Episode 10: Innovation In Data: What’s Next?

Suja: So there is a lot of innovation that is happening in gathering the first party data. How do we measure? How do we make sure that our advertisers and viewers are getting the value that they need from our programming?

Intro: Welcome to InConfidence, the podcast for data ops leaders. In each episode, we asked thought leaders and futures to break down the topics and trends concerning it and data professionals today, and to give us their take on what the data landscape will look like tomorrow. Let’s join the data conversation.

Tina: Hi, my name is Tina Tang. And this is InConfidence. The podcast sponsored by privitar. InConfidence is a community of data practitioners engaging in conversations to enlighten, educate and inform data leaders of today and tomorrow. My guest today is Suja Viswesan, the head of data at Warner media Suja. Could you give us an introduction to you? 

Suja: Thanks, Tina. I’m currently at Warner media leading that data organization and Warner media technology organization. I have about 20 plus years of experience in the data world. I started out in the database organization at IBM, I was there for 12 years, I transitioned into the big data world, and then joined LinkedIn. I manage various big data infrastructure and platform teams at LinkedIn. And in the last nine months, I have been with one media leading the leader team. I’m also a member of women in tech and also women in Big Data organization. I’m also involved in education related charity organization for Pratham called Pratham. In my spare time 

Tina: Thats fantastic. And full disclosure, I met Suja through women in big data, which I was a co founder of and Suja was a amazing supporter of so that’s how we know each other just want to put that out there. But you know, Suja let’s, let’s get warmed up. Okay, let’s let’s not for a second, we’re not going to talk about data, but we’re going to talk about snack food. What what’s your favorite snack food? Did you like develop any new tastes over the pandemic? Or are you like old school going with a traditional? 

Suja: I have been eating love peanuts, toasted peanuts? Well, so that has been Yeah, at some level, it has even become an addiction that I’m trying to cut down on. 

Tina:  Okay, so follow up question shelled or on shell on shell. 

Suja: Unshelled. 

Tina: Okay. And Roast Yourself. 

Suja: Yep. Yes, I roast myself. Yes. 

Tina: And with seasonings or without seasoning?

Suja: No without any seasoning. Okay, I think with seasoning I’ll get even more addicted. So this is displaying a control measure, right?

Tina: Yes, they are addictive.

Tina: Okay, next next to warm up question. Best Netflix binge or any episodic binge for that matter. 

Suja: Oh, I okay. I’m from one a media. So the reason one that I really benched was Succession because I hadn’t watched it before. So I got all three seasons of it. It was amazing. It was mine. Right? Tina: Yeah, it’s changed my life.

Suja: Exactly. Exactly. 

Tina: So I mean, it. This is my real opinion. One of the best. Best dramas, dramas slash comedy ever. I mean, just 

Suja: Yeah. Yeah. So I really I really enjoyed it. That was one of the recent one. The other one which is much more lighthearted was hacks that that was all that is also in one. HBO Max. That was also me. Tina: Oh, okay. I got a there’s a new one from my list. Okay, cool. All right. Next one. What is one can’t do without self care routine that you do for yourself 

Suja: Walk slash hike. So that keeps my sanity. So I do have this habit of getting like some weird, exact number of steps, or at least this many number of steps that I need to get it in that day. I think that has become pretty much pandemic thing for me. Yeah. Okay, we all have something track. Okay. So so that’s it. 

Tina:So it is we are coming back to data after all, okay.

Suja: Yes, yes.

Suja: Totally data driven, a totally data driven, yes. 

Tina: Steps, cycles, heartbeat, sleep.

Suja: All that. Yeah, we’re measuring everything. Yeah.

Tina: Great. Okay. See, we’re just naturally, you know, data centric. That’s, that’s just who we are. Yeah. All right. Okay, so I want us to talk a little bit about your background, because I feel like you know, you, you, you were at IBM, you were at LinkedIn. And now you’re at Warner media. I mean, you’ve been through not only the the changes in the industry, but also through the different different industries that are you know, using creating, collecting, managing data. So your perspective is really interesting for that reason, because not everyone can can have that full kind of 360 degree perspective. So can you tell us a little bit tell us a little bit about Warner media? Let’s start there. Tell us about Warner media, and maybe how it’s changed over the last couple of decades. 

