Unlocking the Value of a Chief Data Officer
The Big Data era has understandably spawned a great deal of hype within and beyond the technology community. Technologists and C suite executives alike share a growing interest in the concept of a Chief Data Officer (CDO) to help organizations take full advantage of the benefits of Big Data. As I approach my third anniversary as Schwab’s Global Data Officer (GDO), our equivalent role, I have seen tangible value in a formalized position to spearhead data initiatives and serve as the lead evangelist for data, since the opportunities extend well beyond what any one group can achieve alone.
The CDO community is new, largely still defining the role and trying to ensure we are not the first and last CDO for our enterprise. I have had the benefit of many interactions with this highly collaborative community at conferences and through peer exchanges. Though objectives may vary on the margin, most are seeking similar outcomes: to drive increased value and competitive advantage through data. Also, most are pursuing a relatively similar set of initiatives. If the CDO is in financial services, data governance is a must since our regulators are well focused on data management (a result of the financial crisis). Expanding data volumes and variety also drive a focus on Big Data technology, and almost every CDO I have encountered is building or expanding a centralized Hadoop-based ingestion layer. This offers the promise of enabling access to broader data sets at lower cost. Finally, master data management is a common thread whether party/client or product focused. At the recent Gartner Data and Analytics Summit, I was expecting to see a few dozen attendees at a discussion on how to create a business case for an MDM project; several hundred showed up.
The most successful CDOs will be the ones who can distinguish themselves based on the organizational followership they develop
When I became Schwab’s first CDO in mid-2014, most organizations seemed to be asking “do I need a CDO?” Now, with estimates suggesting most Fortune 500 firms have some form of CDO, the question has become “why wouldn’t you have a CDO?” Yet many questions remain. Where should the CDO report? What functions should be integrated into the role? Should analytics be combined with the CDO function? What technology disciplines, if any, belong with the CDO? What background will best drive CDO success?
Unlike the common strategic initiatives, the answers to these questions should be unique to each organization. I report to our CMO which puts me in the “two percent club” according to Forrester research, but this works very effectively at Schwab. We recognize that Marketing is quickly evolving, and data and analytics will fuel business growth. I have a peer that leads centralized analytics and another that leads technology operations and development. While some CDOs tend to view “data only” CDO roles as limited, this model can be highly effective, depending on an organization‘s data maturity and/or data objectives. It is here.
