So You Think You Want to be a Chief Data Officer?
According to Gartner, 90% of enterprise organizations will have a Chief Data Officer by the end of 2019. For organizations focused on digital transformation initiatives, that’s good news. The bad news? Gartner also predicts that by the end of 2019, only half of those CDOs will be successful.
There’s a lot that goes into the CDO role today. Depending on your background and experience, you may need to invest some time developing extra skill sets to succeed.
First, let’s take a look at the role. Today’s CDO stands at the crossroads of IT and business, typically responsible for defining the data and analytics strategy for his or her organization. This has implications for IT teams that manage enterprise data as an asset, breaking down siloed data stores and databases, making information easier to find and use by all, and delivering the means to transform a growing deluge of data into consumable and collaborative insights.
Issues related to data governance, data quality, and regulatory drivers also represent formidable forces to address in the way technology is deployed. A CDO must be in tune with the these issues to create and support the deployment of a viable data strategy.
On the business side, the role requires leadership and team building skills, as CDOs should serve as the chief change agent for advancing a data-driven culture. The CDO should serve as a strategist, evangelist, and moderator able to negotiate between results-hungry, data-craving executives and IT.
A CDO role provides the opportunity to drive new value and revenue for an organization, while simultaneously delivering cost savings. Gartner estimates that 80% of successful CDOs will have value creation or revenue generation as their first priority through 2021, up from less than 50% in 2016. You might be getting the picture now on why Gartner predicts that only half of Chief Data Officers will succeed.
