A deep dive into the equal way of being and doing things

Know Thyself. In a world where the volume of data doubles every two years, creating a sea of information where it is practically impossible to navigate without a compass, the practice of the famous phrase by the Greek philosopher Socrates – know thyself – becomes increasingly necessary.

Looking inward, understanding your values and purpose in depth before analyzing external data is probably the safest route to sail through this blue ocean. This advice applies to both individuals and companies.

So, that was my first action upon joining equalequal: taking a deep dive to get to know the intricacies of this universe called equal BI & Data EngineeringNice to meet you, I’m Mayara Rinaldi, the new Marketing Coordinator. I started my journey at the company in July 2024, with the mission of building the marketing department, which until then was under the responsibility of the CEO, André Azevedo.

Structuring the area is a challenge that deeply motivates me. And to kick off the work, I sought to understand our value proposition, our market differentials, our context. The use of the first-person plural possessive pronoun already shows that I’ve embraced the company, and this was one of the values emphasized by partner Vitor Rodrigues: having a sense of ownership. I feel aligned.

In this deep dive I took at equal, I spoke with 10 people. It was approximately 15 hours of interviews and 51,000 characters of notes. I could list several other numbers to give the text a “data-driven post” feel, but we know that disconnected information, without data intelligence, is just noise.

The richness of being data-driven lies in knowing how to look at what really matters and making sense of the information from a clear business perspective. This vision is one of equal differentiators in the data engineering and business intelligence (BI) market. And this was one of the insights about the essence of the company that I highlight from my data analysis of the interviews conducted.

The data extraction code I applied did not use JavaScript or Python but active listening. Before conducting quantitative analyses and looking at numbers, I wanted to hear who equal is from the perspective of those who make equalhappen. And the final result wasn’t a dashboard with graphs (although I love them and strongly believe in data-driven marketing), but this first-person narrative you are now reading.

I was very excited to see the willingness and collaboration of everyone during the interviews and to notice the alignment among the team members. It also brought me great enthusiasm to observe the partners’ commitment to creating a pleasant work environment and fostering both professional and personal growth for the team. They genuinely care about this, without demagoguery or empty promises, and this is also part of the company’s essence.

The conversations with partners and collaborators brought intangible data, information that is difficult to measure. What is on everyone’s lips is what equal does: “We help companies transform raw data into information that drives business results through technology and data engineering solutions.”

But how does this work in practice? What is the impact of a good decision on a business? What, in this data-driven work, sets us apart from competitors? What can we improve and evolve in our deliveries? 

I went after these answers, and it was interesting to observe that many people had never stopped to think about such topics. The lack of reflection on our daily activities is common. The human brain has its own ETL to automate routines and repetitive tasks, so we end up executing dozens of actions without assessing whether they still make sense as the process unfolds. I believe that this moment of pause and self-analysis was beneficial for the team.

Seeking answers to these sometimes intangible questions is essential for communication work. That’s why the self-knowledge phase is so important. It is this understanding that will allow us to relate well internally as a company and also with the market. 

And speaking of the market, two characteristics of our ideal client are also clear to everyone at equal:1. We want to reach medium-sized companies that; 2. Are aware of the importance of data for professional and efficient management. And from there, new questions arise: Who are these medium-sized companies in Brazil (and abroad)? Where do they live? What do they consume?

The dive into the interviews was actually the first meter of a descent into the equal sea of data engineering and analysis. After looking from the inside out, it’s time to seek new sources, understand market numbers, and conduct new research and benchmarks. 

Corporate self-knowledge is a continuous process that requires constant reflection and action. Just as with individuals, for companies, this practice is vital for sustainable, innovative, and resilient growth, ensuring long-term relevance and success in the market.

The answers to the intangible questions listed throughout the text will come in the next chapters of this work… brand voice manual equal, blog posts, social media content, events. My marketing work will be to ensure that equal communication is coherent across all channels and touchpoints and to bring these questions to more reflections.

Communicating our value proposition so that more companies can also use data to know themselves, and thus professionalize and revolutionize their management, is quite a challenge.

As partner Ricardo Siementcoski said, it takes many steps of maturity to go from complete data unawareness to using the potential of BI as a competitive advantage.

Even among our clients who arrived already aware of the importance of BI, the perception of the positive impact of our work was built gradually as deliveries were made, such is the disruption of what we do for our clients’ businesses!

How do you measure, for example, the satisfaction and happiness of an employee who no longer has to spend days on repetitive tasks, now automated by BI? How can we measure the productivity increase of this more motivated employee?

There is a famous saying in management: “What cannot be measured, cannot be managed.” I disagree and dare to suggest another approach: not everything that needs to be managed, like the work atmosphere among employees, can be easily measured; but everything that needs to be measured needs to be equal equal! 

That’s the message I, as marketing, want to communicate to the market.