10 trends shaping the chief data officer role
Data use continues to drive business across industries, shifting chief data officer responsibilities from a niche role for specialized industries such as finance into one every organization must consider.
The shift reflects a growing recognition across industries that data is valuable and that the CDO can help drive data strategy and build a data-driven culture.
In the early days, CDOs helped reduce the data infrastructure management workload for the IT department. The CDO now increasingly finds ways for data to streamline the business and pursue new opportunities. The following 10 CDO trends are shaping how the role is evolving.
New CDOs define the future of the role Data is everywhere, and business leaders increasingly acknowledge its critical importance. Only 21% of companies have a CDO, yet two-thirds of companies are talking more about data now than they did five years ago, according to PwC research. A good CDO can influence and advise companies about how to talk about data, how to gather the right data and how frequently, and how to do so for their benefit, said Dan Priest, cloud and digital leader at PwC. Sixty percent of CDOs are now members of the C-Suite, with oversight of enterprise-wide data, according to PwC research. This suggests that boards and CEOs are beginning to make a single executive accountable for data success and accountability. “Without a map to reference, CDOs hired this year will most likely be the first of their company to hold the title and ultimately define the future of the role,” Priest said.
High inflation is the death knell for big splashy data initiatives that take years to prove out. Inflation is the top trend shaping the role in 2022, said Matthew Halliday, co-founder and executive vice president of product at Incorta, an operational analytics platform. CDOs should consider how to quickly deliver stand-up solutions and real, tangible business outcomes while rooting out inefficiencies. The best strategy is to take a small step forward, show value and repeat. CDOs should focus on projects that directly impact the bottom line and can prove value quickly and at every step, Halliday said. More speculative projects may need to go to the back burner for the time being. CDOs should consider how to quickly deliver stand-up solutions and real, tangible business outcomes while rooting out inefficiencies.
Expect more CDOs to look for ways to link data and analytics to prioritized, measured business outcomes, said Todd Blaschka, chief operating officer at TigerGraph, a graph database platform. As part of this process, CDOs should extend their reach beyond data and analytics technical capability to be able to look at data stored across the organization. Next, they may need to attach data initiatives to monetization strategies. A great example is customer modeling. Chief data officers can develop new AI applications that examine the customer experience firsthand to look for ways that improve customer retention and drive more revenue.
CDOs may need to rethink cybersecurity in response to the growth of the data sources and volume of data, said Christopher Scheefer, vice president of intelligent industry at Capgemini Americas. These new and nontraditional data streams require additional methods of securing and managing access to data. “The importance of cybersecurity in a pervasively connected world is a trend many CDOs cannot ignore due to the growing threats of IP infringement, regulatory risks and exposure to a potentially damaging event,” Scheefer said. Rethinking and reimagining cybersecurity is no small feat. The level of complexity of integrating connected products and operations into the business presents an incredible amount of risk. Establishing proper governance, tools and working with cybersecurity leadership is critical.
