“Max is a dynamic individual who excels not only as a data governance executive but also as an athlete. He’s well placed to share that capturing key information and then interrogating that data leads to winning, whether it be in the boardroom or on the racetrack,” says Seth Adler, Editor-in-Chief, All Things Innovation.
High Performance Feelings
Building good structure, leadership, data practices and methods of working can improve performance on and off the racetrack. Goals from the racing side can be re-utilized in the corporate world, and vice versa.
Of racing performance and the precision of data science, Just says, “Data drives our decisions, including those with the feelings that we get out of the race car. I would argue that is an input, that it’s just less factual as what I get out of the data system. But the combination of both things, the feeling and the data elements that I get out of the car are those combinations. I use them to make decisions on what I need to do differently and what the car needs to do differently so that the next time we go out, our lap times are better.”
Marrying Profession & Passion Through Data
Driving is his passion. Data is his profession. All Things Innovation aimed to find out similarities between the two.
Just says, “In the past, if you think about it, businesses operated out of intuition. You had a strategy. You believed in that strategy. And then through some facts, some feelings, you would make decisions on how to take the company forward. But the reality is that as the times go by and we have so many new technologies that we use to run the company, the information that we get is a lot more rich than what it was 20 years ago. The companies that are truly successful are doing what we do here on the racetrack. They use that data to make decisions to improve both internally and externally, and those that don’t are struggling to cope with the times.”
Speed to Insight
“You cannot just blindly run data models and believe on the output software, because you must understand the context of it and be able to interpret the results of those models and pick a good one, one that perhaps isn’t as good, but perhaps carries on the road,” says Just. “Speed to insight. From the point you capture the data to the point that you make a conclusion and take action, it got much shorter. However, companies want to make the leap towards decision making and being data driven, as an organization. Not all companies are able to do that. They must make conscious decisions to become data driven.”
Revving Up Collaboration
“What I bring to the table is the driving element,” says Just. “Tanner brings in the knowledge and intimate knowledge on how the car is built, and Kevin brings the knowledge on how to set up the car. Between the three of us, if we weren’t collaborating and communicating effectively with each other on how to do things better, what I need to do differently, what the car needs to do differently. Leadership is what gets the group together, what allows us to set that winning mindset as a group.”
“Winning in the corporate environment isn’t winning a race, but it’s achieving another level of performance. It’s achieving a particular target, implementing a new system. Whatever that is, it must be hard, and we all need to be committed towards doing whatever we have to do to achieve it. As long as there is trust, you can achieve very difficult things.”
Driving a Winning Mindset
“What is a winning mindset to you?” asks Just. “In this context, it is to do everything you can to try to get the victory and to show up here thinking and visualizing yourself as going to the finish line first. I do feel that coming in thinking that you will win gets you closer. You may not get 100% to the objective in the end, but if you get 80% or 90% towards it in this one try, it’s progress.”
Editor’s Note: Check out the “Fast Data” preview in this blog. For the full Fast Data video, click here to visit our Discussions section, as Seth Adler and Max Just put the pedal to the metal to discuss the world of data science and racecar driving.
