In 2012 when I worked at Lenovo, the company set out on a journey to create the Lenovo Unified Customer Intelligence (LUCI) platform. The decisions we made with regard to people and technology involved in that project helped to shape my self-development, relationships with others on the team, and relationship with executives.

In recent years, APIs have encouraged the emergence of new services by facilitating collaboration between applications and databases of one or more companies. Beyond catalyzing innovation, APIs have also revolutionized the customer-company relationship, allowing it to provide an accurate and detailed picture of the consumer at a time when a quality customer experience now counts as much as the price or capabilities of the product.

AB InBev, headquartered in Belgium, is one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world with a diverse portfolio of well over 500 beer brands, including Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Hoegaarden and Leffe.

While the transformation to a data-driven culture needs to come from the top of the organization, data skills must permeate through all areas of the business. Rather than being the responsibility of one person or department, assuring data availability and integrity must be a team sport in modern data-centric businesses. Everyone must be involved and made accountable throughout the process.