David Percy

At the centre of my work over the last 20 years has always been information. The importance of data (availability, completeness & accuracy) has been a constant challenge right from my early days trying to improve rented list response rates and reduce customer attrition rates at Misco.

Trying to understand what identifies your best customers from the rest of the market place leads to you spend more time getting to understand your current customers. The promise of propensity to consume and predictive modelling got me more and more interested in database marketing and coincided with a database marketing roles at DEC and Unisys.

Working in large corporate companies can be frustrating but can also have its rewards. You get to spend time with subject matter experts and in a relatively short time become one yourself. Having a reputation for knowing what information helps drive telesales and campaign activity soon got me assigned to CRM projects. But as with most IT companies of 90's change was an accelerating constant and long term became the 90 day share value on the Dow Jones.

10 years at one company seems a long time but my remit was changing on a regular basis. All those changes that had occurred in the early 90's to the IT industry were happening to the Telecoms industry in the late 90's and early 2000's. Being a veteran at change put me in good stead to move from challenge to challenge. Following the information trail through Siemens again got me involved in many CRM related projects. Inevitably it took me through various online projects too, web store, surveys, knowledge bases and customer portals.

Moving to the centre of a conglomerate like Siemens throws up a whole new set of challenges. Building communities, effective planning and informative communication become second nature. However managing the speed of progress at which such a large diverse collection of stakeholders move can be tricky but the experience is invaluable.