Case Study: A 360-Degree Approach to Develop
Talent and Accelerate Analytics Culture
Published 14 June 2022 - ID G00766598 - 6 min read
Noha Tohamy
Initiatives: Supply Chain Transformation
Successful analytics adoption depends on developing talent and
culture. Supply chain leaders in analytics and digital strategy can
use this Case Study to implement a comprehensive talent strategy
that spans outreach, training and ongoing support as illustrated by
Colgate-Palmolive.
More on This Topic
This is part of an in-depth collection of research. See the collection:
■
Leverage Inspiring Data and Analytics Case Studies and Use Cases to Create
Business Value
Company: Colgate-Palmolive
Industry: Consumer products
Headquarters Location: New York, New York, U.S.
Revenue: $17.42 billion (2021)
Employees: 33,800
Case Overview
Problem:
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Supply chain digital transformations are often hindered by limited data and
analytics talent, and lack of digital readiness.
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While recognizing the need for analytics talent development, a majority of
organizations invest only in analytics training that’s narrowly focused on the use of
technology.
Action:
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Colgate-Palmolive has created an Analytics Enablement Team that has executed a
talent strategy that combines executive engagement and community outreach,
training and ongoing user support.
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Colgate-Palmolive has built an Analytics Catalyst Team composed of individuals
residing in divisions or regions, who are committing part of their time to coach and
support their organization’s specific analytics needs.
Results:
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Improving Productivity: The roll out of on-demand global analytics on slow-moving
and obsolete stock has enabled Colgate-Palmolive’s supply chain planners across
the globe to reduce the time needed to identify at-risk stock and work with the
business on mitigation actions.
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Providing Proactive Alerts: The Colgate-Palmolive Analytics Enablement Team
worked with the procurement organization to bring in weather data and create
proactive alerts when there could be disruptions to the supply chain based on
adverse weather events. In some cases, those alerts generated automated actions
toward the suppliers.
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Supporting Product Transitions: Colgate-Palmolive has avoided potential factory
shutdowns during product transitions. The business was challenged with tracking
struggling excess and obsoletes during product transitions. It requested a dashboard
that shows transitioning products and their associated levels of excess. It would
track the progress of a product transition, focusing on the number of products
transitioned, and excess and obsoletes. Instead of just creating the requested
dashboard, the Analytics Enablement Team looked to identify the actual pain point.
It turned out that a challenge to the product transition process is lack of visibility into
available pallet space at the distribution center. Lack of space can result in halting
production until space is freed up. To support the business, the team created reports
that show current and forward visibility of available capacity at the distribution
center. The team also provided simple “what-if” analytics to visualize the impact of
different decisions on capacity availability.
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In 2020, Colgate-Palmolive introduced its Global Supply Chain Reimagined transformation
strategy, revolving around three tenets: supply chain segmentation, customized supply
and demand capability, and integrated systems and analytics to orchestrate technologies,
data and analytics solutions to make smarter decisions.
To support its digital transformation, Colgate-Palmolive created the Analytics Enablement
Team with three complementary goals:
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Establish Foundation: Data and foundational tools to provide the supply chain
organization with actionable insights.
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Deliver Analytics: Cutting-edge advanced analytics solutions delivered through data
scientists, citizen data scientists and third-party providers.
■
Build Analytics Capabilities: A 360-degree approach to develop talent and accelerate
analytics culture.
To build analytics capabilities, Colgate-Palmolive leveraged three strategies:
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Socialization: Outreach and best practice sharing through newsletters, functional
forums and informational talks.
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Education: Training programs and tailored curriculum spanning leadership and
learner roles.
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Facilitation: Building a community of analytics coaches and developers, and a
formalized team that supports knowledge sharing and project participation.
This Case Study will detail Colgate-Palmolive’s efforts in each of these strategies:
socialization, education and facilitation.
Socializing Analytics in the Context of Digitalization
The first pillar in the Build Analytics Capabilities is socialization. The goal is to reach out
to leaders and business users to provide context and mobilize the organization to
embrace data and analytics.
