Sachin Bahad, Associate Director, Merck
I would like to say that Business Intelligence (BI) is a fast-growing space today, considering the need for enterprises to stay ahead of the competition. In my experience in the arena, one of the major issues witnessed is the incertitude that evolved among the people about different kind of intelligence prevailing in the business realm. For instance, oftentimes people struggle to distinguish between BI and market intelligence, which come in the context of a market research. It is indispensable that people should have specific knowledge about BI. Organizations use it to improve their business decisions.
The second challenge what I see is the influence of ever-evolving need for a massive digitalization in BI space. Almost all companies—old or new, small or large—are going through an era where their core focus is diverted toward adopting digital parameters and AI. In this scenario, the lack of resources to train people how to manage these new advancements will end up in creating several difficulties in leveraging the full out of them and keeping the organization stay ahead of the pack. This will adversely affect the potential of the enterprises to adhere to the evolving situation and make value-bound decisions in this regard. It is quite unfortunate that even the large multi-national companies are not equipped with necessary expertise and systems to handle these changes in the arena.
Can you please tell our readers about the new technological trends emerging in the Business Intelligence space that can be adopted by enterprises to tackle these challenges?
Evidently, there is a massive advancement in terms of technologies and they keep on evolving. When looking at the most business spaces, AI is one of the most important technologies that can add value to organizations’ business decisions. The case of animal health space is no different. It is a unique industry. Initially, there were only a few companies, who used to produce vaccines and food for animals. However, considering the increasing importance, the animal health industry has started evolving at a greater pace and AI is playing a vital role in its growth.
By leveraging the power of AI, several entities had come with sensors and chips that can be mounted on animals, which help in tracking them and finding their requirements. It includes identifying whether animals need food, water and more. These technological advancements in the animal health space are changing the way we calculate our BI and do our intelligence internally.
Technological advancements in the animal health space are changing the way we calculate our BI and do our intelligence internally
This is effectuated because of the massive influx of data into the enterprise’s ecosystem. The industry has evolved and equipped with tools to enable users to even predict animals’ behaviour and diseases their parents had by using these technologies. With this, people can take precautionary steps rather than waiting for something bad to happen
In my experience, the introduction of such technological advancements in the animal health space is changing the way we manage BI on a daily basis. Consider a product called Home Again, which leverages these modern technological advancements for instance. It is a chip that can be mounted on your pet to help you can track them using a mobile app and then bring them back home. These kinds of advancements help us to do BI in a much better way and answer to our customers' queries in superior way as we have more data.
On top of that, the early face of the animal health industry had undergone a serious transformation. From a nimble start by developing vaccines and other medicines, it has now attained the advanced forms of diagnostics, which continue to evolve dramatically. This also has a vital role in increasing the company’s BI capabilities thus making significant advancements in their bottom-line. More importantly, the animal health space is witnessing a development in technology similar to the human health industry.
What are some of the strategic points that you have adopted and implemented in order to steer your organization along the lines of development?
I am leading our food production animal market intelligence department and I am doing it globally. My job is to keep the company ahead of the competition by understanding the changes in the market and trends in the space. In order to achieve this, I track the trends of animal-based protein, how people are reacting to the newer and safer version of food, how is their acceptance toward it and make decisions accordingly. I will also look this from an agricultural perspective as livestock is a part of the agricultural economy and has direct links with the organization. It includes how agricultural economy is growing in each market. This will help our global marketing team in a way to make the decision for launching our products and managing them.
What is your approach in identifying the right vendor to get the job done?
As we are a large company, we need to collaborate with several partners in each operational space. When talking specifically from my department’s perspective, I do market research to identify the best partner to collaborate. I can say, in the nutshell, as a company we are looking for a partner or supplier who shares similar values as we do and has the same knowledge about the market.
In terms of future, what can be the major changes that you expect in the Business Intelligence space?
Considering its value and the impacts it creates in enterprises’ ecosystem, BI will further gain momentum in the global business realm. BI has already established its footprints in the human health industry. When it comes to the animal health space, BI will be a great value proposition moving forward. Evidently, BI has created a massive disruption to the legacy models in the space with the help of the technological advancements. I can say there is a 180 - degree transformation in the animal health space, but apparently, not at the pace at which the human health space propels.
What would be your piece of advice to someone who is embarking on the same career trajectory?
My piece of advice for any of the colleagues in the space is to keep their eyes open and always continue to adopt newer technologies and advancements, which are coming in the space and implement them in their organizations to serve their customers in a better way.
