S7 | Ep 28 | The Data Translation Challenge with German Faraoni, Global Director of Shared Services for Data at Reckitt

In Episode 28 of Season 7 of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by German Faraoni, Global Director of Shared Services for Data at Reckitt, where they discuss why data and AI investment still struggles to show measurable value, and why the answer lies in articulating it in business outcomes rather than data terms.

German also shares how Reckitt cut the time to get a new SKU onto shelves by almost half, and how data leaders can earn their place in the right business conversations.

They also discuss:

Why data leaders are business professionals first and data specialists second.Why investment in data and AI is still articulated in data terms rather than business terms.How the same trap is repeating with AI, and what “hype credit” means for justifying investment.Why the metrics for data and AI should be the metrics the business already uses to measure success.What a data leader should ask a prospective employer before taking a role.How Reckitt reduced the time to commercialise an SKU from around 200 days to roughly half.Why the SKU release project started with process redesign rather than technology.How Gen AI emerged as the right tool for the job rather than the starting point.Why data practitioners must sit in the business conversations where results are discussed.Why starting small and avoiding “boiling the ocean” matters for scalability.How governance councils by data domain create a sustainable foundation for data quality.Why remediating legacy data issues remains hard, and how to choose which ones to fix.How AI lowers the cost of intelligence and speeds up the decisions that follow insight.What using AI as a “canary in the mine” reveals about weaknesses in your data and access controls.How to approach AI across internal efficiency, reimagining the existing business and creating new business models.Why agentic commerce could reshape how consumers and retailers interact.What AI means for the future of the CDO role, and who may be most exposed to change.Why competitive advantage will come from the right mix of premium and commodity AI, process understanding and orchestration.How large incumbents respond to disruption from smaller, faster AI-enabled businesses.

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