In our latest episode, Emre Ozbek, Executive Managing Director at BICEP Solutions, shares how customer-facing programs can build repeatable, intelligent systems that free up their best talent to focus on what truly matters: creativity, strategy, and connection. He digs deeper into his ‘touch it once philosophy’ and the ‘lazy approach’, a principle of profound efficiency rooted in automation. Emre advises teams to avoid ‘managing what you measure’, and instead ask ‘why’ to ‘eliminate’ unnecessary metrics and ‘illuminate’ your data. He also suggests how to change our mindset related to AI including the practical step of selecting one small process, then ask ‘why’, and either eliminate or automate. An important takeaway for listeners is the realization that the process of leveraging business intelligence is more accessible than we may have imagined.

Highlights

The ‘touch it once philosophy' and the ‘lazy approach’
- A long term strategy, take time to ‘sharpen the saw’
Auditors review past data, strategists use the data to look to the future
‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ - understand the data before you automate
- Leading vs lagging indicators
Avoid ‘Manage What You Measure’ - ‘vanity vs actionable’ metrics
Ask ‘WHY’ and ‘ELIMINATE’ unnecessary metrics
Utilize data across customer facing programs: Executive Sponsorship, briefings, meetings at events, CABs, etc.
Build in processes to keep systems up to date and reliable (i.e. integrate HR employee database into scheduling and CRM tools)
Automate to spend time for relationship building, critical thinking and creativity
AI: how to shift from a ‘Fear mindset' to a ‘Partner mindset'
Start small, start now - strive for clarity over quantity

Resources

Book: Measure What Matters by John Doerr
TED Talk: The Beauty of Data Visualization by David McCandless
HBR Article: Ensure High-Quality Data Powers Your AI by Thomas C. Redman

Guest Thought Leader

Emre Ozbek, Executive Managing Director, BICEP Solutions

Emre is a business and data strategist with a simple but powerful philosophy: if you have to do something more than once, it should be automated. He calls it his "lazy" approach, but it's a principle of profound efficiency that has guided his 30-year, multi-national career helping some of the world's top companies solve their most complex operational challenges.

His journey has taken him through enterprise architecture, business consulting, and innovation leadership across a range of industries. This unique cross-sectional view revealed a universal truth: most businesses are stuck solving the same problems over and over, wasting valuable time and frustrating both employees and customers.

Today, Emre channels this passion through his new company, BICEP Solutions, providing Business Intelligence for Customer Engagement Programs. He now helps program leaders apply the lessons learned from running a world-class customer engagement program, complete with briefing centers, innovation labs, and executive sponsorship, to their own organizations.