This session was presented on May 7th 2020, in a Webinar organized by Gramener. https://info.gramener.com/recession-proofing-your-business-with-data COVID-19 has disrupted every industry and precipitated a recession. With the virus still in the early stages of progression, the only certainty is that the pains to the global economy will be prolonged. Is your business ready for the long haul? Data is your best ally to navigate the crisis and come out stronger. This webinar will show you how. What will I learn?  Which areas of your business can benefit most with a data-driven response.  A framework to identify use cases that will deliver the biggest bang for the buck.  How to identify new market opportunities and customers through creative approaches with data. AGENDA: - Relevance of data in the current crisis - How data science can help you stay prepared to navigate the recession - Industry case studies from Gramener's work to help clients respond to COVID-19

1. ‘Recession-proofing’ your Business with
Data
Ganes Kesari Webinar, May 2020S Anand

2. WHAT ARE THE KEY
CHALLENGES?
HOW YOU SHOULD
PRIORITIZE?
HOW DATA CAN
EMPOWER YOU?

3. Introduction
Ganes Kesari
Co-founder & Head of Analytics
100+ ClientsInsights as Stories
Help start, apply and adopt Data Analytics &
Visualization for Business impact
S Anand
Co-founder & CEO
@kesaritweets
/gkesari
@sanand0
/sanand0

4. COVID-19 has impacted every industry, leaving some in deep shock
41. Source: BCG Covid-19 report, Apr 2, 2020

5. We are heading towards a slow, long economic recovery
51. Source: McKinsey Article: Executive expectations about the shape of the coronavirus crisis, Apr 2020
Virus spread
and public
health response
Effective response,
but (regional) virus
resurgence
Broad failure of
public health
interventions
Rapid and effective
control of virus
spread
Executive expectations about the shape of coronavirus crisis in the World
Survey of 2,079 global executives; % of respondents
Knock-on effects and economic policy response
Ineffective
interventions
Partially effective
interventions
Highly effective
interventions
Most likely scenarios

6. But, the pace of recovery will vary by industry and organization
6
1. Source: Bain & Co - Ample Data, often free, can predict consumer behaviour through the Covid-19 crisis, Apr 9, 2020

7. Your response must be dictated by the stage of recovery you’re in
7
Stage 1: Survive
Disrupted business,
impacted operations in
an uncertain economy
Deepening impact,
unsettled operations in a
sluggish economy
Challenges scaling up,
lost opportunities in a
recovering economy
What are the top
challenges?
Stage 2: Stabilize Stage 3: Strategize
Survival. Address the
immediate challenges
and ensure business
continuity
Stabilization. Address
near-term operational
issues & lay groundwork
for recovery
Strategy. Prepare your
business to grow
stronger & compete in
the ‘new normal’
What should you
prioritize?

8. In your function, here’s what you should solve for
8
Stage 1: Survive
Increase collections
effectiveness
Increase control over
discretionary expenses
Leverage cash to acquire
market share/competitionFinance
Stage 2: Stabilize Stage 3: Strategize
“What threatens your
survival the most?”
“What can destabilize you
the most?”
“How can you eliminate
competitive threats?”

9. In your function, here’s what you should solve for
9
Stage 1: Survive
Increase collections
effectiveness
Increase control over
discretionary expenses
Leverage cash to acquire
market share/competitionFinance
Stage 2: Stabilize Stage 3: Strategize
Resolve employee
collaboration and
productivity issues
Reduce health risk for
employees at offices when
resuming work
Help employees adapt to
‘new normal’. Balance
flexibility with demands
People
“What threatens your
survival the most?”
“What can destabilize you
the most?”
“How can you eliminate
competitive threats?”

10. In your function, here’s what you should solve for
10
Data can be a powerful enabler to solve your use case
Stage 1: Survive
Increase collections
effectiveness
Increase control over
discretionary expenses
Leverage cash to acquire
market share/competitionFinance
Stage 2: Stabilize Stage 3: Strategize
Resolve employee
collaboration and
productivity issues
Reduce health risk for
employees at offices when
resuming work
Help employees adapt to
‘new normal’. Balance
flexibility with demands
People
Impact to production due to
shortage of raw materials
Remote delivery of services Ensure supply chain health;
support vendorsSupply
Assess customer impact,
assess change in behaviour
& monitor churn
Rationalize discounts to
minimize margin impact,
while building trust
Assess customer health,
expand offerings and
recapture share of wallet
Customer
“What threatens your
survival the most?”
“What can destabilize you
the most?”
“How can you eliminate
competitive threats?”

