Discovery Data’s Bob Skea on Finding Answers in Data and Technology

The author, Jim Urquhart, is Managing Director, FinTech at The Bowdoin Group, a national executive search firm.

Bob Skea is Chief Executive Officer at Discovery Data, responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of the firm. 

Discovery Data helps companies grow their business in the financial services and insurance industries through data and analytics delivered through cloud-based applications, CRM integrations, and data-driven marketing and market insights.

They have robust profiles on 40,000 broker-dealer and registered investment advisor firms, more than 730,000 active registered reps, and more than two million insurance agents. The profiles allow asset managers, wealth managers, insurance companies, and financial technology providers to recruit qualified candidates, expand distribution, and deliver precision- targeted sales and marketing outreach.

You joined at the helm of Discovery Data just as we entered the current pandemic environment. What was that like for the team, your clients, and employees?

I certainly did not expect a global pandemic to hit in week four. But interestingly, during the interview process, I was talking to the principal of the private equity firm over lunch, and we discussed the firm I was at during the 2008 economic crisis. He said to me, “You never know, that could come in handy if we ever see a recession, but right now, all systems go.” And now here we are several months later in the pandemic.  

Our team at Discovery Data has taken this challenge head on. The organization and the team around me from day one have done a fantastic job taking care of our customers and the company.

How do you see firms adjusting to the new normal? If you maybe look at some silver linings, do you see opportunities coming out of the pandemic that might be beneficial in the longer term for the business? 

Yes, there's no question.

There's going to be a seismic shift in terms of the way we do business. Firms we speak with have been thinking about their go-to-market strategy and their customer outreach as relates to automation, digital, and operating remotely. I think it's going to change the way people do business from a remote technical point of view. People will develop better ways to ensure collaboration, and there is a tremendous opportunity for remote workers to be more efficient long term.

In addition, from a talent management point of view, I think it creates some opportunities in building out teams.

On the talent front, I know a big thing for you is hiring the right type of people and pushing diversity in your own business and your customers. How have you been able to do that at Discovery Data?

It's really all about the team. I mean, it doesn't matter how great your product or offering is; it's about the team. 

I think when we come out of this, there's going to be quite an opportunity for companies and people to align themselves properly around the right talent. And many times, that includes diversity. 

Having been in the financial services industry for many years, it's hard to accomplish the diversity goals around hiring. Certainly, remote working provides an opportunity to overcome this challenge. We think we can help, and we do help a lot of customers who use us for that purpose.

On the client side of things, what types of clients are you working with at Discovery Data, and where do you fit into the market?

Discovery Data has a tremendous reputation and very high-quality data. 

We've been working in and around the investment management space with different use cases for many years. We have a solid client base, and where we play is primarily, and certainly historically, as a provider of data in the asset management, wealth management, and insurance markets as it relates to advisors, brokers, and insurance agents. 

We provide information to those who work with them, whether it's wholesalers on the asset management side, publishing firms and media companies that want to work with them as it relates to conference attendees, and certainly the recruiting space. We have a number of customers who use the data for recruiting.

“SOMEONE PUT IT THIS WAY: ‘YOU KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE TONS OF BIG DATA. THE PROBLEM IS MAKING THAT BIG DATA INTO SKINNY MEANINGFUL DATA THAT WE CAN USE IN THE MOMENT.’”

What do you see as your plan going forward?

We’re a company that has been a provider of data, and that is at the core of what we do. I think the opportunity is for us to help our customers in a more intelligent way going forward, so that they can achieve their goals. We always want to be thinking in terms of customer outcomes.

Someone put it this way when I was working at my last company. They said, “You know you guys have tons of big data. The problem is making that big data into skinny meaningful data that we can use in the moment.”

Our customers do want to buy data from us, but in reality, what they really want is answers.

And what does that mean, to be thinking of customer outcomes and to be providing answers?

Customers want to know where to focus with data. So, depending upon the use case, we want to become a data management company from a platform point of view and continue to add value and enrich the data.

Increasingly, at the top end of the market, some of our larger customers are hiring data scientists, statisticians, and modelers to build out predictive models to tell them where they should focus their outbound efforts. Here's an example: You're a large asset manager, you've launched an annuity fund, and you want to make sure you're hitting the West Coast. You think that's viable, and it's most appropriate within your type of distribution mechanism, retail brokerage environment, or registered independent advisors. You build a model that says, “Okay, if this is what we're looking for, how do I focus my marketing?” And as data comes through that model, you can adjust your marketing plan.

And we're starting to talk to customers about how we can help them do exactly that. Because while the large firms, all the household names, have the resources to employ 10+ data scientists, the middle market segment does not have this capability. And it’s a big segment. We think we can help there.

We see a future opportunity where we develop diagnostic or analytical packages that can help all customers get to the answer faster and can automate their audience targeting. 

If you're recruiting, you can look at things like the propensity of a team to leave their firm and various attributes that make the most sense for you given registrations, licenses, and your hiring criteria. It means building predictive models so that as advisors move from firm to firm, you can get alerts that allow you to go and target them.

That's what we mean by a model-driven digital audience targeting. We can put together a package to help you with your hiring, distributing products, or running conferences.