As part of the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, Experian is celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month through May. This article is by Dacy Yee, VP of Marketing and Customer Relationship Management for Experian Consumer Services and executive co-sponsor for Experian’s Asian American Employee Resource Group (ERG). My parents’ story is not unlike any other immigrant story. At 20 years old, they came to the United States from Hong Kong with nothing but a dream for more opportunity and a better life for their family. Their drive and resilience empowered me from a young age. I got my hustle from my dad; he is the hardest-working person I know. Throughout my childhood, he juggled multiple jobs, from working in Chinese restaurants and bagging groceries to becoming a mechanic. He worked his way from mechanic to owner of a gas and service station, often spending early mornings and late evenings opening and closing the shop. I got my toughness from my mom; she always pushed me to be better by making me believe that I was capable, strong and resilient, and by telling me that I could achieve anything I wanted to in life. My parents showed me what courage and determination meant by leaving the familiar in their home country to move here and maneuver a new, unfamiliar culture. They empowered me to work hard and take risks—to always think bigger. Asian Americans have a unique place in history; from the Chinese immigrants working on the railroad in the 1880s to the Japanese WWII internment camps of the 1940s, there’s something to be said about the Asian American story in this country that has only recently been explored in pop culture and entertainment. There’s the quiet, hard work ethic and driven mentality from my parents’ generation that worked so well in certain countries, but a steady drumbeat of wanting to stand out in future generations after that. This has profound implications for professional environments. The generalizations of the silent model minority have been disputed in recent years. Even more so, there’s much to be discussed as to how we carry our past generational habits into the future and how that shapes who we become. The lessons my parents taught me sometimes translate differently and result in the culmination of stereotypes I’ve tried to avoid throughout my career. Putting my head down and working hard might suddenly mean I’m passive. Thinking twice about challenging authority might translate to being soft-spoken or submissive. As an Asian American professional woman, I’m faced with minute-to-minute decisions of when to speak up, when to fight my battles and when to simmer down. There have been studies showing that there is a real “bamboo” ceiling for Asian Americans trying to reach the C-suite level. In fact, Asian Americans are currently the racial group least likely to be promoted to management positions in the U.S., according to a study in the Harvard Business Review. The question is: how do we break through that ceiling? As a company rooted and driven by data, we are constantly looking at numbers in everything we do. This is why we’re hosting a speaker to walk through his findings about what builds and creates this “bamboo” ceiling and how it affects Asian Americans in the workplace. We need to speak up and share our struggles with each other; as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we’re hosting a panel featuring our own Asian American leaders and professionals to talk about this very issue. To each other, to their colleagues, to their managers and to the larger Experian community. Finally, we’re going to chart the path forward and lead by example. As members of the Asian American ERG at Experian, we’re going to host more skill-building workshops, have open and candid conversations, and keep each other accountable to our stretch goals and ultimately our professional aspirations. As we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, there will be an ongoing dialogue of what empowerment means to us in the workplace. Ultimately, regardless of where you come from and how you identify yourself, the resounding lesson is of empowerment; standing up for what you’re passionate about and leading the way for others who will be following in your path.
Charles Butterworth talks about the acquisition of leading South African companies Compuscan and Scoresharp Today we announced the completion of our acquisition of Compuscan and Scoresharp in South Africa. This exciting moment creates a single, united Experian organisation that brings together the best of all we offer, not only for South Africa, but the wider African continent. Compuscan’s agile approach has driven its rapid expansion into six Sub-Saharan African countries, alongside emerging business in Australia and the Philippines. Combining Experian’s proven digital strategy with Compuscan and Scoresharp’s cost-effective operating model gives us an excellent foundation for Experian to expand into Africa. This is a commitment we’re serious about, and we’ve made the public commitment to spending at least R120 million on technological enhancements as part of establishing South Africa as an investment hub. For our clients and partners, this acquisition will see the combined organisation bringing new innovations to market, faster and at scale, enabled by our shared bureau data. Delivering additional resources for credit bureau information, decision analytics, marketing services, loyalty & rewards, and training. Allowing us to be more agile, more flexible, and to respond faster to the need of all the organisations and the people we serve. More importantly, this is a chance for us to drive financial inclusion across the region. It’s our intention to use this acquisition to accelerate our financial inclusion goals, bringing many more people into the credit economy and helping us create a better tomorrow for millions. I am delighted to be welcoming Compuscan and Scoresharp to the Experian family, and I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead as we drive towards our goals of greater financial inclusion and better data management across South Africa and beyond.
Technology revolutionizes the way businesses operate, but implementing change within a company is often challenging. Company-wide support is vital to successfully undergo a transformation. At Experian, in 2015, we underwent the task of moving from a traditional computing architecture to the cloud. This is a monumental transformation with our massive digital infrastructure and significant global reach, but it enables us to provide customers with real-time access to data. This journey is featured in the new book, Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change, by Greg Satell. Last year Satell’s first book shone a light on Experian’s innovation story. In his latest book he talks about the power of cascades – small groups, united with a common purpose – to drive transformational change within businesses. He gives examples of how some companies succeed, while others fail. Satell uses Experian as a case study and highlights how changes to our culture, organizational structure and skills is allowing us to adopt new technologies quicker, in better collaboration with our customers, to get cutting-edge, innovative products to market faster. At Experian, we believe in the culture of inclusion, which brings a culture of innovation with the added diversity perspective that empowers our people to continue to evolve and create valuable additions to the company during this transformation. Our philosophy is about advancing a culture that not only respects differences, but also actively celebrates them. In Cascades, Satell writes about the idea of small groups, loosely connected, but united by a common purpose. We asked the author for his thoughts about Experian’s technology journey, which he refers to as our digital transformation, and why he’s used Experian as a success story in his book. Q. What are your thoughts about Experian’s digital transformation so far? Satell: What attracted me to the Experian story was how closely it tracked with so many of the social and political movements I researched for my book. Senior leadership at Experian didn’t just try to push its digital transformation through. Rather, they identified those who were already enthusiastic and empowered them to bring others into the fold and they, in turn, could bring others in. That's how you create a cascade that leads to transformational change. Q. What has impressed you the most about Experian’s digital transformation, from both technology and human perspectives? Satell: What I found most impressive is that Experian is able to break free from decades of legacy and build a new future for itself. That's a very hard thing to do. You have all this infrastructure that served the business so well for so long. I mean you're talking about decades of investment. Still, the company leadership was able to step back and say, ‘That's our past and we're proud of it, but it's not our future’, and move forward from there. Q. Have you seen any examples of how our digital transformation is driving innovation within Experian? Satell: Well I think it has driven a lot. Things like Experian’s Analytical Sandbox, the Ascend platform and much of the current work around Artificial Intelligence (AI) wouldn't be possible without moving to more of a cloud infrastructure.
