Henry Lawson, Chief executive officer, autoGraph

Path to power

 

After briefly becoming a mechanical engineer and then management consultant, I fell in love with the media industry in 1990’s New York. As digital advertising grew, it also became clear that we needed to do a much better job of relevance and privacy. The unbridled use of third-party data is stopping on both sides of the Atlantic. What is replacing it is consumers gaining more control.

 

What has been the highlight of your career in the industry to date?

 

Seeing a company built out of thin air emerge to be a reality. Attracting a like-minded team, investors who believe in our vision and customers who actually pay money for us to do what intrigues us! Seeing almost $100 billion flow through ad management platforms your team has assembled comes a close second!

 

If you could give your younger self some advice about how to progress in this industry, what would it be?

 

Remember how small the world is and that, over a 40-plus-year career, you will see almost everyone you meet multiple times. Every impression counts, so make sure they are always good ones, whether meeting a President or buying a coffee!GDPR was the major issue as we went into this year. It has come and, through legalese and check boxes, largely gone. We expected more real change to processes than we have seen thus far, but both inside and outside the EU, real change is afoot.

 

What do you expect 2019 to be like for the industry?

 

However, to dismiss data privacy as GDPR is a terrible mistake. Just look at the headlines almost daily here, across Europe and in the Americas. AT&T just stopped selling all third-party data and, along with T-Mobile and Sprint, it just got caught selling location data. Facebook now allows a readable profile to be downloaded. We will see hundreds more examples in 2019.

 

Talent and skills are always a challenge to find - how are you tackling this in your organisation?

 

Make the job you are filling a mission for people. Give them considerable freedom. Don’t pigeonhole them into what they were hired for. People can do so much more than their current jobs! Rinse and repeat.

 

What aspect of data, analytics or their use are you most optimistic about and why?

 

While access to data is going to get harder and harder, processing power trends inexorably towards being free. Apply the right minds (see above) and the industry will continue to grow, but on the right basis.Data and analytics technology/service provider