Suja: So right now, what a media, if you really think about it, it has its history goes back 200 years, hundreds of years, hundreds of years. Because if you really think about one, brothers, and Turner and all those things, so we have some of the most beloved characters like Harry Potter, and franchises and brands, and if you recently saw the Matrix movie there is there is the DC Comics, you just name it, it has, like so many things that we love about entertainment is there, I can’t and then you have a lot of these channels like HBO Max, which we recently talked about CNN, TNT, TBS, adult, swim, Cartoon Network, and more and more. And we are one of the premium media companies in the world. So definitely, that that is. So in some level, I was kidding. When people jokingly telling people when they said, Hey, you joining Warner Media, why I said, Now I have a reason to binge watch, I can tell people that I’m testing.

Suja: So yes, from that perspective, it’s definitely something which is growing, as we can see in the world. On the one side is the content side. On the other hand, it’s also best in class technology organization, right, that creates and deliver content and new and exciting ways that we have. So we want to give a very seamless experience, whether people are watching it, and that linear TV or in the streaming world in respect to what devices that they are watching. So that means we have to be really, really good and technol solid technology. So that’s what the one a media technology and operation organizations that I’m part of, is in charge of making sure that we are delivering the next generation of streaming an entertainment platform, as well as on the business side of things. One is the content, there is also the advertisement side of things, right? So the whole industry is moving away from a linear TV to a digital world. So when that is happening, we are also in charge of building and delivering the next generation advertising technology and solutions to support the linear and the digital streaming products. So I would say these are all the different things that happens in the technology organization and Warner Media other than the fun stuff that we initially talked about with all our beloved characters and franchise, right? 

Tina: So iconic, I mean, we were just talking about those. I’m like, wow, I can just like you can kind of use those characters and stories as milestones in your life. Like, oh, I remember when I first watched Harry Potter, like, what was I doing? Yeah, how did I feel? How many anyway? And then I was thinking about, you know, the, well, the history of, you know, broadcast of entertainment. And then I was thinking about how your team is support, you know, how does the data team support the business strategy of Warner media today? So you know, in what ways and kind of what, what initiatives? Maybe, could you tell us a little bit about that 

Suja: Look, so today, data is not just a, it’s an asset, right? When so my my team’s mission is to enable the whole company to build data driven products and also make data driven decisions. So we talked, we want to make sure that we are building the right content and delivering to the consumer, and then they are able to see relevant content that they enjoy, and then have fun watching those contents, whether it is and another thing that I left out is also the games are one of the games that we have. So we want to make sure that the interactive environment is really rich for the consumers to consume. So for that the data becomes a central part of how we do business or how we build technology. So that is one part of the world that I’m my organization is in charge of. And the other part is also making business decision. Are we doing the right thing if I want to know the very simple things like how are people viewing? What is that that people like? And how was our for the business metrics, like whether a subscription or how we are trending in those areas, it’s all data. So my team is basically in the middle of all of these for the company to make business decisions or to build products that was that brings joy to the consumer. So that’s what pretty much we are tasked with but then when you talk about data, it just doesn’t come without the huge responsibility of making sure that we are taking care of the data privacy aspect of it as also the data compliance of out of aspects

Suja: Have it as well, as part of building this data plan. 

Tina: So I heard you say that the concern for data privacy and how you manage the data is front and center. So maybe we just go in, get into this, you know, topic of personally identifiable information, you know, what are some of the initiatives that you’ve seen, you know, both in your organization as well as maybe in your previous lives? And just in the industry in general, as a data practitioner? What are some of the, you know, different initiatives, you’ve seen that use PII? And are there significant upsides to using data that is sensitive and sometimes protected? What are some of those upsides? 

