Transforming Insights: Colgate’s Journey with Christian Niederauer at Colgate-Palmolive

[00:00:00] MRII Announcer: Welcome to MRII’s Insights Innovators podcast, where we talk to top market research professionals to get their inside stories about innovative and enduring best practices. Today’s episode is sponsored by RTI Research. RTI Research is a market research company that turns data into meaning so you can communicate your insights simply and act on them effectively.

[00:00:23] MRII Announcer: Now here’s your host for today’s episode.

[00:00:26] Stan Sthanunathan: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining today’s episode of Insights and Innovators. I’m your host, Stan Sanonathan. Today’s topic is transforming the insights function in a large multinational corporation. And in other words, it’s all about making sure that the function is fine tuned and future proofed to create positive impact on the business.

[00:00:49] Stan Sthanunathan: Today, we have a guest who has not only been thinking about this topic for some time, But I’ve actually done a lot for embedding it in Colgate Palmolive. We have [00:01:00] Christian Hederault, VP of Global Insights and Consumer Affairs at Colgate. In this episode, Christian shares his perspective on how to take the insights and analytics function to the next level.

[00:01:14] Stan Sthanunathan: There’s a lot to be learned from Colgate. And what they have done over the last few years. I’m sure we will find this conversation invaluable, whether you’re on the client side or on the agency side. So, sit back and enjoy. Welcome, Christian. Welcome, Stan. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you’re welcome. Now I would like to ask a few questions about you.

[00:01:37] Stan Sthanunathan: But before that, I want to ask your thoughts. on the state of our industry. Can you tell me what is the biggest challenge facing us as insights professionals today in a world that is becoming incredibly complex and competitive?

[00:01:54] Christian Niederauer: Yeah, you’re not holding back on tough question at the start. I mean, for me, connecting the [00:02:00] dots is a big, if not the biggest challenge at the moment, because today We have so many different sources of information and new ones are added as we speak, basically.

[00:02:08] Christian Niederauer: So, um, that, that’s why there’s no if then relationship between a business question and a research tool anymore, because you can answer the same question so many different ways. That’s why making sure you have the right sources connected together to answer the question the most, uh, the best possible way is for me one of the biggest challenges currently for our function.

[00:02:28] Stan Sthanunathan: All right, great. Thanks for this, Krishna. I think connecting the dot is something that I really, really connect with because I think that is a an incredibly important issue that we need to address as an industry. Um, before we get into the details, why don’t you give the audience a very quick intro into your career and your role today?

[00:02:48] Christian Niederauer: Yeah, thanks. Sure. Um, it’s not the usual FMCG insights career path starting at agency side, then moving to client, then from local to regional, global roles. Um, my insights career actually [00:03:00] started in academic research. So after university, I decided to stay at university doing a couple of studies there, and then also started working with a couple of agencies like GFK at that time already.

[00:03:10] Christian Niederauer: Um, and then also in parallel move to strategy consultancy. Um, and then I actually worked in B2B before finally moving to FMCG Insights, um, uh, at Racket in 2012, where they stayed for about seven years in various insights, analytics roles, then really global, local, regional, and so on. And then after that, I joined Colgate in 2019, heading up the European Insights Function.

[00:03:36] Christian Niederauer: Before moving to my current role early 2022, um, where I’m currently responsible for insights, capabilities, global programs, like our broad brand health tracking program, syndicated data relationships, the retail measurement, the household panel, um, but also knowledge management and also consumer affairs.

[00:03:54] Stan Sthanunathan: Wow, that you have a lot on your plate, Christian. But I also have a team for that. Good luck, you know, good [00:04:00] luck with that. Um, you know, when you’re talking about your career, you know, I saw a lot of similarities between What you’re going through and what I have gone through in my career, uh, this, you know, large multinational companies and iconic ones and so on and so forth.

[00:04:16] Stan Sthanunathan: And we have seen the industry up close over a fair amount of time. What do you think are the two to three things that the industry needs to do differently today to stay relevant going forward?

[00:04:30] Christian Niederauer: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say really differently. I think just to focus even more on, because I think we do a lot of things already quite well, but.

