat and driving force that has created a true self-service, data driven culture. With a strong focus on stakeholder collaboration, our team has delivered a genuinely enterprise-wide data platform providing governed data at scale across our International operations.

Who is your role model or the person you look to for inspiration?

Steven Pressfield – specifically his books “The War of Art”, “Turning Pro”, and “Do the Work”. Initially written to encourage writers to write, I continuously find his lessons to be universally applicable.

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

Overall, yes. In the media industry, we’ve seen the continuation of the shift towards more direct-to-consumer propositions and see the increased use of data to focus on consumers’ interests to build deeper relationships with them. For us, this shift has seen us deploy several employee training initiatives, ranging from data literacy, data ethics to an award-winning privacy-by-design and default workshop that we have rolled-out globally.

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

We’ll see organisations increasingly focus their attention on education, reskilling and upskilling current employees – and not simply relying on recruiting efforts – as the demand for data-driven decision-making grows.

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

In a word, trust. By making privacy-by-default and design a foundational principle of their digital transformation strategies, organisations can genuinely offer true enhanced relevance and customer experiences. This, in addition to the application of improved cybersecurity protocols, helps to course-correct against negative experiences reported in the media.

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

To fully unlock the promise and power of data to enable great customer experiences, product development and employee engagement, we need to break down data and system silos. The ability to seamlessly unify customer and consent-driven data – along with supporting operational data sets – into a common data model is an ongoing challenge.