Suja: So like? Look, I will talk purely from my personal experience as a consumer first, right? When people ask me does this, do people need your PII? My first answer is consumer, like no, why do we need it, but think about it, if I want to order a car service, I expect them to locate me correctly and send the car so that means I’m going to share my location service. And we talked about binge watching. If I are watching any content, if I’m there’s so much content that is available across the world now, right, you can go I mean, I my dad got hooked up to a lot of Nigerian movies of late. And that came because of the recommendation that different platform was giving it to him because of what his tastes are. So there is there is definitely some level of personalization that we all want, because that is what we need to get get us going. Like what I talked about the location service that we recently talked about. So if if as a consumer, if I if I if I’m getting something out of it, I’m totally okay with sharing those data. But whenever we talk about PII, I mean, the most cliched one with these kinds of responsibility, you get great responsibility when it when it comes to handling these data. So the companies need to be very clear on letting their consumer know, what are they doing with that data. So putting the onus on consumers to say, hey, where where do I need, where I can use my data, where I cannot use your data, providing those controls to the consumers is what is going to make the companies able to use the data and also build the trust with the consumers. So for me, like I said, I will turn on my location when I want to go and get a cab. So at that point, I feel I’m in control of the data. So when I have that, then I’m much more open to that if the data is going to be used for some other information. As a user, I need to know that that is what is going to if I give you permission, then you should be able to use it. So that is extremely important for me. So there is definitely an upside. But at the same time, you can we can talk about maybe a couple of years back, there was a breach in one of the credit companies, they lost lots of data. So we need to be very, very careful that those data when people are entrusting, because for a credit company, we entrust them with the data because that is needed for all the financial transactions that we need to do. At that point, those companies have the responsibility to make sure that they treated like how you treat anything like money, right? Because it’s that important. So, they need to make sure that the right controls are in place. So that these data this data is protected and only it is available to the people that have a business need to access it right. So we need to make sure those controls are in place whenever PII is in discussion, right anything. 

Tina: So a balance of need balance of personal responsibility from the consumer, and also a share of responsibility for the companies themselves who are collecting and managing and using this PII. 

Suja: Absolutely, absolutely. Because look, I know that we there are a lot of I also briefly mentioned about compliance, right? A lot of time these regulations by the time the regulations come, the technology has basically superseded quite a bit. So we have accelerated so we need to make sure every company has done a DNA to do the right thing. I’ll tell you this, where we talk about I’m in the media business, there is ads. So in olden times, if you remember, there was personalization, we didn’t realize that there was personalization, a new in the newspaper comes the people who are delivering the newspaper, they know which ads to place and whose house Hey, this this people have kids so we I’m gonna put these kids clothing these people are newly married, so I’m gonna put some travel for our honeymoon, this thing so they would actually put it based on the needs, so they were targeting it, but when humans were doing it, it was not a done at a massive scale. When technology is at the forefront, then it becomes extremely important. All companies need to be very, very responsible for those data, and then make sure that that is

Suja: safe. So it’s not it is not new, we have always done it. If you think about the olden times, a milkman or a newspaper man, these are the people who are targeting ads to you now technology and algorithms are doing it. So we need to make sure that these data is protected because it’s in a centralized place. 

Tina: Right? Yeah. Okay. So the transparency, I think is, is key here. So if we can, let’s talk about Warner Media and how you’re going about building a safe data ecosystem in your operations. 

Suja: Let’s see, that is for us. Like I said, there is a need to know more about our audiences than ever before. So so because that’s when you can give cater cater the needs of the audience. So for us, ensuring that the sensitive data is secured and never compromise is of paramount importance, because once you lose the trust, it’s extremely difficult to get it back. So for us, it a lot of a lot of our work that we do requires us to gather, analyze and secure data in a way that provides the best insights into whoever is viewing and whoever wants and also have a very clear monetization models that can support or businesses while protecting this data. So one thing that we do is to make sure that we our privacy policies, and and our rules are very easy for users to understand so that they can go and then understand what why we are using the data and what it is using, what is it used for, and then provide the consent. So we have a unified consent platform, which is helping people to go and say what they are consenting for. So these are all the work that we do, so that we ensure that the whole ecosystem is safe. It is it is pretty much industry standard across the board. We it’s not something new that we only we do, but it’s definitely on our DNA to make sure that we’re taking care of the data in a much more secure way. 