[00:04:38] Christian Niederauer: Um, first thing that usually comes to mind for me is really proactive value creation. So instead of just waiting for briefs, we as insights teams internally and externally need to almost anticipate business needs and therefore then actively suggest strategic initiatives, answers and so on. So we must be drivers of foresight, which has been kind of a big topic for the last couple of [00:05:00] years and innovate almost acting as a strategic partners rather than just problem solvers or order takers.

[00:05:07] Christian Niederauer: The second one for me is, um, again, kind of be curious and agile. So the business landscape is changing faster than ever. And so to stay ahead of the game, we really should continuously learn, experiment, integrate new methods and also technologies like generative AI at the moment and also advanced analytics.

[00:05:25] Christian Niederauer: And last but not least, I think what has been a key topic for quite some while and where we still can do better is storytelling simplification. So insights professional really need to master the art of simplifying complex data and the compelling stories. that are both easy to understand for stakeholders at every level and therefore then also actionable because simplifying insights makes them cut through the clutter because everyone gets a lot of information on day to day.

[00:05:52] Christian Niederauer: We have a lot of meetings, um, but it also makes them more actionable and ensures that we really contribute meaningfully. to business [00:06:00] decision making.

[00:06:01] Stan Sthanunathan: Well, that’s beautifully articulated. I think very crisp, simple, but at the same time, very clear in terms of what we need to do. Thank you so much for doing that.

[00:06:10] Stan Sthanunathan: You know, when we were talking some time back, you talked about how Colgate embarked on insights transformation back in 2023. Yeah. Uh, within the world of what is possible, can you share a bit about the components of this transformation journey? What are the pitfalls that people should avoid along the journey if at all they embark on something like this in their own environment?

[00:06:36] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah. And

[00:06:37] Christian Niederauer: that was really one of my first big projects coming to the current role and the key milestone without revealing too much secret sauce was really the primary sponsorship of the Canada 2030 work. And as you know very well, I mean, that was very much inspired by the insights 2020 work that you led and then also ended up in that famous Harvard Business Review article, I think.

[00:06:59] Christian Niederauer: [00:07:00] building an insights engine, which I think everyone in the audience and in our industry is really aware of. So that was really the starting point. And then like for any transformation, it’s really important to talk to key stakeholders internally, but also externally. So partners, peer companies, and so on, because we need to understand.

[00:07:19] Christian Niederauer: What do they need? What are they doing? And what is the best practice? What would everyone wants? And that it’s really a team effort. So there’s no way you can do that as a top down exercise. So that’s not even somebody in global and saying it, that’s how we do it. It, you really need to get the buy in. You almost need kind of bottom up, top down kind of approach together.

[00:07:37] Christian Niederauer: Um, and once, once you know where you want to be, which we had then with the MPEG framework from Kanta, you also have to bring it to life. And here kind of a key enabler for us was our insights competency framework that we developed on the back of that. Um, and yeah, overall, I think, as I mentioned, um, you need a clear north star where to go.

[00:07:57] Christian Niederauer: But then you have to also break it down to clear [00:08:00] actions and track progress, which is also something that, that we have been doing for the last two and a half years to really make sure that we are on track where we want to be.

[00:08:09] Stan Sthanunathan: So you used the phrase Insights Competence Framework. That’s intrigued my, intrigued me and it caught my attention.

[00:08:18] Stan Sthanunathan: Can you talk to us about some critical components of this framework and a few tips on how to bring those frameworks to life?

[00:08:27] Christian Niederauer: Yeah.

[00:08:27] Stan Sthanunathan: Yeah.

[00:08:29] Christian Niederauer: So the, I mean, the, the first thing is we divided the competencies into two main pillars. So one was called fundamentals and the other one future proof, um, fundamentals includes things like solution expertise, ways of working, how to be most efficient.

[00:08:42] Christian Niederauer: Also ruthless prioritization was one of the, of the, of the pillars we had in there and the future proof competencies are really focused on the strategic influence and also curative curiosity and empathy. So how we can drive that. Data curation, um, storytelling as mentioned before. So, um, [00:09:00] the key success factor really on that creation, then also the bringing it to life was that we work together with, of course, our whole insights community, but also then with, um, with our peer kind of, of, um, department and analytics, which were on a similar journey and.

