Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The 10
Most Intelligent
Leaders in
Data Science
& Analytics
2022
Paul
Cognitive Abilities
Zikopoulos
PavingtheWaywith
MultipleLearningCurves
EDITOR’S NOTE
Humans with
AI: A Centaurean
Future
I
have been a writer and an artist in the making, so I was pretty
excited about technologies like DALL-E and Midjourney that
can create cool images given text as a prompt. Whatever you
say about my drawing abilities, I have a good imagination and
seeing it come to life as I write seemed pretty amazing to me.
This worry seems to gain more weight when we start talking about
the manufacturing industry and how automation is putting more
and more people out of jobs. As a passionate enthusiasts of the sci-
fi genre, I am guilty of looking toward books and movies for
answers sometimes – are we going to be ruled by machines or are
we going to gain tools that will propel the evolution of our society
to new heights – in short, will it be an iRobot situation or a Real
Steel situation?
It doesn't have to be. Like a writer dabbling in novice AI artistry– the bar for entry in this field has become
quite low. The real question is how to reach the top of a field that seems to be inventing something new at a
breakneck speed.
We at Insights Success set to find leaders who have been at the forefront of AI and Data Science & Analytics
technologies that are rapidly proliferating in every sphere of life at a speed that seems to leave one's head
spinning. In our latest edition, 'The 10 Most Intelligent Leaders in Data Science & Analytics' they talk about
changes AI technology is set to bring in the future, how they keep pace with rapidly evolving tech, and what
it takes to become a leader in this industry.
Dwell into such inspiring stories and make sure to read the insightful articles opined by our In-house
editorial team.
Happy Reading!
Sakshi Shrivastava
Sakshi Shrivastava
Cover Story
08
Paul Zikopoulos
VP - Technology Sales Skills Vitality & Enablement Group
IBM
Article CXO
22 30
Has Humanity
Reached Peak The Fuss
Intelligence? about AI
33
The Proper Blend of Business Process, Machine Learning,
Sibanjan Das
and So ware Engineering Exper se
CONTENT
FOLLOW US ON
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Alex Spellman WE ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON
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August, 2022
Featuring Person Company Name Brief
Asadullah Ansari
Harman International Harman International is a global leader in automotive
Director,
harman.com technology, lifestyle innovations, design and analytics.
Engineering SW
Paul Zikopoulos IBM IBM specializes in technology and infrastructure, software and
Vice President ibm.com consulting.
Stephanie Murphy
Dell Technologies Dell Technologies provide the essential infrastructure for
Account Manager organizations to transform their digital futures.
dell.com
Storage Speciality Sales
Venkat Raghavan
Tesco Business Services Tesco is the leading retailer of consumer goods from food to
Associate Director and
tesco-bst.com fashion.
Global Head - Analytics
C O V E R S T O R Y
Paul Zikopoulos
VP - Technology Sales Skills Vitality & Enablement Group
IBM
A journey with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge Paul's journey has stops in Development, Product
(it comes from his parents, he tells us) has taken Paul Management, and Sales — going back and forth, all the
through all kinds of roles at IBM. Something that really while spawning deep roots into technical communities
caught us off guard when we looked into his story? He and clients. He showed us some calendar entries that
joined IBM from business school and had no formal were a decade old and some just weeks old, they all had
training in technology. one thing in common: large blocks of his calendar were
reserved for learning.
If you’re not committed about but follow his directions and learn themselves.
This turned out to be one of his greatest strengths.
Later he began to write data-focused magazine articles,
to being a lifelong
and when the stars aligned, he answered the calling to
become a book author, leading to name recognition as
an expert in the field of data, analytics, and AI.
learner, you’re going Paul told us how one inflection point in his career was
when he made the decision to start focusing on other
The Hurdled Path One of Paul's biggest challenges early on in his career
was the label he got for not being “technical enough”.
Paul faced several career challenges on this journey, but His hiring manager gave him an opportunity to prove
he courageously shared with us that learning to believe himself to the brilliant and accomplished minds that
surrounded him.
Sharing his experience, he says, “Talk about not
fitting in or feeling I wasn't good enough! It took
time and grit, but I had lots of both. I remember the
day I made a promise to myself to always be more
technical than I was the day before. I still have this
goal today! Remember this: compounding is the 8th
wonder of the world; if you keep learning… you'll
amaze many, including yourself, where you end up.”