Tina: Right. And it’s the ecosystem that you have internally, is that consistent across the whole organization? Or does each business unit have a slightly different way, just based on the business need

Suja: Look, there are certain tweaks that you have to do, because depending on the audience that are in the audience segment, but for example, if it is targeting children, it’s going to be you have a very different rules than an adult. So from that perspective, yes, there is going to be different controls in place. But we are trying to get most of it in a unified platform so that we can have because we talked about different brands, at Warner Media, right? Whether it was CNN, or HBO, Max, and everything. So we tried to get all of our content platform unified. But there are definitely brand specific things that we have to do. Because the rules for sports might be very different than children’s content than adult content in movies. So it’s very, we have to keep tweak it accordingly. So having a platform with customization based on the product is what based on the vertical is what gets us right.

Tina: Okay, so let’s and are there a considerations for in terms of the users inside Warner media? Are there considerations for privacy and protecting data from that angle, as well as from the, you know, the audience that you’re serving.

Suja: Definitely right across the board, we have to have make sure that the data is only available to the people who need it for the business reason, so it’s not publicly available. So we have to make sure that the if I if I need access some data, that should be a business need, why I would have access? So it has to be a very broad based access, and that’s what is being set up as well. Yes. And how closely do you work with, like governance teams, and, you know, you know, data science and data analytics to those report into your organization? Or is that there’s no like a, you know, kind of global committee that that works on these topics. 

Suja: So for us currently, if I have to explain what my organization does is that so given that this is a centralized data team, and one media technology organization, we have a data platforms and infrastructure team, which which manages the whole platform aspects of the data, like whether it’s the infrastructure side of things, and then you have telemetry and and then content platform that will get the data in there. And then we do have a data products, we build some data products using that which includes the data science team. And we also have data privacy and governance team as part of my organization as well. Yes, it is centralized because you have different verticals across the company. We have the central excellence team, which sits under me, and then they work with different brands to make sure that we are uniform across the board. 

Tina: Wow. Just so you have like the view over Yeah, all of that. Okay, that’s, that’s, that seems really important to organize it

Tina:  in that way, but not, not every organization, I guess has the, you know, vision to do so. But it I think it speaks very much to how important data is to Warner media.

Suja:  Absolutely, absolutely. So this is this is, this is one of those which which as the company grew and evolved over the years, this became very important that we build a central of Center of Excellence, excellence for data, and, and other parts that also necessitated that is because what we talked about where we start treating data as an asset, as opposed to just a means to an end

Tina: Right, walking the walk, okay? 

Suja: Yes, yes. 

Tina: So we wanted to talk a little bit about maybe some examples of the ways that you’re innovating with data. But would that be okay? 

Suja: Sure. I mean, so the one thing that we can talk about is on the ads business, right, we have a very rich history of innovation in data driven linear and addressable TV. And Warner media has been a pioneer in that space since 2012. But our work is just getting started because Warner media is uniquely positioned to move the needle for our marketers, and drive insights and outcomes, not just ratings draws the whole consumer journey. So all of this is enabled by technology working more efficiently and effectively to create a better experience for both our viewers and advertisers. Because it has to be a balance. So as the world is transitioning from the, from the linear side of the world, to to the digital side of the world, one of the things that we are trying to figure out is to how to leverage our first party data to make sure that we are able to give what is needed for our viewers, as well as our advertisers. So there is a lot of work that is happening on how do we measure, because a lot of the ways we used to measure the user engagement in the linear world are all changing in the new digital world. So there is a lot of innovation that is happening in gathering the first party data, how do we measure? How do we make sure that our advertisers and viewers are getting the value that they need from our programming, so all those those are the words that are happening, we are we have just scratched the surface, if you will, and then we’re waiting to see how it plans out pans out in the next few years. And the other part is that as we are building and expanding our consumer facing offering, we have to start building lot of things, innovative technology in house, because it’s it’s scaling really, really big. And with the changing world where data is becoming an asset. If we don’t build our own stuff, and we are relying on others to do it, then we lose control quite fast. We are not just a content company, content is a huge thing. But you need the technology and the data to power that. So that realization has come in and then we are trying to figure out, how do we make sure that now that you have this massive amount of data, there is a lot of work that is happening on how do you organize? How do you make sure that we make sense out of it, and then get there. So those are the areas that I see as a lot of innovation happening on the ad space and also on the data side of the world. Other than outside of my organization, if you really think about it on the content will end up under, under one umbrella games world, there’s a lot of innovation with, with how people are consuming how from the 3d to the AR VR side of things, the metaverse side of things, there’s a lot of exciting things happening there as well. 

