Rethinking data analytics as a digital-first driver at Dow

In today’s digital world, the ability to make data-driven decisions and develop strategies that are based on data analytics is critical to success in every industry. Beyond decision-making, accurate and relevant data analytics can provide greater insights into target markets, help improve operational efficiencies, and identify new products and service opportunities.

When I assumed the role of chief data and analytics officer at Dow, the challenge we faced was how can data and analytics (D&A) help fulfill the company’s ambition to be the most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive, and sustainable materials science company in the world? This not only involves transforming data into a competitive advantage but rethinking how we use and distribute D&A across our business and functions. What was needed was a strategy that essentially weaves data into the fabric of our company to the extent it impacts how we work every day.

Developing our D&A strategy

The first step in this journey involved bringing our D&A teams under one roof in the first half of 2022. This team eventually became Enterprise D&A, with team members based around the world. To develop the strategy, we held discussions with external partners and interviewed Dow leaders to identify trends important to business success. Then we looked at where those trends align with key focus areas like customer engagement, accelerating innovation, market growth, reliability, sustainability, and the employee experience.

Our central task was to translate our findings into a strategy that creates the most value for our stakeholders: our customers, our employees, our shareholders, and our communities. We determined we needed to move to a hub-and-spoke model. To make this work and achieve our vision of transforming data into a competitive advantage, we would need to build a strong culture of collaboration around D&A and support it with talent development within our organization and across the company.

To get there, we are focusing on these five strategic themes:

1. Be a business enabler. If D&A is going to be a driver for business success for Dow, then we must align to key business drivers for the company — in particular, growth, sustainability, and productivity. In today’s challenging economy, D&A can play an enormous role in increasing efficiency and productivity and create the foundation for growth and increased market share. And, as always with Dow, we will do this while maintaining safety as our No. 1 priority. While it seems obvious that we would be “business-driven,” we are being very purposeful in aligning all our work to the most important objectives for the company.