[00:09:17] Christian Niederauer: Most importantly with HR and our global learning and development organization. So that was really key because then if you really have all stakeholders be part from day one, then you also know that this is embedded into all strategic and programs and processes. And, um, the key thing that, that we did for our insights team was that, um, we have an annual self assessment.

[00:09:40] Christian Niederauer: It’s on a voluntary basis. Everyone can take it. And then you see where your strengths and weaknesses are also compared to the role that you’re currently in, and maybe also the aspiration role. This also informs then on an aggregated level, really informs our common training schedule for the full year.

[00:09:55] Christian Niederauer: So we do that at the beginning of the year, and then we set up kind of a set of training [00:10:00] courses throughout the year that everyone can take, take part of. Some of them are recorded, some of them are in person, and really to upskill the overall organization. Um, in a, in a very systematic way.

[00:10:11] Stan Sthanunathan: This is awesome.

[00:10:12] Stan Sthanunathan: I mean, I like the, uh, 360 degree approach that you’ve taken where, you know, you involved all the internal stakeholders to ensure that things are not just beautiful PowerPoint charts, but they actually get embedded in the organization and get embraced and acted upon on a regular basis, and also have a, a close loop feedback mechanism.

[00:10:31] Stan Sthanunathan: I really love this. Thank you so much for sharing this. Um, you know, you. Said, you know, you’ve been in the insights industry for quite some time and, uh, particularly with two large multinational companies. In your career, uh, uh, being in the insights role, how have you seen the function evolve over a period of time?

[00:10:52] Stan Sthanunathan: And from your vantage point, what needs to change now and in the near future? So first, how has it evolved? And then what [00:11:00] needs to change?

[00:11:01] Christian Niederauer: It’s difficult as there’s so much change at the moment. I think where we have evolved to is basically that we are really becoming or are the strategic partner for, for the business stakeholders because at the end.

[00:11:12] Christian Niederauer: Um, we were at some point at a stage where we really kind of order take us just like, okay, there’s a business question. Now we found to find the best way to solve it. Um, we still have to evolve from there because, um, are we sometimes still too reactive? Yes, I think so. At Colgate in the whole industry. Um, but and that’s why we really have to move almost from insight to foresight.

[00:11:34] Christian Niederauer: So being more predictive. Um, and make that a focus area and related to that, um, which also fits quite nicely is also, um, a shift toward, um, greater agility and speed because consumer behaviors are changing more rapidly and in science teams also therefore must accelerate that process because I think we, we both know, I mean, Back in the days, um, when, when you had a key business question, you said, okay, it takes kind of, when it was fast, it took four [00:12:00] to six weeks.

[00:12:01] Christian Niederauer: And now nobody has time to wait four to six weeks. It’s usually kind of, okay, can it be four to six days or maybe four to six hours? And that’s why we also need to enhance basic cross functional collaboration, because sometimes the information is already inside, in house, and therefore we just have to find it.

[00:12:18] Christian Niederauer: So ensuring that insights are not really siloed. and really shared across departments for a really holistic impact.

[00:12:25] Stan Sthanunathan: Okay, beautiful. So, you know, being on the insights function, we all have this point of view that we need to, uh, we need to be given the credit that we deserve, but you know, credit is never given.

[00:12:41] Stan Sthanunathan: It is something that You have to deserve and you have to, you know, it is earned, so to say. So given what we need to achieve in terms of the status within an organization, uh, and given the importance of consumer centricity, what do we need to do to get the credit that we [00:13:00] deserve? This is a question that is keeping most inside professionals awake at night.

[00:13:04] Stan Sthanunathan: What do we need to do? What is your secret sauce?

[00:13:07] Christian Niederauer: Exactly. And, and, and you, you said it. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s earned. It’s not given. And that’s, that’s the key thing. So, um, I mean, for me, it’s, it’s add value as simple as that. So like, like in our FMCG business model, I mean, you have to more or less create a pool for, for our products and services, meaning insights, um, instead of pushing stuff because pushing is never really working well.

[00:13:28] Christian Niederauer: I mean, it works for a time. But you really need people that want insights, want to involve you. So therefore, you must become these trusted advisors within the business. So that means demonstrating that our insights directly drive bottom line results or make decision making easier. So, um, my advice to everyone and also from, from, from my, my boss, our chief analytics and insights officer, Diana Schilthaus is always.