Tina: Yeah, so I mean, what are some what are some of the types of data that you collect and and generate in across all your different businesses

Suja: it’s nothing new newer than anything else. So I think we have talked about it earlier on very simple things like what my subscribers to how are they viewing it? Because we need to understand if we are putting some content out there, are they engaging? How they are viewing, are they liking it? So those kinds of viewership data that definitely comes into picture, that is subscription data that come into picture. And then we also have lot of properties where we are talking about whether to cnn.com or other engagement where what is the news that be that is interesting to people? What is that that they watch? What is they skip, so that we can provide a better experience? So all this engagement data that people have, that is one of the things that is extremely important? So the telemetry that comes from your viewership

Tina: skip data, it’s a new attribute.

Tina: Never thought about that before? Yeah. So I mean, you know, what are we talking about in terms of scale here? Can you give us some numbers to kind of give us the lay of the land. 

Suja: So I won’t be able to give you exact numbers but we are talking about in petabytes of data. Definitely. That is that is the level of data that we are talking about across the board, and also the number of impressions that we get simultaneous watching it’s all in millions, if not inching close into a billions and sometimes depending on the on then and what people are consuming, but

Suja: Definitely in that way. 

Tina: And so you are able to give that not only for your own content, but also for ads. Right? It’s so the, the tools and the, that’s all applied to me. 

Suja: Yes. Yes. So there are two sides of this right. One is for my team, that is consumer business for the direct to consumers, and also the TV, linear TV business for them. We provide a lot of value from the business side of things. And then what is the data? And then there is an enterprise side of things, which comes into the ads, what are we doing from the business side of things. So that is also part of our, the charter for mighty? 

Tina: Alright, so this was really fascinating, too, because you’re, you’re straddling, you know, history here, sort of, you know, the traditional linear broadcast, as well as moving, you know, into the future with digital and, I guess, on demand models? Do you ever see that? I mean, do you see that stay that way for quite a while or any bets on you know, is it gonna go all digital? Or what do you think? 

Suja: I think it’s see, it’s gonna take some time, it’s not. So today, I, if I remember, right, it’s still there is 50 million plus households still use linear TV. So it’s very much present, it’s not like we are and it’s definitely declining, as people knew as, as, as the generation of when streaming gets higher and higher. And as people fall out of the linear world, you are going to see the transition, but it’s not going to be overnight, it’s going to take some time to do until then we have to straddle both side of the world, because we need to make sure we are caring for both side of customer customers at this point, 

Tina: right? Yeah, it sounds like you know, Warner media is going to be with wherever their customers are the bits, they’ll be at that point with them. So, you know, moving into, like some of the challenges that you see in the industry, from your, from your experience, what are some of the biggest challenges to organizations in the success or failure as it maybe in some of their data initiatives? Like, you know, what about diversity? What about democratization? Do you have any thoughts about those challenges?

Suja: So the look, the big, the biggest challenge that I see is how we have a lot of data right across the board, doesn’t matter which company having a single source of truth for business data becomes a big challenge. How do you know that this is this is the right data. So that is a problem that every every company, it is not just a media or technology company across the board, everybody is trying to solve that problem. So how do you solve that problem, we can centralize some of these decision making, and then we can bring it to the team. But whenever you centralize something, then it can has a potential to become a bottleneck. So that is a challenge where hey, I need to come to you every business need to come to you to get access get to do stuff. So we need to there is a lot of work that is happening to what we briefly touched on the data governance part and the data compliance. But a lot of these needs to be automation, automated and self serve with the right set of rules so that we are not decentralizing doesn’t become a bottleneck. So how does that so that we can balance between the speed as well as making sure that we are compliant, and we are privacy, we are putting privacy as a most important thing that we ever do. So with these two, the bigger challenge is how do we make sure that we are making it easy for the team. So that is a challenge that all of us are trying to solve. And today you see, even with my previous job, one of the project projects that we have worked on called Data Hub, it’s an open source metadata platform, which basically gives every data set that you have has a very clear story, because in some level we used to call it it’s LinkedIn for data set, it has all the profiles for every data set who can have access, what does it mean, whether it has BI or not, then it becomes much easier to automate some of those to say, who gets access what it is. So you don’t need you can remove some of the time that used to take for people to go and manually look at it and give access. So we can reduce some of the bottlenecks across the board.. So making sure that is better lineage on all of our data. So these are all the problems that we are all trying to solve. But there is also a lot of solution that is out there whether there are vendors that are there are open source solution. So we are looking at all those to solve the problem. The one good thing is we are all facing the same problem. So everybody’s trying to help each other and solve it. And I believe we are making progress in that direction. Okay, so when you talk about diversity, I want to understand