He reacts to the amusement on our faces while telling Paul was the first-ever male to win the IBM Canada
this story by asking rhetorically, “Why am I telling you “Women in Technology Ally” award. He notes it as a
this story? If one of Hollywood's leading actors spends three “heart-touching experience in ways he never imagined.”
years preparing to film a movie remake, which has been He shares, “I've been working in this diversity and inclusion
done twice before, that took 42 days to film, how much space for a while, not because it's my direct job, because it's
time do you think you should be putting into learning for my direct culture. While IBM has their programs, they
your own career?” He's right. We can all learn something support and help employees get involved outside of IBM,
from this story. too. I love that.”
There's another trap he's seeing with the rush to cloud- There are numerous lessons to be learned from Paul's
native applications (no matter where they're run). Most journey, the knowledge he gained, the ladder he
people don't realize that while agile and distributed climbed, the books he wrote, and the experiences he
components made life amazing for developers, it has shared. Everything ties into a continuous thread of
created enormous issues for Site Reliability Engineers learning. He finishes with one last piece of great advice.
(SREs). He notes that, “You don't build applications today, He tells us, “So many people tell me it's too late for them to
you compose them. You stitch together discrete and start a transformation and upskill for today's hot
distributed pieces of logic (microservices), and this technology job market.” He tells them that “technology
approach gives you scale, availability, and agility. years are like dog years… it's not about the head start.
Society spends too much time recognizing the big moments
These apps have components that leverage function-as-a- and often misses the impact small daily improvements can
service (FaaS) calls that can run in under a second. How do make in your professional and personal lives. When it
you monitor this? How do you figure out where a problem is comes to technology, a newbie who never stops learning, in
coming from when the code runs in a second, and its the long run, will far out skill the CompSci graduate who
runtime is ephemeral, and it runs on one of many cloud thought learning finished the day they got their degree.”
providers you're working with? It gets messier as more apps CIO LOOK curiously awaits to see how Paul weaves
evolve into cloud native. Trying to figure out anything from this thread and carries on his journey beyond the
a composed app's reliability perspective has become a horizon.
nightmare.” What Paul's talking about has given rise to a
higher order of application performance management
(APM): observability.”
CHOOSE OUR SUBSCRIPTION
“
difficulties with underlying causes from terabytes of
data for huge Telco operators throughout the world, Dr.
Vuppala is solving challenging problems using AI.
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vehicles, and smart factories that run on 5G networks.
Our purpose is to create connections that make the
unimaginable possible. We believe in a world where
limitless connectivity improves lives, redefines
business, and pioneers a sustainable future.
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cognitive networks will emerge. In evolving intent- beyond connectivity. We aim to ensure that today's
based network operations, cognitive technologies powerful 5G network foundation evolves into the 6G
combine large data with unique network domain era, bringing new capabilities and the kind of extreme
expertise to enable unparalleled speed, scale, and performance demanded by application areas such as
accuracy. We are using AI in telecom to help us achieve the internet of things, intelligent machine
our vision of future zero-touch networks by communication, and the internet of senses.
automatically determining which actions to take with
minimal human intervention. What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs
who aspire to venture into the Network sector?
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run,
and what are your future goals for Ericsson? The Telecom network is a very complex domain. My
advice to budding entrepreneurs is to check the gap
In the long run, I envision that the penetration of AI and which they wish to address in the network sector and
data science will be pervasive in telecom and other make it their core business to solve the needs of the
industrial sectors. I want to continue leading and customers. It can be at any layer in the network. Having
building solutions with Trusted AI, Ethical AI, Green AI, the right partnerships is another important aspect the
and Metaverse for the adoption of AI in solving real entrepreneurs need to keep in mind due to the
business problems and building frameworks to complexity involved in the network sector, eventually
democratize AI and data science. With my strong leading to delivering "cost-effective" solutions "in time"
academic connections and being an active member of while meeting the quality requirements.
IEEE and ACM, I wish to contribute to bridging the gap
between academia and industry.
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Has
Reached Peak
Intelligence
Humanity
?
W e live in the age of innovations and
technologies, where any task is at our
fingertips, from purchasing products to getting
education and finally getting jobs.
There are numerous possible reasons for this brain boost,
but it was the response to the increasing cognitive demands
of group living. The larger social groups allowed members
to share ideas and build on each other's inventions, resulting
in inventing tools to improve the efficiency of hunting.
