Data can get you only to a certain point: Ex-GE vice chair Beth Comstock

Some of the challenges Facebook faces are less about data and more about questioning the business model, says Beth Comstock

What do you mean when you say “strategy is a story well told”?

I mean that you have to be able to paint a picture or have a vision of a new idea, of something different that you are trying to make people to do. You have to be able to tell them what’s in it for them, what’s exciting about this future and what is it going to take to get there. As a storyteller, I came to appreciate the value of just telling your strategy like a story after I found that too often in business, we just talk about the numbers and market position which don’t always get people excited to join us. They buy from you or partner with you only after you tell them some kind of a story about the future you are building together. In my latest book Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change, I challenge people to tell others why they are in business, what is the value of their products.

You advise to choose instinct over data while many successful business models from the recent past have been built using algorithmic patterns. Your take?

I am not against data at all but when I say that choose instinct over data, I am speaking specially to established companies where they are looking at data before they make a move into a new area or induct something new. I think we need more business people who trust their instinct. Data can only get them to a certain point and then they are going to ask what’s next or new. 

Even the new companies which are using data will have to ask these questions in the future. Look at Facebook, some of their challenges are less about data and more about questioning the business model, the unintended consequence of such a model. 

Imagination or innovation may not always be found in-house. How can senior management get new talent on board without causing a great deal of friction within the set up? 

That is one issue I talk about in the book. There are gatekeepers who do not let you go through the gate as they don’t want to imagine a different world. The management will have to work around it, find people within the company who welcome change. However, you do need to bring people from outside who have different ways of thinking. Breaking the ice does not mean that you need a big budget. It can be achieved with something simple like getting everyone to watch a video.

In the startup environment, the top management often changes and those who take over have their own ideas on how to run the company from there on and might demand some radical changes in the way they function. How does one adjust to these changes at the top?

It’s already happening in a lot of places. More and more companies are realising that when they acquire a startup, they bring new energy and perspective and they are closer to the markets. Let’s not get our bureaucracy in the way. When you acquire a company, you have to spell it out why did you acquire the company, what are the values you bring and also adapt some of the things in the new culture that might work for you. Often, you are taken over by a bigger company and look to scale. Don’t assume that everyone in the established company doesn’t get it.

You have worked with some of the top media companies. What according to you is the most effective way of dealing with fake news in this age of intense competition among broadcasters?

As a journalist, you have to work extra hard and people will have to ask more questions. This is to find different perspectives on the same story. A journalist should not be calling the same sources all the time. Readers themselves have a lot of responsibility rather than just saying that a piece of news is fake news. They have to develop their own diverse point of view. They cannot just rely on news sources. They have to ask questions such as where can I learn more about this. So there is responsibility on the journalists’ side and there is responsibility on the readers’ side as well.