11. Poll
11
What’s your stage of
response?
Here’s a short & simple poll to help you reflect.

12. Focus and prioritization are your most
powerful responses when using data
Where to focus depends on your data maturity

13. We don't have the right data to
solve the problem well
We analyze the data. But the
analysis doesn't reveal much
Our analysis does not suggest
clear actions
Focus and prioritization are your most powerful responses when using data
On any use case, one of these will be your top problem. Focus & prioritize within that area.
13
Where to focus depends on your data maturity
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
For example, let’s take a finance use case.
Increase collections effectiveness
DATA
We don’t have sales transaction
data & collections merged or
readily accessible
INSIGHT
We know our sales outstanding
by client, and our top dues. But
that’s how it’s always been
ACTION
We know that significant changes
in orders delay collections. But
this hasn’t translated to action
You can easily determine this with one question: Which of these is your biggest problem?

14. Prioritize data collection for the best actionable initiatives
14
The biggest mistake teams
without data make is collecting all
data required to solve a problem.
Sales transactions
Collections transactions
Team timesheets
Client financials
Client analyst reports
Team incentive payout
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Increase collection
effectiveness
There are many datasets that may help solve a
problem. You don’t need most of them.

15. Prioritize data collection for the best actionable initiatives
15
Increase collection
effectiveness
Increase collection team
variable incentive
Reduce days sales
outstanding
Focus on customers at
risk of default
The biggest mistake teams
without data make is collecting all
data required to solve a problem.
Instead, start by listing specific
actions that solve the problem.
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Team timesheets
Team incentive payout
Client financials
Client analyst reports
Sales transactions
Collections transactions

16. Increase collection
effectiveness
Reduce days sales
outstanding
Focus on customers at
risk of default
Increase collection team
variable incentive
Prioritize data collection for the best actionable initiatives
Collect and explore data for a known purpose – which should be your best action
16
The biggest mistake teams
without data make is collecting all
data required to solve a problem.
1
2
3
Sales transactions
Collections transactions
Team timesheets
Team incentive payout
Client financials
Client analyst reports
Instead, start by listing specific
actions that solve the problem.
Collect data for those
actions first.
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Data collection is effort
intensive. Prioritize effort.
Hypothesize which
actions solve the
problem best.
Top 10 clients by
days sales
outstanding
Even simple
exploration on
new data can lead
to useful results

17. Focus your analyses on insights. These are big, useful and surprising (BUS)
17
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams that have data have often
already explored it and are
generating analyses.
Here are the results of analysis to
reduce days sales outstanding.
Analysis
Days sales outstanding is 62 days on average

18. Focus your analyses on insights. These are big, useful and surprising (BUS)
18
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams that have data have often
already explored it and are
generating analyses.
Here are the results of analysis to
reduce days sales outstanding.
Analysis
Days sales outstanding is 62 days on average
Days sales outstanding has been steady over the
last 6 months, with a small 2% increase

19. Focus your analyses on insights. These are big, useful and surprising (BUS)
19
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams that have data have often
already explored it and are
generating analyses.
Here are the results of analysis to
reduce days sales outstanding.
Analysis
Days sales outstanding is 62 days on average
Days sales outstanding has been steady over the
last 6 months, with a small 2% increase
50% of our collection outstanding is with our top
20 clients by revenue

20. Focus your analyses on insights. These are big, useful and surprising (BUS)
20
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams that have data have often
already explored it and are
generating analyses.
Here are the results of analysis to
reduce days sales outstanding.
Analysis
Days sales outstanding is 62 days on average
Days sales outstanding has been steady over the
last 6 months, with a small 2% increase
50% of our collection outstanding is with our top
20 clients by revenue
The South region has the highest days sales
outstanding – roughly 20% higher than average
Days sales outstanding consistently increases by
10-18 days on weekends and holidays
Significant increase or decrease (±50%) in
orders leads to doubling DSO within 3 months
Days sales outstanding is 30% less for clients
who received a call in the last 30 days
Such analysis typically
have more noise and
less signal. It’s a dump
of everything we can
do with the data.
It’s not insight.
Not all analyses are born equal.
Some of them are not useful.
Some of them are already known.
Some of them are insignificant.
Insights are analysis that are big, useful and surprising

21. Focus your analyses on insights. These are big, useful and surprising (BUS)
21
Analysis Big Useful Surprising
Days sales outstanding is 62 days on average Low Med Low
Days sales outstanding has been steady over the
last 6 months, with a small 2% increase
50% of our collection outstanding is with our top
20 clients by revenue
The South region has the highest days sales
outstanding – roughly 20% higher than average
Days sales outstanding consistently increases by
10-18 days on weekends and holidays
Significant increase or decrease (±50%) in
orders leads to doubling DSO within 3 months
Days sales outstanding is 30% less for clients
who received a call in the last 30 days
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams that have data have often
already explored it and are
generating analyses.
Here are the results of analysis to
reduce days sales outstanding.
Rate each analysis on 3 criteria:
• How big / impactful is it
• How useful / actionable is it
• How surprising is it
Not all analyses are born equal.
Some of them are not useful.
Some of them are already known.
Some of them are insignificant.

