BBVA, a prominent global financial group, embarked on a remarkable journey to become a truly data-driven organization. Their strategic approach, documented in an award-winning MIT CISR case study, highlights how they rapidly built a powerful data-driven capability. This article explores BBVA's data-driven transformation strategy, providing a detailed analysis of the core pillars that enabled their success.
A data-driven company is one that constantly generates, integrates, and shares analytical knowledge to empower its people and processes to work smarter. This transformation goes far beyond simply hiring data scientists; it involves creating an enterprise-wide capability to continuously innovate with analytics and scale best practices across the entire organization. Companies that achieve this are better positioned to maximize data returns and gain a competitive edge.
Understanding BBVA's Data-Driven Transformation Strategy
Building a robust data-driven capability is a complex and time-consuming endeavor. BBVA's success stemmed from its unique ability to concurrently execute and coordinate four key activities. These foundational elements formed the backbone of their strategy, allowing them to accelerate their transformation:
- Cultivating Data Science Talent: Building a skilled community capable of crafting data experiments, generating insights, and creating compelling visualizations.
- Communicating Data's Value Proposition: Establishing a shared understanding of data's importance and clarifying the benefits of data-driven behaviors, tools, and mindsets across the company.
- Co-creating New Data-Driven Work Practices: Fostering collaboration between data scientists and other employees, as well as external partners, to develop innovative analytical approaches.
- Scaling Data-Driven Best Practices: Promoting the widespread use of data by employees and processes to generate significant economic value.
BBVA, with €691 billion in total assets and operating in over thirty countries by 2018, was already recognized for its digital transformation efforts. This included accolades from Forrester Research for the best mobile banking app and online service in Europe in 2017.
The Birth of BBVA Data & Analytics (D&A)
In February 2014, BBVA established BBVA Data & Analytics (D&A) as a wholly owned subsidiary. Located separately in Madrid, D&A was intended to be BBVA's data science center of excellence. Initially, it aimed to fund itself by selling new data-driven products and services externally.
However, BBVA leaders quickly realized the immense internal value D&A could generate. Its techniques and analytics could significantly improve operations and create meaningful digital product features, crucial for the bank's digital transformation. Consequently, D&A's strategy expanded to include internal BBVA projects, marking a pivotal moment in BBVA's data transformation.
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Cultivating a Community of Data Science Talent at BBVA
BBVA's strategy for developing contemporary data science talent was comprehensive, integrating recruitment, development, and retooling initiatives.
Strategic Recruitment of Data Scientists
BBVA actively recruited new talent for D&A, growing its initial staff of six data scientists to fifty within three years. The recruitment process was rigorous, often taking three to six months per candidate. It involved deep assessments of both soft and hard skills by technologists and HR specialists, with up to ten D&A staff members influencing hiring decisions.
Developing and Retaining D&A Staff
To develop and retain D&A staff, the head of Human Resources managed a custom program emphasizing non-financial benefits. This