The Analytics Enablement Team leveraged different communications methods to appeal
to different constituencies:
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Red Talk: These are inspirational sessions given by leaders making analytics
relatable by sharing relevant personal experiences with data and analytics. For
example, Jason Bunce, Supply Chain Analytics Enablement director for ColgatePalmolive, led a session where he talked about his experience at a nuclear research
facility and how important it was to ask the right questions to maximize the value of
analytics insights.
■
Best Practice Sharing: These are quarterly best practice sharing sessions where
individuals talk about their work with data and analytics, challenges and lessons.
They discuss use cases and problems they are pursuing, and where they have
leveraged data and analytics.
■
Newsletter: Periodic communications with updates on projects, tools and
technologies. The newsletter also revisits foundational analytics concepts and
reiterates strategy and vision.
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Road Show: The Analytics Enablement Team recruits panels of users to speak about
data and analytics to their organization. With a shared experience with their
colleagues, their message better resonates and is targeted to common needs.
Educating With a Structured Training Program
The second pillar in Build Analytics Capabilities is a best-in-class training program. In
creating it, Colgate-Palmolive identified the following elements:
1.
The Role of the Learner: The global supply chain staff is mapped to five roles: All
staff, leaders, citizen data scientists, Analytics Catalyst Team and centers of
excellence.
2.
Learning Goals: Goals such as develop/share analytics to proficiency in
programming languages.
3.
Learning Topics: For each goal, there is a detailed set of topics to reach that goal.
4.
Learning Modules: Grouping of topics, progressing in time to build upon each other.
5.
Competency Levels. Foundational, intermediate or expert learner.
6.
Learning Method: On-demand videos, cohort-based learning, reading and live
sessions.
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Using these six variables, the Analytics Enablement Team could chart a very tailored,
targeted analytics journey for each supply chain role.
To illustrate, in Figure 1, complete data foundations is identified as a foundational
learning goal for all global supply chain (GSC) staff.
Figure 1. Roles, learning goals and competency levels
Source: Colgate-Palmolive
Dozens of topics such as “data governance,” “four analytics techniques” and “AI is your
world” contribute to this learning goal. The topics are organized in four modules: “What
are digital and analytics?” “Welcome to the world of data,” “Working with data,” and
“Presenting data.” Finally, learning methods range from reading, watching videos, sharing
and reflecting (see Figure 2).
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Figure 2. Choosing the Most Effective Learning Method for Different Topics
Source: Colgate-Palmolive
Emphasizing Training the Leaders
Underscoring Colgate-Palmolive’s commitment to data literacy, the Analytics Enablement
Team developed a mandatory training course tailored to the supply chain leadership
team. The course prepares the leaders for the role of analytics champions and change
agents. “Without a data literate leadership, it will be impossible to create a data literate
organization,” says Bunce.
In addition to online content, the leaders participated in live sessions and panel
discussions to ask subject matter experts questions, and further synthesize the course
material. Initially, the training was planned for 300 senior leaders then expanded to 1,000
leaders, with 900 completing the course with a 90% passing grade.
Facilitating Continued Success in Analytics Adoption
The third pillar in the Build Analytics Capabilities charter is facilitation. The goal is to build
a community of analytics users and practitioners that provide ongoing analytics support
to the wider organization. The Analytics Enablement Team built a platform to pose
comments or questions. This can be done in a group setting or through a one-to-one
connection with colleagues. Currently, there are nearly 680 participants in that community.
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Analytics leadership attributes the success of facilitation to the Analytics Catalyst Team.
These are individuals who combine the roles of analytics translator or developer:
Translators are communicators, coaches and critical thinkers. Developers are builders,
investigators and visual storytellers. These individuals are not necessarily technical but
show passion, interest and an aptitude for analytics. They were recruited from across the
business with the expectation that they will dedicate 20% of their time to that role. The
Analytics Leadership Team secured their managers’ buy-in for that time commitment.
There were more than 100 applicants who were interviewed by the Analytics Enablement
Team; 40 individuals were selected, spread across 15 countries and 16 functions,
representing different challenges and needs.
About This Research
This research is based on interviews with Jason Bunce, director of Supply Chain Analytics
Enablement; and Karolina Troup, Supply Chain Analytics Engagement lead at ColgatePalmolive.
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