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Sara Benwell: What have been some of the most significant industry changes of note – when it comes to data management?

Thomas Pologruto: My role at Blackstone, and the direction I have taken over the past year and a half, works on a simple mandate; to help people answer their questions with data.

In order to do this, employees need to know where to get the data, check its validity, and to be presented with a better tool for analyzing it.

We have automated a lot of this process, bringing it all together, and this is something we are seeing across the whole industry.

“My role at Blackstone works on a simple mandate; to help people answer their questions with data.”

The main industry change we have witnessed is the identification of data as the primary asset. Most firms are now recognizing that their data, the intellectual property that is embedded within their data, is their value to the world in whatever line of business they are in.

Blackstone is no different, but we were earlier to the game, and we want to continue in this vein.

Sara: Much has been said about the use of advanced analytics with firms like yours pushing the boundaries of possibility. Do marginal gains still exist in having better data analytical abilities than your peers, making it worth the investment needed to achieve them?

Thomas: Definitely yes. One thing we have achieved at Blackstone, is the increased velocity at which we are able to accomplish things.

This velocity enables us to be adaptable on each project that we work on, whether it is a deal, quarterly summaries or our investor reporting.

At the same time, it allows us to complete marginal tasks faster and more accurately, but also complete multiple things in parallel.

“Velocity enables us to be adaptable on each project that we work on, whether it is a deal, quarterly summaries or our investor reporting.”

The combination of these two factors not only pays for itself, but it provides a springboard into being much better with data analytics in the future.

Sara: Do you feel that we are back to a place where the old- fashioned ‘edge’ is created by focusing on data areas that other companies aren’t focusing on?

Thomas: I would say yes. When we talk about the edge it is about learning from your past experiences and bringing everything that you have learned into your next project.

In this sense, when you have expertise spread over many years and many people, having this data set or set of analytical tools is the most powerful tool you could ever have.

This is where you would define this edge, as it is about being better and being quantitative about everything that you do.

Sara: What do you expect the game changes to be in advanced analytics going forward, that should further revolutionize the industry?

Thomas: Revolutionizing an industry doesn’t happen in clear ways.

What occurs is a slow accumulation of knowledge, where lots of pieces of the ecosystem come together, as people get trained on how to use the platforms correctly.

There is no ‘eureka’ moment where you invent a better model that completely changes the game for your business, it is more incremental. In this incremental process, when you look back over a six month or an annual period, you will see that you have revolutionized things within your organization.

“By making incremental progress, this ultimately leads to revolutionizing the industry”

It is a lot of strategic planning and incremental progress. It is the execution of your strategic road mapping, on an agile cycle, where the accumulation of your work delivers a solution that is really the game changer.

It doesn’t happen quickly but it will happen with a lot of hard work. The road map will change overtime as the business evolves, but by making incremental progress, this ultimately leads to revolutionizing the industry.

This is most notable when people are not going back to their old tools but are embracing the technology that has influenced them within the office setting.

Sara: Looking beyond investments in the front office, how else can data analytics bring about operational efficiencies?

Thomas: It is often overlooked but most of your data falls into two parts; the build-the-business and run-the-business.

Running the business data is key, not just for the success of the company but also in order to remain competitive within the market.

I have spent a considerable amount of time working across all of our departments to help people think about those processes that are time consuming, and what data they need to harvest in order to efficiently create desired outputs.

As you work with these groups, you realize that there is scope for streamlining processes, because everyone is sourcing the same sets of data. They are looking at the accounting, CRM, books and records data but are producing different reports from it.

“Running the business data is key to remain competitive within the market.”

By deconstructing these uses and creating a unified data catalogue, we can start to relieve a lot of the pressure that falls onto those teams, and ultimately derive efficiency.

When we look at a process that is taking three people 30 hours a week, we need to build our business intelligence tools, completely automate an output report, and repeat the process to save time.

There is no more running around on Friday, to meet the deadline for your Monday report. You can simply look in one spot for all the reports, analytics and data.  This operational efficiency is about speed, reproducibility and parallel processing.

It is not just on the investment side where these changes can be made. We can improve the operational side also, to scale our businesses outwards, operate them more efficiently and keep expertise in house.

“This operational efficiency is about speed, reproducibility and parallel processing.“

This is the key difference; we are increasing the tools and training that we want to provide to everyone, but we are making them much more accessible at the same time.

We have had a tremendous uptake and are seeing triple percent growth in the use of our business intelligence tools.

A lot of this has been driven by the data transformation initiatives that we are undergoing throughout the firm.

 

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