After nine years at Walgreen Boots Alliance, James Lipton is well versed in all things data analysis. In his time with WBA he has worked across analytics teams covering healthcare, pharmacy, opticians, suppliers and now, after his return from Australia he is now a senior manager looking after a team of analysts working on household brands like No7 and Soap and Glory.

We really wanted to understand what analysts do and we couldn’t think of anyone better to tell us all about it. In James’ words the role of the analyst is all about helping the customer and the brand get to know each other. Analysts take data from what customers buy, how they buy and why they buy and use this to help the brands make the right decisions about what to offer the customer in the future. By looking at what customers are doing James’ team are able to make sure that the products offered by Boots are exactly what the customer is looking for.

If like us you thought the role of analyst was all spreadsheets and numbers, James is here to tell you it isn’t! Whilst he does say that you need to have a good head for maths, there is more to being a brilliant data analyst than just the numbers. Having a passion for doing the right thing for the customer is just as important and it’s clear James is both passionate about retail and delivering exactly what customers want.

The ambition is for Boots to have the best insights team and to really get between the customer and brand, all this means that Boots is making fantastic strides to ensure that they are always putting the customer first.

James’ advice for anyone thinking about a career as an analyst – speak to someone already doing the role, find out what they enjoy about it and ask as many questions as you can!