Suja: when you say diverse nature of the data, or where were you going with the diversity as well. Tina: Yeah, diversity in data practices, diversity and data types, which we already talked about. But also, you know, how do you feel about diversity in perspective?

Tina: To like, wait for the people actually building the models, you know, training the models. What about their diversity? Does that matter? In the Data practice? 

Suja: Definitely, I think, see, we have we, it’s not just we employ people who are looking different people bringing different experiences, right? We have people from different industries, it doesn’t have to be always in, in, in a media industry. For example, I came from enterprise industry, and then I then I went into social media. And then now I’m in the entertainment media. Similarly, when I go through that, I see people who have built policies in government to other other areas. So that is something that is in our DNA to make sure that we get diversity of people building this. But having said that, it’s that isn’t just once solving one side of the problem, right? A lot of times they say, okay, when we talk about data driven decisions, in some level you can make, depending on what data you’re looking for, you can always, there is always data bias, it’s a tricky problem to solve, as I was doing some research for one of my panels. And then I came across this, which blew my mind, there was a researcher called Ricardo. And in his research, say, 7% of users generate 50% of the Facebook content, and 4% of users produce 50% of Amazon reviews. So and these top users might not all be diverse, either. So this is, this is blowing your mind. So that means we need to make sure that when it comes to data, there is significant gap from underrepresented communities. So we need to make sure that we are looking into that, right, we are including the underrepresented minority data into our modeling. So just because you have a diversity of team doesn’t mean that’s going to come automatically, we need to have, we need to be very thoughtful about including diverse data as part of our modeling as well so that we can get to a place where, look, eliminating bias completely is not going to be I don’t believe it’s it’s an easy task. But we can make sure that when even when there is bias, it’s more of a positive bias as opposed to a negative bias. So how do we get to a place we get there for that we need to make sure it’s in our DNA, the ethics is in our DNA, right? Like I talked about before, compliance and regularly rules and regulation from comment takes long time to get there. So as companies, we need to be very, very mindful about being ethical and all of our data decisions that we make on the modeling that work that we do. And I because

Tina: yeah, and I feel like just starting with the awareness that it exists is already a big step, because then you start to see where it happens and how it can happen. And then at least you can start to address it. But like you said, it’s it’s not like you’re ever done, right?

