Camilla Björkqvist: How Danone Created a Data Academy to Fight Back Against Fear

Danone Global Data and Analytics Transformation Director Camilla
Schwartz-Björkqvist explains how she is creating the next
generation of data and analytics evangelists at Danone

Large businesses have digitized rapidly over the last few years.
As a result, the data and analytics function is more important to
business success than ever.


However, some people in businesses of all sizes are still
skeptical, even fearful, of the ongoing information revolution.


In this week’s episode of the Business of Data Podcast, Danone
Global Data and Analytics Transformation Director Camilla
Schwartz-Björkqvist argues that to address the fear, businesses
must help their staff see the benefits of digital transformation
by improving their data literacy.


“There's this population, I think, that's in every company [that]
will have a healthy skepticism,” she says. “I think the first
challenge is [addressing] the skepticism and the fear.”


She continues: “You have to make data and analytics accessible to
people [because] it creates a lot of fear in the organization
when you hear ‘oh, we're going to automate, we're going to
introduce machine learning, and AI is coming.’”
Raising Awareness About Data and Analytics

A key part of the transformational work that Schwartz-Björkqvist
is doing at Danone is getting more business partners interested
in data and analytics.To do this, she created a ‘data bar’ on
Danone’s internal social media where she could share educational
data and analytics content.


“That was one of the key cornerstones of what we did first,
[creating] a space where people could come and find us, and find
information that they're looking for,” she says. “We wanted to
create a place where people wanted to come and hang out.”


At the data bar, team members at Danone can listen to podcasts,
do some light reading, or even take a masterclass on key data and
analytics topics.


“When I set up the first masterclass, I was expecting we would
have 20 to 40 people attend, but we had 200!” she recalls.
Creating Unique Training Journeys

While raising awareness about the positive benefits of data and
analytics is an important first step, realizing those benefits
requires raising the level of data literacy across businesses.


For a company with tens of thousands of employees like Danone,
this is an considerable challenge. Schwartz-Björkqvist realized
that she would need to create a platform that could provide
bespoke training journeys for staff regardless of their
geographical location or seniority. Thus, Danone’s data academy
was born.


“The data professionals will get the deep expertise training they
need around data governance, and around data science,” she
explains. “We’ll have the Python training, and we’ll have really
in-depth cool stuff where they also get certified externally – so
that is that little extra spice.”


Of course, Danone, has a large population of staff who are not
data professionals. The data academy has a course for them too.


“We'll be taking them through a combination of e-learning and
workshops depending on where you are in the organization, and how
much we believe that [they] will be impacted by data enablement,”
she says.


She concludes: “Of course, let's not forget the executives, they
need to they need to get it – they need to really grasp it – so
they are the third population.”