[00:13:52] Christian Niederauer: Put some points on the board. So really build trust and establish a network step by step because then everything falls into place. So [00:14:00] D here is to ensure that that senior leadership understands the value of insights and that’s by consistently presenting clear and data and insights driven recommendations that solve business problems, not just.

[00:14:12] Christian Niederauer: Insight for the sake of insight. It really has to link to something for the business. And, and the more we speak the language of the business or business acumen, super important also in our insights competency, the more indispensable we become.

[00:14:26] Stan Sthanunathan: So, you know, the word technology, AI, ML, you know, it’s like thrown around very liberally.

[00:14:36] Stan Sthanunathan: What in your view is the biggest opportunity for insights industry, given that the world of technology is here to stay. And is impacting everything we do. So what do you see are the few big opportunities that we have ahead of us?

[00:14:49] Christian Niederauer: Yeah, I mean, the biggest opportunity really lies in the combination of AI, generative AI, and predictive analytics.

[00:14:56] Christian Niederauer: So AI driven insights, for example, by using now synthetic [00:15:00] consumers, respondents, or digital twins. can significantly enhance our ability to forecast trends and predict consumer behavior much faster and potentially even better than before, but the jury is still out. So we have to experiment with it and therefore embrace it.

[00:15:14] Christian Niederauer: So I think, um, sitting back and being kind of, okay, let’s wait until everything is ready. Not really helping us. So we really have to be at the forefront and embracing those things. Benchmarking it and experiment with it.

[00:15:27] Stan Sthanunathan: So you’re essentially saying, you know, give it a try, give it a swirl, learn from it and evolve as you go along.

[00:15:35] Stan Sthanunathan: That’s, that’s a perfect mindset to have. Not, not easy to do in large companies. So I really applaud you for doing that. So there’s always a flip side to everything, right? Technology is impacting. So what are the big threats that is, uh, that we as a function need to be aware of?

[00:15:55] Christian Niederauer: I mean, I wish I knew because then I wouldn’t be here in my current job.

[00:15:58] Christian Niederauer: I would be somewhere enjoying [00:16:00] my life at the beach. Sort of kind of the magic equation. I mean, in the end, related to what I just said about predictive analytics, um, and, and also the, um, the generative, um, AI, um, it’s that potential lack of human judgment at some points, because already when we moved into agile research methodologies, there was basically now the possibility to ask, uh, put.

[00:16:24] Christian Niederauer: Everything in front of consumers. So you didn’t have to do any kind of own judgment anymore. You could just basically ask consumers. And the same thing is now happening with AI as well. So while I fully agree that AI and automation are powerful. They cannot fully replace human judgment. So we have internally at CP, we have an AI council and that we always emphasize that the human in the loop is, um, the most critical asset that we have.

[00:16:49] Christian Niederauer: So using critical thinking, our own expertise, our business lens, and also intuition on top of what. Automation, machine learning, AI, and so on [00:17:00] trades is really important. And I think the second, second threat, as always, the big evergreen is data overload. I mean, with the proliferation of new data sources, information sources, the biggest risk is just being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data.

[00:17:14] Christian Niederauer: I mean, we need to invest in tools and processes that enable us to filter out the noise and focus on the. information that truly drives business impact, because otherwise, um, yeah, we’re just drowned in data. Absolutely.

[00:17:30] Stan Sthanunathan: In fact, the phrase that I always tend to use is my definition of AI is augmented intelligence.

[00:17:39] Stan Sthanunathan: Not artificial. Why? Because it is it is supposed to augment human intelligence so that we are, it allows us to be the best that we are capable of. Yeah, as opposed to eliminating humans in the loop. You can’t call it human in the loop. Thank you so much for this really, really stimulating conversation. [00:18:00] And I really enjoyed chatting with you and all the very best on your, on your journey and I look forward to chatting with you in the near future about, you know, the, uh, to understand, you know, how much, uh, you’ve taken the function within Colgate to even greater heights.

[00:18:17] Stan Sthanunathan: Thank you so much. Thank

[00:18:19] Christian Niederauer: you

[00:18:19] Stan Sthanunathan: much.

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