Suja: Yes, yes. I mean, a lot of times these data, even though when somebody can go very clearly say, Look, this is what the data says it might not be true. There was another research by Kate Crawford on Hurricane Sandy. So the majority of the 20 million tweets came from Manhattan, as opposed to the worst area like Coney Island, Breezy Point or Rockaway. So a lot of time for somebody who’s sitting there, we’re just looking at the data, it feels like Manhattan might be the worst hit area. And all aides in support might go there while you have other areas. So we need to make sure that whenever we get these data that each represents a whole picture rather than a small slice, right? So that is why it’s extremely important for us to not one thing, we need to have a diverse team who can think through that different points of view and challenge each other and make sure that we are doing right by the people. Tina: Yeah, that’s it’s so true. It’s such a great point. And I feel like this kind of a segue into our next question that we wanted to cover, which was, you know, establishing a culture where data is at the center, and how do you build an organization? That’s data centric. So the one thing that we have one thing that we had to do was to talking about the centralized Center of Excellence when it comes to data, having a centralized organization who start becoming evangelizing some of these like, we want roadshows and then making sure that everybody understands why it is important for them businesses, because especially when you’re building brand, when you lose trust in becomes a bigger challenge, it becomes a business impact for people so once you have the team working with them, you can slowly start shifting the change on why this is important. It’s not it’s not something which is your Yeah, we have to do it, but it’s extremely important that it is in your DNA for the business. So that helps to craft it. And and also we talked about centralizing these data privacy and compliance platform helps because hey, look, as long as you’re using these platforms, you get all this for free, you don’t you don’t have to the what I mean is privacy and compliance by design. So you are designing things to be compliant and and privacy compliant. So then it becomes much easier to go forward, then it doesn’t become an afterthought. And also platform using a lot of these data infrastructure so that you can avoid silos and duplication. Because that brings a lot of value as a company, when that data is spread across the board, then lineage and knowing what is happening where everything becomes a problem. So that is another thing that tends to shape the culture. And in generally educating the team to treat data as an asset as opposed to thinking through it’s something which just helps us to build product. So these are the three things that I would say definitely to change the culture. And especially for us as we go into this world of direct to consumer platforms, HBO Max and the upcoming CNN plus across the globe, then it’s slowly people start seeing the value in much easier way because it’s on your face at this point. 

Tina: Right. Right. So what are some of the you talked about roadshows? And I’m, I’ve got my pen ready to take notes here. What are some of the strategies that you’re using to kind of instill these values, you know, within your within Warner media, roadshows being one of them. I mean, it’s, I’m guessing that you have to say it more than once. Before, before that kind of success. 

Suja: So a couple of things. So we we have the roadshows that is that is more ad hoc. And then we have a monthly central data center of excellence meeting where we talk about various policy changes across it’s a global company. So it is not just for US centric across the board, what are the changes that are coming so that the business can start planning accordingly? Right, because every platform, we are in every platform that you can imagine our direct to consumer service. So they need to know what are the different changes that are happening in those worlds. So it becomes much easier for them to come to us to get get those information, as opposed to be everybody trying to find their own. So we have a dedicated team, which is finding. So that is one thing where they get the information about this and then figure out what needs to be done. And the third thing is I talked about building platformizing, the compliance, the consent and privacy platforms, helps them to make sure that they don’t have to keep on building these things, once they adopt a lot of things come to them for free. So not everybody don’t have to solve the same problem, because we have a lot of work to do from the business standpoint. So that also helps them but definitely, it doesn’t help just by sending an email and then wait for it to magically happen. So the roadshows help. The other part is having a regular cadence of meeting where we are talking about the upcoming changes that are and regulation changes, compliance changes that are coming. And what are the words that are happening in the platform so that they can leverage? So in both ways, so in some level, there is there is a carrot and stick approach, right? So the stick is, Hey, these are the regulations that are coming. The carrot is, look, these, these are the platforms that are available for you to use. So you don’t have to go and remember things. 

Tina: Okay, so that helps us to Yeah, I love how there’s the incentive and the disincentive. Both. Yeah.

Tina: That’s great. So Suja, it’s March, which is Women’s International History Month. And on that topic, what would you like to say to the future data leaders in the world?

Suja: I mean, look, it’s not that difficult people, people think of technology and science and math is difficult. It is not, we need more women, more diverse people diverse from people from all spectrum to represent in the data world, because it’s extremely important that everybody is represented there. And we all have a responsibility to be there. If you are waiting for privacy and compliance and governance and regulation to catch up, we will be waiting forever. We need to make sure that we are courageous in making sure that we are doing privacy and compliance by design in all the data products that we build. And we are also making sure that every company is accountable for being ethical. So it’s important for all of us to be there, and then represent and be courageous. That’s what I would say for the future data leaders. 

Tina: Suja I want to thank you for spending this time with us. It’s been so fun talking to you again, and can’t wait to see you in person.

Tina: But thanks for joining us. 

Suja: Thank you. 

Tina: Appreciate it. It’s been a joy. So and thank you to our audience for listening and spending time with and confidence and we look forward to our next conversation. Until then keep on innovating with safe data. 

Suja: Thank you. Thanks, Tina. I had fun talking to you. 

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