"Insight is not a spectator sport. It's all about creating competitive advantage to drive long-term sustainable growth"
It's Episode 87 of the Transforming Insight podcast and I'm delighted to be joined by the inspirational Thomas Walker, VP Global Consumer Insights at eBay.
Drawing on his career at IBM, Microsoft and Coca-Cola, Thomas talks about his focus as an "Insight orchestrator", and how his team work with research vendors and eBay's business partners in engineering, tech and analytics to build empathy at scale for an "always-on, future-ready organisation".
Thomas is a great believer in the advantages of AI and he talks about its potential to unlock efficiencies, improve effectiveness and enhance creativity. He thinks AI is best seen as a thought-partner, an entity Insight teams should spar with to rapidly test ideas.
He challenges corporate Insight professionals to "get out of their lane and push boundaries", believing - as I do - that now is the time for Insight leaders to step forward and create the future we want to be part of.
If you'd like to know more about what that might look like for eBay's Global Customer Insights function, please tune in!
James Wycherley
Host of the Transforming Insight podcast
Chief Executive, IMA