Are you ready for the Chief Data Officer challenge?
The primary obstacle to becoming a data-driven business is that data is not readily available, leaving valuable insights unused in data silos. To overcome this hurdle, today’s companies are creating a new role: Chief Data Officers (CDO). Responsible for unlocking insights hidden in data silos, the CDO is tasked with improving data management, analytics and decision making. Duties range from organizational changes, to process and technology improvements, all with the goal of treating data as a corporate asset and gaining additional business value from data.
To achieve this, the Chief Data Officer drives change and implements a new culture of using and managing data. This corporate culture change requires the CDO to pull many strings in a gentle and coordinated way without disrupting the business. In fact, orchestrating the diverse activities of education, overcoming resistance, tearing down technical barriers, and implementing new data processes and technology puts the CDO into a data decathlon – the “CDO Challenge.”
It requires strong leadership, vision and a solid understanding of the market, the business goals and the organization’s capabilities to be successful. Focusing on communication and education is key to changing the mindset across the whole organization. Only a clear vision and a common perception of this vision sets the organization up for a successful transition into the data economy. But before any transition can be kicked off, the CDO will need a clear picture of the company’s strategy, the data available and the company’s capabilities.
Let’s take a closer look at the three main things a CDO needs to know to successfully handle the CDO challenge.
The first task for the CDO is a full understanding of the business goals. For example, digitalization is not an end in itself, but is key to achieving many organizational goals. What are these business goals? And how does data, available internally and externally, support these goals? All data governance activities should be based on business needs and be in support of the overall business goals to avoid implementing features for features’ sake. It is crucial for the CDO to prove business value for every activity initiated, and it’s easier if activities are aligned with the company’s goals.
Next up for the CDO is assessing the available data. The task of compiling the data elements available and creating a catalog to describe all data elements and its usage, helps the company, and the CDO, unlock hidden insights. The goal of this assessment is not to find anomalies within the data, but to fully understand what data can be used to help accomplish the goals of the business.
