Data Gurus

Welcome to today’s illuminating episode of Data Gurus, recorded live at IIEX in Austin, Texas! Sima is happy to have Paul Gaudette, CEO of Dig Insights, joining her to talk about innovation! There are many opportunities for innovation right now. However, founders of companies are concerned about failure because 80% of the 600,000 new products and CPG launched each year fail, and 50% of all new businesses fail by year three. Dig Insights Dig Insights is a consultancy that has been around for twelve years. They built their own innovation software to assist their clients with innovation exercises and navigating their life cycles. They provide their clients with a foundational understanding of the consumer or the market and fill the gaps across the innovation lifecycle with their platform and other research solutions. Speed and agility There is a lot of pressure for innovation to get out into the market and innovations to be the first ones out. But, sometimes, large organizations get stuck in the process. So

Welcome to another informative episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is excited to have Veena Giridhar Gopal, the Co-founder, and CEO of Salesbeat, joining her on the show today! Salesbeat started in March 2019, and when Covid hit early in 2020, Veena and her partner pivoted the business. About Salesbeat Salesbeat has software that processes many different data points, including sales data from supermarkets and external data points, like weather forecasts, to predict how much a supermarket will sell any product for a specific period in the future. The purpose is to eliminate sales losses due to under or overstocking. Overstocking  Overstocking has become a big issue since Covid because people have changed how they live. So supermarkets are buying the wrong stocks. Too much stock Veena has worked for companies in the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) industry since 2007, so she knows the area well. She has also been in FMCG sales. So she knew that when Covid happened in March 2020, and people started

Welcome to another interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is happy to have Adam Jolley, the EVP and General Manager of Americas for Paradigm Sample, joining her today to talk about how leadership has changed due to how the world has changed over the last two years. Adam’s background It was a shock for everyone when the pandemic hit. It was also a big shock to Adam’s career because he had quit his thirteen-year job as President of a stable company a few months before. At the time, he was navigating what to do for a career. He was also considering whether to get into leadership or be an individual contributor. Having to change If Adam had started with Paradigm immediately after quitting his old job, nothing would have changed, and he would not have gotten any better at what he did. Due to all the changes, including the influence of the change in the mindset of the employees, he had to change how he did everything. A routine Adam feels that before the pandemic, most people were

Welcome to another exciting and informative episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is happy to have Adam Baker and Majeed Saheb-Zadha joining her today. Indico Labs is a data-visualization business and product. They are based in London and have clients across the globe. Majeed is the Founder and CEO, and Adam is the CSO. In this episode, Majeed and Adam talk about their startup journey and discuss the pain points Indico Labs addresses in the marketplace. The pain points addressed by Indico Labs Indico Labs was born as a result of two main forces. The first was a push from the industry to deliver results and insights faster. The second was that the industry has become saturated with data. So researchers did not have the time to interpret it quickly enough to create something deliverable for the client. Indico Labs essentially create a data presentation product that streamlines the process of generating reports. That enables the researchers to interpret the reports quickly, create the visuals, and deliver

Welcome to today’s insightful episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is happy to have Anne Beall, the CEO, and Founder of Beall Research, joining her today! Anne is a research expert and an author. She has been in the market research industry for over twenty-five years. In this episode, she shares her background, talks about her journey in the world of market research, and explains how emotions influence purchasing. Market research Anne got into the market research industry right after graduate school. Soon after, she got recruited to the Boston Consulting Group, where she spent several years in their Chicago office as the head of the market research function. Beall Research Anne had lots of ideas but did not have a platform on which to execute them, so she started her own small research firm, Beall Research, nineteen years ago. She started the business alone and then brought eight employees on board. What Anne loves about research Anne loves the breadth of the studies her company does. She also loves

Welcome to another helpful and informative episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is excited to have Ed Keller joining her today. Ed is a leading expert in word-of-mouth marketing and social media analytics. He is the Co-founder of Keller Fay Group, the former CEO of Engagement Labs, and the author of the book, The Influentials. Ed is passionate about word-of-mouth marketing because it makes a huge difference! It is critical to how brands grow and how consumers make decisions about products and the services they buy. In this episode, Ed talks about word of mouth marketing, explains why he is so passionate about it and discusses its effectiveness as a marketing tool. Intuitive belief  Many businesses intuitively believe in word-of-mouth marketing but do not fully understand what to do about it or how to use it to grow their business. Ed’s book Almost twenty years ago, Ed wrote a book called The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy. He was the C

Welcome to another informative and inspiring episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is excited to have Rob Volpe joining her today. Rob is the CEO of the insights and strategy consultancy, Ignite 360. In this episode, Rob talks about his career path and shares what he did to get to where he is today. He also talks about his book, Tell Me More About That: Solving the Empathy Crisis One Conversation at a Time, and he explains what empathy is all about. Rob’s career path Rob went to Syracuse University. He wanted to be a television network programming executive, so he moved to LA. He found a job as a legal secretary and then moved into business affairs. He enjoyed looking at marketing campaigns for movies, which led him to explore the world of marketing. So he took a marketing class at UCLA Extension and got into marketing in 1995. He did not know that market research existed then, so he started working for a PR firm, doing PR and event marketing. After that, he did various other jobs until someone he met sa