But one question that arises in the minds of many is
whether we have reached the peak of intelligence. That's where humans developed the intelligence to observe
Let's begin with the exploration of the ancient origins of and learn from others and provide one another a push for
human intelligence. From the moment our ancestors learned more incredible brainpower.
to walk upright 3 million years ago, scans of fossil skulls
suggest that the brains of our first apes were about 400 When our ancestors left Africa around 70,000 years ago,
cubic cm, which is three times the size of today's modern they were smart enough to adapt to any life in almost every
humans. corner of the planet. The astonishing cave arts clearly
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Cognitive Abilities
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showed this indication and were also capable of solving Looking at the future, the potential rise or drop in IQs
cosmological questions. should certainly cause us to take a look at the ways we are
using our brains. We now know that this kind of thinking
It was only a century back that scientists first invented IQ can be taught; these possibilities are an indication of what
(Intelligence Quotient) to measure someone's intellectual can be done if rationality and critical thinking are given the
potential. IQ is undoubtedly good at predicting academic same respect as other cognitive abilities. We might even
success and to predict how quickly you pick up new skills start to see a steep rise in rationality and wisdom in tandem
in the workplace. In simple terms, they show a meaningful with the Flynn effect.
change in people's capacity to learn and process complex
information. By now, it is clear that you cannot conclude the rise and fall
of IQ is just one piece of the puzzle, which will only get
The rise in IQ started in the early 20th century; when people completed by answering the above world issues. IQ is just
take the test, their scores are transformed to ensure the one piece of the puzzle – the cleverer side of the human
median of the population remains 100. This allowed the being. There are many more things to life than having a
researcher James Flynn to compare the scores between higher IQ or higher score of cognitive ability.
generations, and he found out that there has been a steady
increase in IQ points. However, the Flynn theory is still a
matter of debate due to multiple environmental factors. The
best comparison is the change in our height; we are 5 inches
taller today compared to the 19th century, which just means
our overall health has changed. Another example can be
taken from education – children lean on developing abstract
thinking to cope with modern technology.
Necessary Answers
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Sibanjan Das
The Proper Blend of Business Process, Machine
Learning, and Software Engineering Expertise
F
inding himself between an offer to move to the
United States and work as a consultant on a job
that he didn't care for or to join an organization
beyond your worked well for me, and few didn't. But life is all about
making choices, and once you choose, stay with it. There is
no going back. Perseverance is the key."
is the thrust
Being a leader in the Data Science field has been a fun
roller coaster ride for Sibanjan. He started as an
engineer for ERP systems, then became a business
a team forward never look that easy when you want to transition
between different departments, as it takes effort,
courage, sacrifice, and some hard decisions to make.
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and no lucrative offers could stop him. When he started Going the Extra Mile
in Data Science/Machine Learning, it was a relatively
new area. His focus was always to work in the field of During one of his conversations with his leader Brian
Analytics, and he tried to get into a functional analytics Hoffman, Sibanjan expressed his interest in working
role. He landed up in the field of Machine Learning with the Data Science team. He never said no, but he
unintentionally. But the journey since then has been didn't commit to taking him on his team either because
equally challenging and rewarding as well. he didn't know him. So, he started testing him and
asking him to solve some problems. He also challenged
When Sibanjan started learning Machine learning, he him with some more complex problems day after day.
always had thought about how to inject Machine
Learning into the workflows in ERP systems. Oracle Little did he know, Sibanjan had made up his mind about
ERP was always his den, and he kept on trying and a do-or-die situation. He started working on two shifts
exploring things to make this a possibility. – doing the work for Business insights during regular
office hours and Data science work in the evenings. This
Things didn't work out well until Sibanjan got a chance continued consistently for a few months until one
to work with Oracle on precisely what he wanted. He evening when Brian became tired and said, "Sibanjan,
never wanted to miss this opportunity and gave in all to it's time for you to officially join the Data Science team."
design that product. His previous business processes Five years later, when Brian and Sibanjan remember
skills, Oracle ERP technical knowledge, and ML skillset these events, they laugh thinking of those days.
all came in together to do some justice to the
responsibility that the organization gave him. Sibanjan also advises, "Try to focus on things you can
control. Don't focus on something not in your control, as it
The happiest moment was when he saw the modules will burn you out. Being an Indian, like the rest of India, I am
that he designed and developed were released as a part a fan of cricket. In cricket, there are batsmen, bowlers, and
of general availability and are mentioned in the product fielders. If you are a bowler and start thinking much about
user guides. But during this time, he had already the skillset of the batsman, you lose your focus, and he
resigned, not because of Oracle, but for Analytics. He might hit your ball hard. Focus on your bowling. Don't think
loves product development, but he wanted to be part of much about the batsman. He is there to bat and is thinking
the enterprise analytics team for a long. about how to hit your ball. Fielders are ready to save runs.
