(US and Canada) Drew Smith, VP of Global Data & Analytics at Little Caesars Enterprises, Inc. and IIitch Companies, speaks with David Yehle, VP of Global Sales and Field Operations, Acceldata, about key performance indicators from data and business aspects, how data strategies feed into KPIs, clock speed, the richness of reports, the cost constraints put on him as a CDO, and meaningful data “wins” achieved. 

Smith starts the discussion by stating that Little Caesar has specific targets based on market needs and consumer demands. They look at third-party data to add to their self-built POS system for deeper understanding and measuring the baseline.

However, he says more data is required to understand if the digital market penetration is on par with global digital penetration. He believes that data people must understand and set targets around market digitization. Data is created or bought, as it does not pre-exist in the system, which adds a huge value.

If there is more data, will the organization understand the key performance indicators more deeply? At Little Caesars, he explains that the KPIs include a roadmap in the data warehouse where quality data is fed. The key is to increase data accessibility once data quality and structure have improved. 

Smith says they thoroughly measure the utilization of reporting and KPIs in BI and reporting tools. He notes there are internal problems from the advanced analytics aspect and solving them is a long-term goal.

Regarding clock speed, they are beginning to swing the pendulum from batch to real-time. Smith believes the chief operations officer serves as a bridge between strategic long-term brand building and daily operations. 

For example, he cites managing labor costs in a restaurant by keeping real-time information on labor spending compared to sales. However, he says, there are a few business constraints. Hence, they came up with a timeframe based on the practical experiences of restaurant managers.

Smith points out that clock speed is essential, and Little Caesars aims to set the data clock speed to the decision clock speed. He mentions the usability and quality of tools like Tableau and Power BI to build a highly accessible data infrastructure with the appropriate security guards. From the report richness aspect, the company has yet to reach its saturation. 

Smith says that a good data infrastructure does not necessarily improve business. However, he urges organizations to develop grassroots best practices and have a tool-supported structure to evaluate those practices.

Regarding cost constraints from a CDO perspective, Smith maintains that to build an organization, he needs to hire people, but it cannot be infinite with an unbounded salary. In data analytics, cloud costs can be huge, he adds.

Smith recalls his experience working for Ikea, a cost-conscious company. He understood from the beginning that his responsibility was to ensure cost-effective business growth. He adds that finding a cost-effective solution is better than shutting down for cost.

It’s a balancing act because everything cannot be moved to the cloud, whereas organizations can use agile cloud tools advantageously. The agility to create matters more than the agility to run, Smith emphasizes.

He recalls a scenario where a software problem appeared while tracking a metric, which led to a fruitful discussion around the importance of metrics. He considers the conversation a “win” for them as it was meaningful and well understood. 

He mentions a previous organization that built a sophisticated tool to balance supply and demand. The problem was that three people could manage the device while 80 were managing the process. Hence, they redesigned the tool. The win is not in building a sophisticated tool but creating a tool that meets the user and derives value.

In conclusion, he believes that data scientists are one of the greatest underappreciated assets because they live in computed reality, where infinite computing is infinitely expensive. Thus, an organization must employ creative people to solve these problems.