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Today, Sima is happy to have Tiama Hanson-Drury, the Chief Product Officer of Minna Technologies, joining her! For Tiama, a product is all about understanding customer pain and solving it in a way that works well for her business. In this episode, she talks about her journey and explains how she discovered her sweet spot and reached the point in her career where she is right now. She also dives into product development, monetizing a product, reducing uncertainty around a new product, and best practices. Tiama’s journey After graduating from college, Tiama planned to spend two years in a small business and two years in a medium business, followed by two years in a large business. Then she planned to go back to college to get her Ph.D. After that, she wanted to become an executive coach and work with CEOs because she loves business. She spent two years working for a wine business and then moved on to a fast-growing tech company called Global Mark

Welcome to another captivating episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Sima is delighted to have Lindsay Zaltman joining her on the show today! Lindsay is Partner and CEO at Olson Zaltman, a world-renowned marketing strategy firm. In this episode, Lindsay shares his background and talks about how he got to where he is currently in his career. He explains the way they work at Olson Zaltman. He also dives into how humans think and experience the world through metaphors and discusses how metaphors can be used as an effective marketing tool. Lindsay’s background Lindsay’s father was one of the founders of Olson Zaltman. He was also a Professor of Marketing, and Lindsay often used to look at the work he was doing. He always encouraged Lindsay to think about things a little differently- as he did in the marketing world. So from early on, Lindsay knew he would make his career in marketing, market research, or insights. Lindsay did his undergrad with an anthropology background and went on to get a Master’s degree in m

Welcome to this inspiring and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Sima is joined today by Bryan Orme, the president and CEO of Sawtooth Software. For more than 30 years, Sawtooth has helped its clients optimize products and pricing and make better business decisions with their conjoint analysis tools. Bryan has won multiple awards in the marketing research field, published over 100 articles and papers on conjoint analysis, and written three books on related subjects. In today’s show, Bryan helps us understand the differences between conjoint analysis and MaxDiff and highlights how Sawtooth Software tools are doing good things in our world. Bryan’s journey No one chooses an insights and analytics career. While doing his MBA work, Bryan discovered his interest in these research techniques and realized how useful they could be in solving important problems. He worked at IntelliQuest, Inc. for a while before moving to Sawtooth in 1995. An overview of Sawtooth Sawtooth is an insights platform for we

Welcome to this informative and inspiring episode of the Data Gurus podcast! In today’s episode, Sima is thrilled to introduce you to Roseanne Luth, CEO and President of Luth Research, based in San Diego. Luth Research is a privately held market research company with over 300 highly trained and dedicated employees. Roseanne’s vision is to advance the research industry to its highest and best potential by establishing the most scientifically valid, internet-based data collection service. Roseanne shares her secrets of success that have allowed her company to grow, evolve, and thrive since 1977!   Staying power Roseanne is quick to say that starting a company was very different 45 years ago compared to today. The keys for her have been to stay focused and be committed, with a fair amount of personal stubbornness thrown in for good measure. “If you don’t evolve as the world changes, you’ll be left behind.”   The inspiration Even in a male-dominated world, Roseanne found that people were supportive and will

Welcome to another informative and exciting episode of the Data Gurus Podcast! Today, Sima is happy to have Zain Raj, the CEO and Chairman of Shapiro+Raj Agency, joining her! Zain has had a very interesting journey! In this episode, he dives into how he got to where he is today and talks about his company, Shapiro+Raj. He also gets into how we need to shift and adapt to a changing world. How Zain’s journey started Zain graduated in India with an economics and finance degree, intending to become a CPA. After graduating, he pivoted and signed up for a new advertising program. He has now spent thirty-six years in the marketing industry. He has never experienced even one unhappy day because he loves what he does so much! Moving to the US Zain met an Indian woman living in the US, married her, and stayed in India for a year before moving to the US. He has been living in Chicago since then. Advertising After moving to the US, Zain got into the advertising industry and ran big global clients. He moved from b

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Sima is happy to have Richard Jackson, the Chairman of the Winning Edge Mindset, joining her on the show today! Richard has spent the last thirty-eight years helping people understand their mindset and shape it to achieve their goals. To change our mindset, we need to think about how we think. Yet very few of us ever do that. In this episode, Richard shares his journey and talks about what he teaches people in his Winning Edge course. He discusses what drives mindset and explains how our values impact how we feel. He also shares strategies for navigating tough times and structuring a goal-oriented mindset geared for success. Richard’s background Richard got divorced in the early 1980s. He felt bad and complained a lot, so a good friend suggested that he work on himself. Richard got a notebook and spent the next few years speaking to anyone he thought was doing better than him. He asked parents, CEOs of large companies, Olympic gold medal winne