22. Focus your analyses on insights. These are big, useful and surprising (BUS)
22
Analysis Big Useful Surprising
Days sales outstanding is 62 days on average Low Med Low
Days sales outstanding has been steady over the
last 6 months, with a small 2% increase
Low Low Low
50% of our collection outstanding is with our top
20 clients by revenue
The South region has the highest days sales
outstanding – roughly 20% higher than average
Days sales outstanding consistently increases by
10-18 days on weekends and holidays
Significant increase or decrease (±50%) in
orders leads to doubling DSO within 3 months
Days sales outstanding is 30% less for clients
who received a call in the last 30 days
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams that have data have often
already explored it and are
generating analyses.
Here are the results of analysis to
reduce days sales outstanding.
Rate each analysis on 3 criteria:
• How big / impactful is it
• How useful / actionable is it
• How surprising is it
Not all analyses are born equal.
Some of them are not useful.
Some of them are already known.
Some of them are insignificant.

23. Focus your analyses on insights. These are big, useful and surprising (BUS)
Focus and prioritization are your most powerful responses. Focus on insights
23
Analysis Big Useful Surprising
Days sales outstanding is 62 days on average Low Med Low
Days sales outstanding has been steady over the
last 6 months, with a small 2% increase
Low Low Low
50% of our collection outstanding is with our top
20 clients by revenue
Med Med Low
The South region has the highest days sales
outstanding – roughly 20% higher than average
Med Med Med
Days sales outstanding consistently increases by
10-18 days on weekends and holidays
Med Med Low
Significant increase or decrease (±50%) in
orders leads to doubling DSO within 3 months
Med High High
Days sales outstanding is 30% less for clients
who received a call in the last 30 days
High High Med
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams that have data have often
already explored it and are
generating analyses.
Here are the results of analysis to
reduce days sales outstanding.
Rate each analysis on 3 criteria:
• How big / impactful is it
• How useful / actionable is it
• How surprising is it
Not all analyses are born equal.
Some of them are not useful.
Some of them are already known.
Some of them are insignificant.

24. Communicate insights as personal, actionable messages
24
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams with insights typically share
them as they discovered them.
Here are the results of an insight – that
calling clients after 30 days of invoice
(instead of 90 – the current practice)
reduces average days sales
outstanding to 55 – a 30% reduction in
days sales outstanding.
This proves the insight well. But it
doesn’t help users act on the insight.
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Days sales outstanding is 30% less for clients who
received a call in the last 30 days
Average DSO
# days since last call
DSO
19 d
First call is on
90th day
30th day call
reduces CSO 30%
Prioritize actions over proof when sharing insights

25. Communicate insights as personal, actionable messages
Communicate to allow your entire team focus on prioritized actions
25
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Teams with insights typically share
them as they discovered them.
Here are the results of an insight – that
calling clients after 30 days of invoice
(instead of 90 – the current practice)
reduces average days sales
outstanding to 55 – a 30% reduction in
days sales outstanding.
This proves the insight well. But it
doesn’t help users act on the insight.
Teams need inputs on what they should
do. Design your dashboards to
communicate specific actions.
Days Sales Outstanding Dashboard for Eliyahu Montgomery
Client Dues DSO Action
Alpha Corp $120 K 172 q Email 3rd & final reminder. Contact legal team
Beta Inc $480 K 32 q Call them. High volume, not called in 30 days
Gamma Ltd $80 K 20 q Sudden drop in orders. Check for risk of
increase in DSO
Delta LLC $160 K 134 q Email 2nd reminder
Epsilon Inc $200 K 38 q Call them. High volume, not called in 30 days
Zeta Corp $20 K 60 q Sudden drop in orders. Check for risk of
increase in DSO
Iota Foundation $100 K 95 q Send invoice reminder
Focus on these accounts to improve collections. These are ordered by importance
An actionable dashboard tells each person exactly what they
need to act on. No more, no less.

26. Solve the right problem by focusing on your stage of recovery & data maturity
26
Stage 1: Survive Stage 2: Stabilize Stage 3: Strategize
Know your stage of
recovery
Focus on the most
critical aspect there
Pick the use case most
critical for your function
“What threatens your
survival the most?”
“What can destabilize you
the most?”
“How can you eliminate
competitive threats?”
Know your stage of data
maturity
DATA INSIGHT ACTION
Collect and explore data for
a known purpose – which
should be your best action
Filter your analyses into
insights by checking if they
are big, useful & surprising
Communicate insights as
personalized actions for
each team member
1
2
3
4

27. Poll
27
Your data maturity stage?
Here’s a short & simple poll to help you focus.
This will identify the data maturity stage for
your chosen use case.
We conduct workshops to help clients solve
problems on data, insights & action.
Tell us if you want us to contact you.

28. @sanand0
/sanand0
Thank You!
@kesaritweets
/gkesari
Get in touch to explore how your business can
benefit from a data-driven response