Fielders might miss a catch, and you feel bad about it. But
But, during this time, again, he was offered to move into should you feel bad? Yes, but for yourself. Your aim should
Toshiba US as a Microsoft BI consultant. And yet, again, be to bowl him out, hitting the stumps directly. If you can't
he didn't go to the United States even when he had an do that, don't blame the fielder or batsman. Do things that
H1B visa and was already stamped for travel. This was you can do, don't think about conditions beyond your
the second time he had rejected the travel. His friends control."
complained that he was killing his growth. It's not the
case that he never wanted to go. But, for him, the work The Company's Impact
was more important than the location.
For Sibanjan, the impact is a magic word. He shares one
Today when he looks back then, he thinks he made the of the many things that he likes about ServiceNow:
best decision. ServiceNow is a great organization to people love creating solutions for complex problems
work with. The leadership there is terrific, with great and enjoy making them successful. The ServiceNow
people and enthusiastic teams. When Sibanjan joined team likes solving challenging problems and always
ServiceNow, he joined as a business insight analyst strives to improve yearly.
within the Data and Analytics team. He believed this
role was an apt role for him as this is an intersection of Sibanjan believes, "There are very few companies in the
business and data science. But a few months after, he world who think about their growth and their customer's
felt that the Data Science team within the same Data growth and success. ServiceNow is one of them, and they
and Analytics team did the work he could do best. are at the forefront. And I am not saying this because I am a
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ServiceNow employee. I
have truly felt this in
Service Now. ServiceNow
always has a positive vibe
and focuses on making
customers, employees, and
the community successful.
There is always a "people"
touch in everything they
do at ServiceNow."
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Somya
The 10 Most Intelligent Leaders in Data Science & Analytics, 2022
Malviya An Insightful
Data-Driven Leader
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Somya Malviya
Data Analyst
GroupM
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Somya tries her best to push the boundaries continuously campaigns that give back to society by increasing ad
and deliver ground-breaking projects working closely with effectiveness through data analytics and insight generation,
several team members across Programmatic, Finance, and media strategy, and investment optimization.
Operations. She has worked on several innovative solutions
and navigated through uncharted waters to explore the "The Go Give One campaign" in 2021 was one such
media effectiveness capability of Data Clean Rooms like instance to support World Health Organization's mission to
Amazon Marketing Cloud and Ads Data Hub to discover vaccinate the world and utilize strategy building, big data,
high-value audiences and measure holistic brand lift. and technological advancements as the support system for
Secondly, she has transformed the Pacing process into an campaigns that change the world. GroupM's mission to
automated dashboard, improving the efficiency with a make advertising better for people, in turn, aims to play a
performance uplift of 30% and saving GroupM $85,000 on key role in bringing this vision to life through leading and
manual and tedious processes. Additionally, Somya has inspiring a team of media and data-centric individuals who
created a Commercial Tracker that drove 35% savings in build the backbone of effective work that has an impact on
head hours, accounting for an overall savings of $2,000 the world. GroupM has also implemented several initiatives
each month. like DE&I Talent Pipelines, Automation, TeamFlex, and
Reconnect plans that allow its employees to work from
Leaving a Mark in Media World home whilst visiting family across borders. It builds
strategic partnerships that give new and different talent
GroupM has always focused on bringing value to its clients pipelines and eliminate mundane, monotonous tasks to
and aims to touch many lives through global media decrease the staff attrition rate.
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The ever-changing world of media and subsequent
depreciation of cookies has left marketers grappling with
privacy-first solutions that could measure return on
marketing investment with higher accuracy. Somya
shares, "My inquisitive nature and go-getter attitude
enabled me to explore a new and innovative solution for
a Pet Food client: Data Clean Rooms. My initial
hypothesis for the first-ever use case for GroupM
Australia was to create connections between platform
and customer data, ensuring data compliance. However,
I have dived deeper into several possible use cases to
explore the ad effectiveness for cross-channel exposure
and optimal frequency for different device types. Results
generated were extraordinary, highlighting a promising
use case where Amazon Sponsored Products along with
Display ads led to an exponentially higher purchase rate.
Almost 60% of total purchases can be attributed to
customers targeted using both the channels, boosting
purchase likelihood by ten times. Additionally, when
multiple devices are used to target a customer, they are
eight times more likely to drive conversions."
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The 10 Most Intelligent Leaders in Data Science & Analy cs 2022
Venkat
Raghavan Powering organisations
with analytics
“
T
he crux of any business lies in identifying
compelling problems and their most viable
solutions. Gifted are those who have cracked the
formula to run successful enterprises relying on this
strategy. One such leader who has embarked on an
enterprising journey across the globe, spanning
Appreciate problems,
multiple businesses, is Venkat Raghavan, an expert in
analytics. He carries an impressive track record of
successfully leading high-growth portfolios and
believes that businesses grow by growing individuals
and their thoughts.
“
for they are
opportunities
in disguise.