Welcome to the latest interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast. Today, Sima is happy to have Martin Filz, the CEO of Pureprofile, joining her on the show. In this episode, Martin shares his background and career trajectory. He discusses authentic leadership, explains how to form a passionate, engaged, and efficient execution team, and talks about creating a successful business in the market research industry. He also highlights the importance of the panel and dives into how Pureprofile engages and interacts with its panelists.   Martin’s background Martin was born in London. He loves insights and data! He first got involved in technology back in the 1980s and 90s, and it was an exciting time for him! He got into research for the first time in the 1990s. It happened when he headed up the European section during the startup of Redshare, a company that tracked the website behavior of users for brands. Right from the get-go, he loved working with consumer insights!   Nielsen Martin als

Welcome to another exciting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Today, Sima is happy to have Camille Nicita, the CEO of Gongos, joining her as her guest for the show. Camille is one of the four founding partners of Gongos. In this episode, Camille shares her early career experiences and the journey she has been on since the founding of Gongos thirty years ago, which culminated in her becoming CEO. She also discusses the step-by-step transformation of Gongos and explains what they do to meet their clients’ needs in a world of big data. How Gongos came about  While she was doing an internship at an automotive group for a research company, John Gongos asked Camille and three others to join him when he decided to go out on his own and do a startup. Camille was young and had no commitments at the time, so she took a leap of faith and agreed. A great experience Camille found getting thrown in at the deep end a good learning experience! From the get-go, she loved being part of Gongos because she

Welcome to another interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Sima is excited to have Vin DeRobertis, the CEO of Savanta, joining her on the show today! In this episode, Vin shares his career journey and talks about building Savanta. He discusses acquisitions, gives his perspective on the research industry, and talks about the challenges he experienced with doing a UK startup on American soil. Vin’s career journey Vin spent about three years working as a programmer for the NPD Group before moving on to their Online Operations. He left the NPD Group to work for Carbonview and later joined e-Rewards, where he remained for the next eleven years. Vin started working for MIG Global in 2017. They needed to create an economy of scale, so in February of 2019, they built a house of brands that comes together under the research umbrella of Savanta at Next 15 Communications. Vendors Vendors at large research firms have a unique view of the field. Vin has sold sample and other research services

Welcome back to another informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Today, Sima is happy to have Elys Roberts, the Founder, and CEO of Beesy, joining her on the show. In this episode, Elys discusses his career journey, describes conscious versus non-conscious behavior, and talks about the exciting things they are doing with behavioral science at Beesy. Elys’s background While with Eli Lilly in the UK, Eli joined a leadership program and did several different jobs. They included district sales management, marketing, market research, sales training, and sales. Then he moved to the US to join a small startup company where he did pharmaceutical market research online. More recently, he became the CEO of Ipsos Healthcare. He then took on a broader role within Ipsos, managing six divisions in North America, with about 600 people reporting to him. After that, he established Beesy, a behavioral science insights agency. A masterplan Starting Beesy was part of Elys’s master plan. In 1997, while at Eli Lilly,

Welcome to another interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Sima is happy to have Lilah Raynor, the Founder, and CEO of Logica Research joining her today! In this episode, Lilah talks about the research project she did with a team from the IDEA Council and the ongoing study she is involved in, called The Future of Money. Lilah’s background Lilah comes from a financial services background. Before founding Logica Research, she managed the research team at Charles Schwab. Founding Logica Research Lilah founded Logica Research about fifteen years ago. It was initially called Koski Research. She started her company to provide excellent client service for clients who preferred working with small boutique research firms. Over time, they have become more niche-focused on financial services and fintech. Making a change  Owning her own business allowed Lilah to have more flexibility while raising her two young children. It also allowed her to work on different projects and do different typ

Welcome to another exciting and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Sima is happy to have James Norman, the CEO and Founder of Pilotly, joining her today. In this episode, James talks about his varied career and highlights the difficulties he experienced as a person of color, raising investment capital. He also discusses his initiatives to help black founders raise money for their businesses and explains how Pilotly came about and why Pilotly is such an important company for the United States. James’s career trajectory James started his career selling video games. After that, he spent some time selling car audio and then started his first “real” company, MJH Sound.com, in 1995 and sold car audio online. After running that business for about four years, James went to the University of Michigan and got a degree in electrical engineering. Pivoting James’s audio business pivoted during that time, and they started creating custom parts and building unique cars for vehicle manufacturers. Custom ca

Welcome to another fascinating and informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast! Sima is happy to have Jeremy King, the CEO and Founder of Attest, joining her on the show today! In this episode, Jeremy talks about his unique career journey, discusses the genesis of Attest, and explains how Attest helps organizations use their existing data in better ways to make smarter decisions. Jeremy’s journey Jeremy started his career as a scientist. He worked in ecology, genetics, and what is now known as synthetic biology, focusing on mathematical models of reef fish behavior and proving how the entire underwater ecology is driven by sound. That was where his love for data, empiricism, following hypotheses, testing, and learning originated. After that, Jeremy joined McKinsey and spent nine years traveling around the world helping big companies sort out problems that they could not solve for themselves. Learning Traveling to different countries and showing up at new businesses, sectors, and teams every one to th