“Our mission is to become a truly data-driven organisation – one where data is accessible, trusted and used as part of every decision.”
That’s how Mauro Flores frames his mission: an enterprise-wide effort to make an iconic UK telco decisively data-driven. Hired as EVP for Data Democratisation, he was asked to drive transformation at Virgin Media O2 not just build pipelines. His brief stretches from self-service analytics platforms and governance to people, culture and leadership: “Democratising data is not only about giving our colleagues access, it’s driving the whole transformational change… from building data literacy to creating a data-driven culture, driving engagement and adoption of our platforms and creating excitement to help colleagues understand how they can apply data to their day-to-day roles.”
From Centralised Data to Enterprise-Wide Empowerment
Virgin Media O2, like many large organisations, took a natural first step to centralise its data into a single place. However, in order to become a truly data-driven organisation it was clear that a centralised model alone could not scale to meet the needs of an enterprise with c. 16,000 people. The challenge was clear: provide access organisation-wide.
“That’s where we all come into this game,” says Mauro. The strategic pivot was to see data not as a walled garden but as the connective tissue of decision-making: “How can we accelerate the work that we’re doing to not only make smarter, faster decisions but improve our customers’ experience, using data?” asks Mauro. The answer was to design for self-service, adoption and literacy, from the ground up.
Building A Resilient Culture
“Developing the right culture is everything. You can have the best technology in the world, but without this, transformation stalls,” notes Mauro.
Each year Mauro’s team sets its V2MOM (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles and Measures) – a practice which Mauro brought across from Salesforce. “This sets out the key values we focus on as a team,” he notes. “It’s about asking and contracting with my team. Are we happy to have those values as an organisation?”
At this telco, data and culture are intertwined… Virgin Media O2’s Data Culture team is building that resilient culture through initiatives that encourage colleagues to learn “the art of the possible” and apply data to their everyday roles, through fun tasks and challenges, as well as webinars. Shared values and clear goals for Data Democratisation help ensure colleagues understand not only know what is changing, but why it matters and how to work together to make it happen.
For Mauro, a data-driven culture is one where colleagues feel supported to explore, experiment and apply data in meaningful ways.
