We spoke recently with Jose Antonio Murillo, Chief Analytics Officer at Grupo Financiero Banorte ahead of the upcoming Chief Analytics Officer, Spring happening on May 2-4, 2017 in Scottsdale, Arizona. In this candid interview, we discussed Antonio’s personal journey towards becoming a data leader, the key challenges faced in this environment and Banorte’s ambitious goal for its Analytics Business Unit: produce profits equivalent to 10X cost.
Corinium: Please tell us about your journey to becoming a data and analytics leader.
Jose Antonio Murillo: I am on my third year as Banorte’s first CAO. The Analytics Business Unit (ABU) was planned as a profit centre with ambitious goals: produce profits equivalent to 10X cost. The results of the ABU have exceeded expectations beyond any forecast. On 2016, the ABU in partnership with several business lines of the financial group, yielded pre-tax profits of 275 million dollars (Banorte’s total pre-tax profit was 1,380 million dollars)!
Banorte’s analytic endeavours have been widely recognised. Within the firm, the size of the ABU has grown fivefold, its reach has expanded to almost all the business lines of the group, and its members have been rewarded handsomely. In addition, the ABU received the Global Lafferty Award for Credit Card Excellence 2016 due to the impact of analytics on the profitability of the credit card portfolio.
Corinium: Do you see your role changing/evolving in the next 5 years? If so, how?
Jose Antonio Murillo: The first years of operation of the ABU required to gain credibility within the firm and face some headwinds in the transformation effort to convert Banorte into an analytics enhanced organisation. In the coming years, I foresee that the ABU will benefit from tailwinds that will make it go at a faster pace and to deepen its relationship with the different business lines. Finally, I think that in the next five years, the ABU will have a larger role within the firm in the decision-making process.
Corinium: What are the main objectives for data/analytics within your organisation?
Jose Antonio Murillo: Increase productivity and improve the value proposition for our customers, so that Analytics has a sustainable effect on profits.
Cprinium: What is the biggest challenge you face within your role today and how are you planning to tackle it?
Jose Antonio Murillo: Analytics has been very successful at Banorte and a large demand has arisen. However, the market is short of talent. In particular, there are few professionals that have quantitative skills, business knowledge and ability to build consensus among different stakeholders. The way I am tackling the issue is, when recruiting, to yield in one of the three sought after dimensions (usually business knowledge) and build that missing skill within the company.
Corinium: What do you feel is the biggest challenge faced by the analytics/big data industry currently and in what ways does this affect your business?
Jose Antonio Murillo: I think the biggest challenge facing the analytics/big data industry is to prove value to the firms which embrace them. There is a very large share of failed analytic projects, which take too long to generate profits (if they do it at all).
Corinium: What do you think will be the biggest area of investment in analytics within your industry over the next 12 months?
Jose Antonio Murillo: Use of internal and external data to make incursions within adjacent industries.
Corinium: If you could have one piece of technology that would revolutionise your department activities, what would it be?
Jose Antonio Murillo: Enrolling all of Banorte’s customers into the existing mobile banking app.
Corinium: What is your ultimate goal as a data and analytics leader?
Jose Antonio Murillo: Create value for all of Banorte’s stakeholders: customers, employees and stockholders.
Hear Jose Antonio speak at the Chief Analytics Officer, Spring event on May 2-4 in Scottsdale. You can register for the event HERE.
