GDPR Sumit Europe 2017.

I today attended GDPR Summit 2017 in London, I am intrigued by GDPR as it gives power and rights to common citizens and many countries are following the same. As one of the speakers put it IT  has  led societies transformation and evolution however it has to now be balanced or normalized with other aspects of life. GDPR is primarily meant for the good of the citizen, and the society, the purpose of GDPR is to make sure that companies use personal information with the consent of individual which can be their employees (current, past or people they might have interviewed), suppliers and customers. The Individual would have the right to take back their consent as and when required and their data would be deleted from company’s system. 

The deterrent for GDPR non-compliance is not just the 4% or 20 million Euro fine but also the fact that the companies can also be barred by the regulator from processing data temporarily or even permanently. The positive side is making Data ethics a competitive advantage.

The stake holders in organisation GDPR implementation are Legal, Human Resource, Information Technology and Marketing. DPIA – Data privacy impact assessment under article 35 of GDPR is another aspect. High-risk processing activity under article 35(7)a of GDPR processing is an important factor. Employee consultation and survey for the customer is recommended. Also in case of cloud computing the responsibility would be with the controller. Some of the addition to Article 30 include article 7, article 15-19, article 20, article 32, article 44 – 46.

Data Privacy Officer is the mandatory position for all companies and privacy office, and Data privacy officer is two different roles. Data Privacy officer can also be a part-time role. Another aspect was right to be forgotten, and the fact that ERP does not delete the data but red flags it and the data do not pop up in the system but resides in the system is understood. Hence analyzation and tokenization of data are recommended. In tokenization audit, trail and Login function match should be conducted analyzed and blocked.

Another aspect of data privacy came out on Application security and IoT – Internet of things. While Application security primarily included session hijacking, phishing, etc., IoT can also lead to a possible source of infiltrating into the network and accessing the data. Hence Application level and IoT security are an important aspect. Security monitoring is another key aspect function of data privacy. Cloud is another area where need for security  was  emphasized. While Ben Westwood - Data protection Office of  eBay explained the complexity involved in data privacy management for an eCommerce company.

Marketing is further another function that gets impacted by GDPR, email campaign, cookies tracking, search engine optimisation can no longer be conducted without the consent of the customer, and customer consent form should be simplified for the understanding of an ordinary computer or smart phone user. It was also acknowledged that the Personal data of non-cooperates users is almost around 80% of the data under GDPR which is processed by companies, while 20% is the employee data and hence solutions need to be planned and designed basis same. 

It was acknowledged that countries like India, Singapore, Hong Kong have also adapted data privacy apart from Europe. Countries like South Africa have their own data privacy law POPI. 

The IT adaptation in every individual life has penetrated to a large extent, in fact, it has impacted the way we live our lives and conduct our business, and this has rapidly involved in past 15  to 20 years and needs some form of governance hence idea to bring principles and ethics into the equation. The intent and heart to introduce GDPR is in the right place and companies would need to live with this new reality and comply. However to over seeing GDPR regulation would require highly intellectual indivituals with high integrity and conviction as there is possibility of alternative narrative been given and they would have to distinguish between narrative in interest of people and society against vested interested  

Sales = Customer Problem-solving.

Sales = Solving Customer Problem.

Sales and marketing have gone through a transformation in past two decades. Technology such as the Internet, Smart phones, Big Data Analytics, IoT, Cloud, Social Media, Digital, and e-commerce are the technologies that have contributed towards the transformation. These technologies have affected economic, Operations and supply chain as well. The 7P’s of Product and 7C’s of Service Marketing have also been affected and so has been the concept of Core and Augmented Product.

Sales today is all about solving the customer problems. I would say a good sales person is a good advocate who researches on customers problem at the same time bring together a futuristic solution. A good sales person is a good advisor and spends a lot of his time learning, studying and understanding the subject or practice of offering to his or her customers. They do not just solve customers current problem but provide a solution that goes beyond the current customer problem and addresses all possible .future customer needs and mitigating future unforeseen problems. ( at least informs the customer about the same) It is also important to understand and inform on the interoperability of a product of solution to current customer landscape of product and their version.

I Understand that the organization employing the sales person require business and linearity of same, but the mentioned approach would provide a sustainable business and growth. This would also help to build brand, credibility and value proposition that would help companies gain the premium for their product and services.  They should have work design which encourages this approach where time devoted to learning backs the quality of engagement between their representative and customer. In fact, the organization should have a healthy budget toward skills and knowledge development, and only those people should be allowed to interface with customers who go through this periodic skills upgrades.

Today's sales person needs to be articulate in documenting the solution such that is carried forward to become scope of work as well facilitate legal and SLA documents. This shall lead to a sustainable long term mutually beneficial relationship.

In an earlier comment to an Harvard business review article I shared and my blog, I had stressed on the need for collaboration. We are living in a knowledge economy, and no industry is untouched. In fact, we are in the Industrial Revolution 4.0. We have all functions in an organization getting merged into one another, and hence a work place of future might be different from what we are used to machines,  Artificial Intelligence (AI) would do the repetitive function. Hence it is necessary for a new age sales person/employee or managers have multi facet knowledge of the product,  project management, delivery, finance, legal, statistics, analytics, strategy, HR, Process, digital and social media. In fact, I am sure the professional itself would have a different terminology as the value proposition for a product or service would be linked to real time information, review and feedback available on digital platforms and value creation and value capture for an organization would require multi facet skill, knowledge, and experience. It would be fair to say a good sales person or team would be consultants.

Instead of happy selling, I would say Happy learning, collaborating and selling!