Opening the Gateways of the Mind Midway through the journey, he started taking up roles
with P&L responsibility, such as client partnering,
"Questions are more important than answers." Venkat where he realised that skill and context are only
started his career as a coder but understood early in his meaningful if it creates commercial value. Over the last
journey that he liked coding only if he understood five years, where he has played global leadership roles,
where the code fits in the larger problem it is solving. he realised that content, context, and commerce are
This made him gravitate toward asking more business only a strategic advantage if they lead to sustainable
questions about how things are done and how they can cultural shift. He mentions “Real success of analytics
be done differently. The desire to ask and understand should be measured by the tangible difference created for
the 'why' behind the 'what' got him into analytics early customers, colleagues and shareholders and not as a
in his career, where questioning and hypothesising are measure of scientific or technological greatness.” The
the bedrocks to success. challenge was to realise the need for a shift in thinking
at different stages of his career. The mentors
Venkat's career can be divided into four parts; In the throughout his journey gave him the right nudges to
first part, he acted as an individual contributor and evolve the mindset to look at a continuum of 4Cs -
wanted to be the best-skilled employee and compete Content, Context, Commerce, Culture.
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Venkat Raghavan
Associate Director and
Global Head - Analytics
Tesco Business Services
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Analytics - an Asset For Tesco technology teams. The core use cases where Venkat
and his team leverage technology are to:
Tesco is a food retailer with over 100 years of heritage
with an annual turnover of close to £55bn. As a leading Ÿ Get more data signals about our customers, product,
multinational retailer with more than 345,000 stores, online, and suppliers
colleagues, the company aims to serve customers daily Ÿ Build the right analytics and science infrastructure
with affordable, healthy, and sustainable food – to help that can make the petabytes of data accessible and
them enjoy a better quality of life and an easier way of get the right computing power to run large data
living. Tesco’s core purpose is to serve its customers, queries as well as statistical and machine learning
communities and planet a little better every day. Tesco algorithms to solve complex problems
has been using analytics and data science to find more Ÿ Access to the best tools/technology options to build
opportunities to understand customers and increase and visualize analytical solutions.
profitability. Ÿ Automate and deploy the analytical solutions so
that they deliver sustainable value
From a science standpoint, Venkat is optimistic about
the tremendous scope for true AI to scale to Retail is an early adopter of data and analytics. Since
understand customers and positively influence their the invention of electronic Point of Sale (PoS) registers
behaviours. The team at Tesco has prioritised about four decades ago, retail has had the gift of
personalisation as one of its key strategic priorities to harnessing and analysing data to find opportunities for
better understand the needs and expectations of its better offerings, pricing, promotions, and customer
customers and engage with them through the offerings engagement. One such example from his journey is the
with high relevance and personalisation. He shares, "We launching of one of the world’s largest loyalty programs
are an extremely customer-centric company, therefore, we with over 100 million members. The program created
believe that if we get the pulse of our customers right, we the possibility of understanding customer behaviors to
can align our business operations to meet them, thereby offer better products, promotions, and customer
unlocking value for our customers and our business. Having service which resulted in a win-win equation for both
said this, the path to getting there is non-trivial – the global the retailer and its customers.
economy is going through a highly volatile phase, and our
customers face many challenges" Therefore, in a world Preparation for the "Next Chapter”
that is shifting continuously, analytics and science are
needed to understand, anticipate, and act to win in the Analytics is a highly crowded market today. He advises
retail industry. young entrepreneurs, "Ensure you have a clear
differentiation. For companies in the service industry, cost
Evolution and Use of Analytics and quality of your work make a big difference." There are
some companies in the product space where flexibility
Over the last 20 years, analytics has evolved from a and scalability are pivotal.
support entity delivering reports and MIS dashboards
to a core problem-solving entity that uses the power of For new-age SaaS product companies, it is imperative
Forecasting, Predictive Modeling, Machine learning, to understand where data sits – this is an important
and AI. Today the industry is mature enough to impact topic, especially in retail, where data protection and
the business outcomes directly. It is recommended to privacy are serious topics.
look at analytics as a commercial agenda, instead of as a
cost centre to build future capabilities. This shift will He adds, "Often, I get emails from organisations, including
enable a deeper and more meaningful partnership startups, where the differentiation is unclear. The other
between business and analytics to deliver tangible suggestion for startups, especially those targeting food
results. retail as an industry, is that our margins are pretty thin.
Therefore the ability to connect capability to true P&L
"Technology is the largest enabler for analytics and science impact is essential. Those startups that can establish this
to evolve." A lot of what analytics can achieve is are celebrated more than those that don't."
supported by the foundation created by data and
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