Today, we stand at the forefront of a digital revolution that is reshaping the financial services industry. And, against this backdrop, financial institutions are at vastly different levels of maturity; the world’s biggest banks are managing large-scale infrastructure migrations and making significant investments in AI while regional banks and credit unions are putting plans in place for modernization strategies, and fintechs are purpose-built and cloud native. To explore this more, I recently had the privilege of attending the annual Reuters NEXT live event in New York City. The event gathers globally recognized leaders across business, finance, technology, and government to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues. On the World Stage, I joined Del Irani, a talented anchor and broadcast journalist, to discuss the future of lending and the pivotal role of data and AI in building a more inclusive financial system. Improving financial access Our discussion highlighted the lack of access to traditional financial systems, and the impact it has on nearly 100 million people in North America alone. Globally, the problem affects over one billion people. These people, who are credit invisible, unscoreable, or have subprime credit scores, are unable to secure everyday financial products that many of us take for granted. What many don’t realize is, this is not a fringe subset of the population. Most of us, myself included, know someone who has faced the challenges of financial exclusion. Everyday Americans, including young people who are just starting out, new immigrants and people from diverse communities, often lack access to mainstream financial products. We discussed how traditional lending has a limited view of a consumer. Like looking through a keyhole, the lender’s understanding of the person in view is often incomplete and obstructed. However, with expanded data, technology, and advanced analytics, there is an opportunity to better understand the whole person, and as a result have a more inclusive financial system. At Experian, we have a unique ability to connect the power of traditional credit with alternative data, bringing a more holistic understanding of consumers and their behaviors. We are dedicated to leveraging our rich history in data and our expertise in technology to create the future of credit and ultimately bring financial power to everyone. The future of lending After spending two days with over 700 industry leaders from around the world, one thing is abundantly clear: much like the early days of the internet, today, we are at the cutting-edge of a technical revolution. Reflecting on my time at Reuters NEXT, I am particularly excited by the collective commitment to drive innovative, and smarter ways of working. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of how data and technology can transform financial services, and Experian is positioned to play a significant role. As we look to the future, I am excited about the ways we will create new opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.
The advertising ecosystem has seen significant transformation over the past few years, with increased privacy regulation, changes in available signals, and the rise of channels like connected TV and retail media. These changes are impacting the way that consumers interact with brands and how brands understand and continue to deliver relevant messages to consumers with precision. Experian has been helping marketers navigate these changes, and as a result, our marketing data and identity solutions underpin much of today’s advertising industry. We’re committed to empowering marketers and agencies to understand and reach their target audiences, across all channels. Today, we are excited to announce our acquisition of Audigent—a leading data and activation platform in the advertising industry. With Audigent’s combination of first-party publisher data, inventory and deep supply-side distribution relationships, publishers, big and small, can empower marketers to better understand their customers, expand the reach of their target audiences and activate those audiences across the most impactful inventory. I am excited to bring together Audigent’s supply-side network as a natural extension to our existing demand-side capabilities. Audigent’s ability to combine inventory with targeted audiences using first-party, third-party and contextual signals provides the best of all worlds, allowing marketers to deliver campaigns centered on consumer choices, preferences, and behaviors. The addition of Audigent further strengthens our strategy to be the premier independent provider of marketing data and identity, ultimately creating more relevant experiences for consumers. To learn more about Experian and Audigent, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/ and https://audigent.com/.
When it comes to cybercriminals and threat vectors, we need to expect the unexpected. Experian’s 12th annual Data Breach Industry Forecast highlights several potential trends for 2025, with AI playing a central role. This year has already seen more data breaches and impacted consumers than 2023, indicating that global data breaches are not slowing down. Some things to watch out for next year includes the potential for more internal fraud. As companies train employees on AI, there is a growing risk that some will misuse their knowledge for internal theft and sourcing sensitive information. Another trend may be cyberattackers targeting large data centers, with the growth of generative AI introducing power as a new attack vector. It’s reported that a single ChatGPT query uses significantly more electricity than a standard Google search, making data centers and cloud infrastructure vulnerable, especially in countries with varying security standards. We expect AI-related attacks to dominate the headlines next year and investments in cybersecurity will increase to tackle this emerging threat, as hackers leverage AI for phishing, password cracking, malware, and deepfakes. Jim Steven, Head of Crisis and Data Response Services at Experian Global Data Breach Resolution in the UK, anticipates that global data breaches will persist at their current rate next year. He notes that ransomware attacks are likely to become even more sophisticated with the integration of AI. Additionally, Steven predicts that threat actors will escalate their tactics to achieve greater rewards, and the misuse of consumer data to damage reputations will increase in 2025. To access the complimentary report, click here.