TRENDING
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President, Enterprise and Commercial, IBM
Middle East and Africa (MEA).
products are manufactured and under
what conditions.
“Not only does data have the power
to differentiate businesses from their
competition but transform entire business
models. According to the recent C-Suite
study, we are seeing that the majority
of leaders in our region strongly believe
data helps create a strategic advantage in
strengthening their level of customer trust as
well as their bottom lines.” The advantages of a reciprocal approach to
data sharing become even more apparent as
newer technologies like AI enable enterprises
to take a more personal approach to the
business-customer relationship. Blockchain,
meanwhile, is helping make trust verifiable.
While the study focuses on the need for
transparency on how companies handle
customer data, it also highlights the
importance of trusting data that’s within an
organisation. Leaders in MEA were found to
take great pains to ensure that the data within
its own walls is accurate and clean so they
can leverage it to make the best-informed
decisions on important business ventures,
such as developing new business models and
entering new or emerging markets. Building a foundation of data trust involves
more than a reciprocal relationship between
a business and its customers. It begins within
the organisation. An enterprise must strive to
ensure that its data is accurate, up-to-date
and appropriately contextualised. In other
words, enterprises need to be sure they can
trust their own data.
• In MEA, 80% already extensively use
data to develop new business models,
compared to a global average of 70%
• While 73% already use data to make
informed decisions on entering new
markets, compared to a global average
of 66%
• 70% of C-suite executives in MEA believe
that automation of decision-making
processes will increase in their business
landscape over the next two to three years,
compared to 65% of their peers globally
The study also revealed an emphasis on
the importance of creating trustworthy
ecosystems. Data that simply stays within
the organisation is more likely to drift out
of date than to grow in value. Leading
organisations are liberating their data while
simultaneously de-risking data exchanges in
a shared ecosystem – allowing it to circulate
widely, without sacrificing their responsibility
to secure permissions and safeguard it.
While the study provides the guidance
that companies should always practice
transparency, reciprocity and accountability
when handling data and engaging
customers and business partners, other
recommendations include:
1. Strengthen relationships with customers
by becoming trusted custodians
20
INTELLIGENTCIO
Trust your own data and be ready
to share
Hossam Seif El-Din, Vice President,
Enterprise and Commercial, IBM Middle East
and Africa
of personal data, demonstrating
transparency by revealing data about
offerings and workflows, and using the
trust advantage they’ve earned to create
differentiating business models.
2. Build confidence in data and AI models
enterprise wide. Stimulate a culture
of true data believers and data-based
decision makers, and in turn, elevate
experiences for customers and partners
along their value chains.
3. Learn how to share data on business
platforms without giving away competitive
edge. Turn the corner from amassing data
to determining how best to monetise
it, including how to build ecosystems to
create new exponential value.
How do Torchbearers establish and maintain
trust? Our study found they share three basic
business practices:
• Emphasise accountability.
Torchbearers identify how their
customers expect them to use their data.
They then doggedly ensure that those
expectations are met or exceeded.
• Offer reciprocity. Customers must be
able to see significant value in sharing
their data. Torchbearers make that value
proposition clear.
• Ensure transparency. Torchbearers make
a policy of communicating problems
promptly and fully. And they make it easy
for customers to view detailed product
information, including data about how
Torchbearers also develop a culture that
is comfortable distributing data widely
within the enterprise, even to the lower
reaches of the organisation, as a way to
empower employees to make decisions. It’s
an approach that might understandably
make many executives uncomfortable.
But Torchbearers demonstrate that
democratising data can drive innovation.
Enterprise must also ensure that data
trust extends into their wider business
ecosystems. It may seem counterintuitive.
But being a reliable steward of data doesn’t
necessarily mean keeping it locked away
within the enterprise. They know data that
stays in the organisation is likely to become
stale, while circulating it outside the
company improves its value.
And so, Torchbearers are liberating their
data, allowing it to circulate within the
ecosystem. But they also scrupulously
safeguard it by enforcing strict rules about
who receives access to which sets of data.
Trusted data is the new gold in the
emerging global economy. By building a
culture of trust in your organisation and
with your partners and customers, you
will have access to more of this precious
resource and learn how to use data to
create greater business value.
You can access the full study findings at ibm.
co/c-suite-study. n
www.intelligentcio.com