Making data work for business isn’t just about collecting numbers – it’s about turning those numbers into actionable insights that drive profit. Through her work at Value of Insights, Daniela Leon Cornejo has proven this by transforming a struggling $2 billion credit card portfolio from negative returns to substantial profitability. Her approach combines sophisticated data analysis with practical business strategies, showing how proper implementation of business intelligence can revolutionize financial performance.
Improving an Unprofitable Credit Card Portfolio
When Daniela encountered Banco de Crédito’s portfolio two years ago, it was facing persistent challenges. “The credit card portfolio, around 2 billion – 30% of BCP retail portfolio – had been unprofitable for years, stuck in a negative 1.5 ROA,” she explains. The problems stemmed from four key issues: static pricing despite evolving risk profiles, passive commercial management, siloed decision-making between teams, and limited forward-looking insights. Rather than applying quick fixes, Daniela implemented a comprehensive transformation strategy. “Instead of applying isolated short-term fixes, we created a business intelligence capability as a foundation for performance transformation,” she shares. This approach focused on integrating data analysis across all aspects of the business.
Building a Framework for Success
The transformation strategy centered on four main components:
Data-Driven Repricing
The first pillar focused on strategic repricing based on data insights. “Using BI, we could reveal what part of the portfolio was not performing adequately and needed adjustments,” Daniela notes. Her team moved swiftly but systematically: “The first year we repriced around 50% of the portfolio. On the second year we were already around 70%.” This methodical approach allowed them to adjust interest rates significantly while maintaining a careful balance with customer relationships.
Forward-Looking Management
Instead of relying on past performance alone, Daniela’s team revolutionized their approach to forecasting. “We changed discussions from mostly retrospective to using business intelligence integrating forecasting abilities,” she explains. This shift enabled the team to spot potential issues before they became problems: “We could anticipate performance trends, identify gaps very early, and take corrective actions before issues materialized.”
Precision Targeting
The third component focused on smart segmentation through data analysis. “Having these business intelligence dashboards gave us a very good look at how different subsegments were working in terms of profitability,” Daniela shares. This insight allowed her team to make targeted interventions – growing profitable segments while strategically exiting unprofitable ones. Each decision was backed by solid data rather than gut feelings.
Team Integration
Perhaps most crucially, Daniela implemented a new operational model that brought teams together. “We created a tactical commercial process where all teams were working together, looking at the same dashboards,” she explains. This unified approach transformed their decision-making process: “That led us to better diagnosis and timing – we could align execution across teams in a weekly strategic cycle.” The result was faster, more coordinated responses to market changes.
Practical Steps for Implementation
For companies looking to improve their data usage, Daniela emphasizes that extensive resources aren’t necessary. “Companies don’t need a huge regiment of people to do these types of things. In fact, in our case our team of business intelligence was two people,” she points out. She recommends three key strategies:
- Ensure Data Quality – “The worst thing we can do is make data-driven decisions constructed over a dataset that is not correct,” she cautions.
- Start With the End In Mind – “Think about how do we want this process to be? How do we want to make decisions? What kind of questions do we want to answer?” Daniela advises.
- Break Down Silos – “When companies integrate different teams and they all look at the same level of information and talk about the alerts they find in data, they can really advance in terms of solutions,” she explains.
Daniela sees artificial intelligence as key to making business intelligence more accessible. “The problem why business intelligence hasn’t adhered so much is because it’s a bit for people that know about business intelligence, and not many companies have that kind of profiles in their workforce,” she notes. Through her company Value of Insights, Daniela continues to demonstrate how proper implementation of business intelligence can transform performance. “Intelligence can turn underperforming products into high-performing assets, like the Credit Card portfolio which had a significant turnaround from 1.5% negative ROA to 2%+ positive ROA,” she states. “Insights are really powerful, and that’s why I worked around that concept in Value of Insights.”
To learn more about Daniela Leon Cornejo and her approach, check out her LinkedIn profile.
