Introducing Talkwalker’s new Managing Director (ANZ) - Dimitri Lanssens.
Welcome Dimitri. To start, would you share with us a bit about your background?
I’m a tech industry leader who’s had the privilege of building and leading some amazing teams over the past two decades. Originally from Belgium, my time with Gartner has seen me take up leadership roles in the UK, South Africa, the US, and Australia. I live on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with my wife and 2 children, and it’s a place we’ve been proud to call home for almost 3 years now.
I launched my corporate career at IBM and then moved to Gartner, a leading research and advisory firm, where I held almost every conceivable sales leadership role across almost every market segment. Prior to moving to Australia, I headed up Gartner’s Financial Services vertical out of greater New York. More recently, I led Gartner’s ANZ Technology Services arm out of Sydney.
That’s a huge wealth of experiences. What have you learned?
Digital transformation has created a world where many organisations seem to be in a perpetual game of catch-up with their customers. With Gartner, I was working with decision makers that worked across many markets. What I saw, time and time again, was that they were handling vast amounts of data, yet lacking insights that they could act on immediately.
Even today, many organisations aren’t nimble enough to keep up with their customers, and that’s exactly the problem that we solve at Talkwalker. Our consumer intelligence platform is cutting edge, and the real-time insights it generates are an indisputable asset for organisations looking to grow their business and share of mind.
There is a further subset of organisations that are just coming into awareness about the centrality of consumer voices and brand communities.
“We’re here to accelerate the pace at which these organisations are adapting their understanding and processes, by making sense of customer voices and placing them at the heart of decision-making.”
Speaking of acceleration, what else excites you about Talkwalker?
What has accelerated Talkwalker’s incredible growth is a culture that is committed to innovation and delivering business value. That’s a strong core proposition that’s backed by a team of more than 500 talented individuals, with about a third of them being data scientists and engineers.
For me, it’s also terrific to see that underlying all of this is a strong social compass.
“With Talkwalker’s commitment to carbon-neutrality and initiatives such as paid volunteering days for employees, we see a company that is planting the seeds today to create a workplace of the future.”
What is your vision for Talkwalker in the ANZ market?
There is incredible potential for us to nurture more power users, and for Talkwalker to serve as the leading consumer intelligence platform for any commercial or public sector organisation in the ANZ market that wants to drive customer-centric or community-centric growth.
This requires solving a few pain points. Firstly, getting past legacy systems and outmoded data infrastructure to generate insight from real-time consumer data.
Secondly, transforming decision-making by providing actionable recommendations drawn from the analysis of millions of data points in images, videos, audio, and text from across social media, blogs, news channels, and more. The data-driven approach reduces the ‘risk’ factor for top executives by helping to test assumptions and long-held opinions about their brands’ audiences.
As an AI-enabled consumer intelligence platform, we’re helping to realise the true value of consumer data for the world’s leading brands and institutions, and we’re building a global community of users that are data-driven and biased towards action. The Talkwalker ANZ team is here to bring the Oceania region’s leading brands along on that journey.
An exciting new chapter awaits...
Thanks Dimitri. It’s wonderful to witness a new team come together. I can’t wait to see how you and your team will grow the Talkwalker community in the Oceania region.
If you want to get your foot in the door now, request a free demo, and see how Talkwalker’s powerful consumer intelligence can become an integral part of your brand strategy.
