Episodes

Welcome to Season 7 of the Transforming Insight podcast! Episode 48 is going to begin where we left off with our focus on the positioning of Insight teams – the relentless focus that successful teams have on their position in the hearts, minds and decision-making processes of their organisations.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored the first three pathways that successful Insight teams have taken to improve their position in the hearts, minds and decision-making processes of their companies. We’ve called these brand, awareness and reputation, and each involves looking at our Insight…

Episode 50 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Carolina Otero, Head of the Insight Function at Nestle UK. Carolina is one of our few podcast guests whose journey into Insight was not an accident, but a conscious choice. Bringing us…

What does it mean to be commercial? Is it about having passed your accountancy exams? Or perhaps having the ability to sell used cars? Or being experienced in leading Sales teams? Perhaps it’s about having the unshakeable inner confidence that if you were in the boardroom on The Apprentice T…

In our last episode, we started to talk about money. Insight commerciality is the IMA’s 8th best practice territory and the one where our capability benchmarking shows there is the most development to do for many Insight teams. No organisation can expect sustainable financial success unless i…

Episode 53 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James chats with Caroline van den Bos, Insight and Client Experience Director at Lloyd’s Register. Caroline shares her unique path from studying history to becoming a prominent leader in corporate in…

It’s episode 54, the last of season 7, and our Summer roundtable. As usual, James is joined by Lisa Dutton, the IMA’s Head of Team Development, and Emma Jones, Head of Insight and Content, to review the latest best practice research and hot topics of conversation. In this episode we talk about t…

The Transforming Insight podcast is back this week! Our 55th episode, the first of Season 8, and it's called the Value of valuation. Back in episode 52, we explored the importance of Insight teams building a commercial foundation for their work. We said we should begin by assembling 'core sta…

Episode 56 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James along with co-host Roy Hammond chat with Laura Roberts, Head of Brand and Marketing Insights at Google EMEA. Laura takes us on her career journey from music marketing to her impactful role at G…

In our last episode, we talked to Laura Roberts, Head of Brand and Marketing Insight (EMEA) about her work to transform Insight at Google, and the ways her team are adopting AI. This week, it’s back to our focus on Insight commerciality.

Is it possible to calculate an Insight team’s return on investment? Well it isn’t if you see insights as an essential part of a value chain. Every essential element of a chain has to be in place for there to be any value in the first place. But in every organisation I know, there are multiple…

Episode 59 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James chats with Fainareti Schortsaniti, Head of Consumer Insights at McDonald’s. Fainareti’s story begins with an unplanned entry into research, but it quickly grows into a passion for shaping busin…

James Wycherley began the Transforming Insight book with the words “this is the best time ever to work in a corporate Insight team.” In early 2020, it seemed that a combination of better data, an enhanced understanding of consumer psychology, and an increasing appetite from senior management had…

If you lead, or aspire to lead, a corporate Insight team, you have one of the best jobs in the world. I’m serious! Think about your organisation in its market and the benefits it provides to its customers. Then think how much better its products and services could be, and how many more customers…

James starts with a confession. He hadn’t ever intended to record this episode of the podcast! He’d mapped out season 9 before Christmas, agreed the outline with the IMA team, then, on the first working day of the year, he changed his mind and decided to record this extra, bonus episode. And it g…

In episode 61, James described the wonderful opportunity for anyone who leads, or aspires to lead, a corporate Insight team. He also acknowledged a central challenge, that it’s a lot easier in principle than in practice to work on our Insight teams as well as in them. And he made a suggestion: th…

This episode expands on the 1st P of the 9 Ps in the Insight leader’s playbook – Purpose. Can Insight teams truly drive business growth or Insight team transformation without a clearly defined purpose? Join us on this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast as James and his guests explore th…

In our podcasts this season, we’ve introduced the idea of the Insight leader’s playbook, and James has recommended it as a tool for helping all corporate Insight leaders and aspiring leaders who want to transform their teams impact this year. In our last two episodes we’ve focused on the first of …

In our podcasts this season, we’ve introduced the idea of the Insight leader’s playbook, and James has recommended it as a tool for helping all corporate Insight leaders and aspiring leaders who want to transform their teams' impact this year. In the previous episode, we focused on the second P of…

In this week’s episode of the Transforming Insight podcast we’re going to focus on the 3rd P of the Insight leader’s playbook – P for People. Since the Insight forums began in 2005, how we recruit, develop and support the analysts, researchers and Insight managers in our teams is the topic we have…