This is the Insights2020 profile of a head of insights. It is a single list of attributes, and almost none of them are about research technique. The profile starts from business credibility and ends at the ability to change what senior leaders decide.
Key findings
- The role is defined by business outcomes rather than by methods. The profile explicitly prefers business impact focus over methodology focus.
- Authority comes from a different source than seniority. The profile says the power base is consumer-centricity and a holistic understanding of the business.
- The personality it asks for is not the traditional one. It names a D or I type on the DISC profile rather than the conscientious type usually associated with the function.
- The ambition described reaches past marketing. The profile wants someone who wants to influence holistic business strategy and the full marketing strategy, including mergers and acquisitions.
- Seniority is stated in relative terms. The head of insights should sit at the same level as category or brand leaders, or higher.
What the person brings to the leadership table
The first requirement is credibility in business, strategy, and marketing. The profile expects a forward looking, consumer-centric mindset brought to leadership and to the whole corporation, not only to the insights team.
That person is expected to think provocatively while staying open-minded and collaborative, and to defend a strong point of view at board level.
Building the function
The profile asks for deep experience of building a function across strategy, structure, and capability, and for an insights strategy and methodology that is robust, pragmatic, and innovative.
Talent development points in a specific direction. Senior insights people are to be moved from methodology expertise toward a business consultancy role, and experimentation in objective setting and approach is expected rather than tolerated.
Capability building is tied back to results. The stated reason for building insights capability is to improve business impact.
Partnering, inside and outside
The profile expects proven strategic partnering both internally and externally, along with strong relationships with data and tools suppliers and with strategic agencies and consultancies.
It also asks for demonstrated collaboration on information systems, big data, and analytics, and for influence across a wide range of business and other stakeholders.
Storytelling and the search for the non-average
Communication is described as a highly developed storytelling ability: simplifying, clarifying, and integrating complex inputs, then sharing them in a way that provokes discussion of implications with senior leaders.
The analytical instinct asked for is to look away from averages and toward strategic pockets of opportunity, and to move quickly from strategy to execution.
Track record and reach
The experience asked for is broad, including work outside client insights functions, and it includes a proven record of turning consumer and shopper insight into business strategy.
Global experience is treated as credibility rather than as a line on a resume: work on global brands in a multinational corporation, across cultures, in both local and global teams. The closing description is a whole-brain profile, high touch, high EQ, and highly relational.
Source
This page summarises Insights2020: Head of Insights Profile, by Kantar Vermeer, 161020.