Why the rise of the data executive is critical to achieving a competitive edge
Did you know that the 33-year average tenure of companies on the S&P 500 in 1964 narrowed to 24 years by 2016? The forecast says this number will shrink to just 12 years by 2027.
Businesses fail more frequently today than ever before, in part due to a lack of understanding around the correct implementation of data analytics and how to use business intelligence to lengthen tenure.
Enter the role of the data executive — or chief data officer (CDO).
The rise in prominence of data executives goes hand in hand with the increase of the use of data to strengthen and support a healthy business model. Every company must become truly data-driven to be successful in the future, and data executives play an outsized role in making it happen.
If you ask ten different data executives what they do, chances are they will give ten different answers. Twenty years ago, the role was first created to help bolster a company’s IT security. While this is still a priority, the data executives’ role has expanded and is now based around four pillars:
1. Operation — Making sure data is available to users who need it, in a format that’s usable and easy to access at scale.
2. Analytics and data science — This provides the necessary aids so the organisation can gain intelligence from data gleaned internally and externally.
3. Incremental improvement — Guiding the organisation to data-informed ways to decrease costs and gain efficiencies.
4. Governance and security — Ensuring enterprise and customer data is maintained, secured, and handled safely and deliberately.
Pressures and challenges of the data executive
The pillars mentioned above are important, but as data usage increases, the role of a data executive must expand to lead and govern in more areas within an organisation. This puts additional pressure on CDOs, who are already working hard to monitor an organisation’s operation, improvement, data and governance. These extra areas include value creation, data quality, availability and security, and data-driven culture.
Combining data, domain expertise, and an analytics platform opens up opportunities for new revenue for your company and a ton of new value for existing customers.
CDOs work hard to ensure data across the organisation is clean and correct. Furthermore, they must balance the competing demands of data security, access, and quality across sources and through subordinate organisations.
Even though data’s relevance has become apparent, efforts to create a data-driven culture have proven ineffective overall. CDOs are now instrumental in guiding departments to infuse intelligence into workflows, so employees engage with data automatically at critical decision-making points.
Organisations face constant challenges, including budget restraints, skill shortages, data education, and effective utilisation of work hours. These are only some of the issues that need to be solved.
