Data is the New Gold: unify and accelerate the path to become a data-driven organization. A TOYOTA case study.

Rapid technological developments are redefining what it means to be a data-driven company. Today, organizations are using sporadically Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence (BI) to predict trends and uncover insights, based on data stored in data management tools. However, there is a critical gap in the comprehensive implementation of these tools across the organization. It is insufficient to collect, store or even amass data as there will be resource wasted and even more importantly, data regulation breaches. Rather, the first step is to understand the factors that are contributing and will contribute to business value before leveraging data. In the absence of an appropriate strategy, organisations can make significant investments in data assets and sophisticated tools that in the end will fail to deliver meaningful outcomes. The risk is the one-off putting the cart before the horse; forget the fundaments and decide to approach “digital transformation” by investing on “shiny objects” such as predictive models and AI. Data-driven transformation will be the focus to investigate if traditional industrial companies will be able to become data-driven organizations. To lead the transformation, it is essential to adopt a methodical approach and to have a well-defined vision of how to generate greater value than competitors. The empirical research will have the aim of understanding how data-driven transformation can be achieved especially in the automotive industry; where customer expectations, new regulations and competitors are changing the paradigm of automotive sector, by transforming it into a mobility sector. Crisis, supply chain disruptions and increased sensibility for environmentally friendly topics have been the pain points since the pandemic, facilitating the rapid increase in market share for those competitors that were able to rapidly address the new market conditions. Some of the new entrants had a fair advantage compared to traditional Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) due to their pre-existing structures focused on data driven insights and ability to react quickly to market changes. To address the aforementioned concepts, a qualitative analysis will be developer. Toyota and in particular Toyota Motor Europe will be the benchmark as case study of a traditional automotive organization that needs to update or reinvent business practices to stay competitive in the market. A comparison will be made between the approach of Toyota and emerging competitors in the electric vehicles (EV) sector that are data driven. The takeaway should be an elucidation on how OEMs, which produce and operate in the European market, should adapt their structures to remain competitive with the new global players.