Shazia Ginai - BUILDING CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING IN ORGANISATIONS

Our guest on the fifth episode is Shazia Ginai, the CEO at Neuro-Insight. Shazia shares with us her bugbears of the industry in her mind and offers solutions to each annoying trend in insights culture. The main pet peeves Shazia describes are unconscious bias training, inefficiencies around procurement, the long-dead paper survey, and the enormously popular Myers-Briggs test. While it’s true that these problems exist outside market research, Shazia believes they’re particularly loathsome in insights. We had a great time talking, as Shazia shared some wonderful clues to improving insights work.

Key Quotes:

“Understanding the human beings that line the pockets of our businesses is fundamental to making the businesses work.” (4:25)“I believe the problems are deeper and we have to work that much harder [against unconscious bias].” (10:00)“People tick the box for the training and forget about the culture.” (12:15)“The thing I think I struggle with the most with procurement is that the people who create the systems don’t think of the end user. And as a researcher, our job is to understand the end user.” (17:30)“It all goes back to the idea that one size doesn’t fit all.” (20:00)“Procurement doesn’t need to be banned; we’re just not thinking about it the right way. Because right now, we’re not thinking about procurement with the audience in mind.” (24:00)“Whatever happened to making things easier for people so they don’t have a hard time going through the rubbish?” (25:15)“Some businesses still use paper surveys because they see it as the only way they can function, but I just don’t buy it.” (26:30)“The only reason I see paper surveys making sense is if you’re in a market where the technology just doesn’t exist.” (28:20)“The Myers-Briggs really does my head in.” (30:45)“Everyone knows what Myers-Briggs is, so everyone uses it. But the value for me just isn’t there.” (33:30)“We can’t go ‘I’m this profile, so I can only work with one person.’” (35:45)“It’s great to understand your teams and do that work, I just don’t think Myers-Briggs is the one.” (37:30)

Key Topics: 

Shazia’s proudest moments from her career. (3:00-4:30)Shazia shares a funny story. (5:15)Banishing unconscious bias training. (8:00)Banishing all things procurement. (16:00)Banishing all things paper surveys.  (25:30)Embracing tech over tradition. (28:00)Banishing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. (30:30)Why we should want to understand our personalities within different contexts. (34:00)Throwing Myers-Briggs into Room 101 forever. (37:15)

About - Shazia Ginai:

Shazia is the CEO at Neuro-Insight, a leading insights firm in the UK. She has more than 15 years of experience in brand strategy and insights research, including eight years as the Brand Franchise Innovation Leader for Hugo BOSS Fragrances and Skincare at Procter & Gamble. She is a creative and curious insight professional with a passion for people and leading insights into action. Shazia has a track record of helping businesses lead with actionable insights.

Relevant Links:

Shazia’s LinkedIn.Neuro-Insight UK - Website

The Day One podcast is published by the Day One Strategy and produced by Zorbiant.

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