mic-icon The Data & AI Chief | Episode 69

Why Online Retailer Zalando Was First to Embrace the Data Mesh

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Current EpisodeEP69: Why Online Retailer Zalando Was First to Embrace the Data Mesh
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Dr. Alexander Borek

Dr. Alexander Borek

Director of Data Analytics

Zalando

Episode Overview:

Most data professionals aspire to be leaders within a single industry. It’s rare to see professionals establish and re-establish themselves as powerful influencers across multiple verticals. But this is precisely what Dr. Alexander Borek has done, helping some of the world’s most recognizable brands scale tangible value from data, analytics, and AI. In this episode, he covers a wide range of topics, including his personal career journey, creating cultures of innovation, centralized vs. decentralized data products, and the imminent impact of generative AI.  

Key Moments: 

    2:15
    Background on Zalando
    5:32
    HDr. Borek’s The Ultimate Data and AI Guide
    7:02
    Becoming a data leader in multiple industries
    14:30
    Germany’s growing data culture
    17:07
    The need for a greater sense of urgency in data understanding
    19:33
    The origins of the data bash
    24:44
    The benefits of cross-team collaboration
    31:30
    Data mash vs. data fabric
    37:28
    Using data for insight and action
    40:10
    The rapid expansion of generative technologies

 

Key Quotes

Why Online Retailer Zalando Was First to Embrace the Data Mesh

There is a certain tendency to avoid risks in particular when it comes to data protection and security…I think people are skeptical first until they get it. And, and once we get it, they run fast.

Why Online Retailer Zalando Was First to Embrace the Data Mesh

I think what a lot of people misjudge is that data mesh is an architecture paradigm and it is not a architecture paradigm. It is a ways of working with data in an organization for scaling.

Why Online Retailer Zalando Was First to Embrace the Data Mesh

We are not at the stage of generative AI where it creates everything for you in the perfect way…for the next seven years it’s really about humans working with machines really side by side. Those companies that do that will really succeed.

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Bio:

Dr. Alexander Borek

Dr. Alexander Borek is a data leader, author and keynoter and supports tech and established companies on their data and AI journeys, in particular, with regards to strategy, roadmap, product management, architecture and scaling tech and talent. He brings a lot of experience in successfully establishing global platforms and scaling software products. As the co-leader of the Zalando Data Foundation, he manages the central data analytics teams for business intelligence, data engineering, machine learning, curated sales/customer/product/partner data, master data management and business process mining and automation. He is driving the data mesh transformation across all business units in the Zalando Group.

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