Episode 120: How Data Can Help You Build a Better Company and Workplace, with Maite Grisard
In Episode 120 of The Business Habitat podcast, Sam is joined by Maite Grisard, Founder of Marketrotters, a field consulting company that “goes in, shakes thing up, gives perspective, and gets out”.
Today Sam and Maite are talking about data, and how it can help you and your team steer your company in the right direction. More than just a conversation about numbers, this compelling discussion covers the disconnect between business leaders, teams, and the knowledge and information that are inherent in a company.
Sam and Maite delve into how this valuable property can be captured, and the importance of documenting and challenging process in a way that drives the business forward. Maite draws on her experience of consulting with a myriad of companies, and explains how a second and even third set of eyes can give a new perspective on a business, an objective or a new way of doing things.
Maite addresses the value she finds in collaborative tools, and how beginning with the simplest systems is often the most effective way to bring people together and build towards more complicated processes. Together Maite and Sam challenge the listener to be vulnerable and acknowledge the learning opportunity that comes from making mistakes, and understand that doing something is always better than doing nothing, even if it leads to a course correction.
This in-depth conversation is filled with practical insights and commentary on how to best use data and workplace tools in an effective and meaningful way. Challenging traditional metrics such as KPIs, this episode will have you seeking fresh perspective and collaborative input, no matter where you sit in the company structure.
Listen to an excerpt
What we cover in this episode
Getting perspective on your business
Why you shouldn’t be relying on your accountant for business decisions
The tools that will help you analyse the data
Making space to take advantage of opportunities around you
Why you shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes (or let your team make them)
The fundamental problem of humans being disconnected from each other
The important element of creating effective procedures
The value of collaborative tools
Quality over quantity of data
Quotes
“One thing that I most often find with my clients is that they need to understand the data more and they tend to rely heavily on their accountants which is something that can make sense on the financial side, (but) not in operations, not for discussion, not for business decision. Your accountant is not the person who should be making business decisions” - Maite
“The leaders and the business owners need to have a really good finger on the pulse of what makes a business go around and …you should also at least understand financial numbers” - Sam
“A tool can be as simple as an Excel sheet or a Word document. It doesn't need to be fancy, it doesn’t need macros, it doesn't need whatever, what it needs is to be well thought” - Maite
“We talk about numbers and how important the numbers are but the numbers are there to leverage people’s knowledge” - Maite
“An efficient company is not with employees following the leader, it’s the leader next to the employees and everybody is looking the same way, and the true and the only real job of a boss is to make the people happy” - Maite
“My job is to shake people but also to show them that, yes it's OK to when you have a question and you think there's a problem and there's an issue or you don't understand something, you get up and you go to the office of whoever has the answer” - Maite
“When you build a procedure, the important part is not done, it's not the writing that's interesting, it's the training afterward, it's the meeting, it's the work session saying hey let's check out this procedure I've made so you can understand what it is that I want to do with that“ - Maite
Links
Connect with Maite on LinkedIn
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