IS6050 Continuous Assessment – Written Assignment (50%)
Background: In class we closely examined the challenges organizations face in trying to become more data driven. In particular, we examined the relatively new role of Chief Data Officer (CDO) and the challenges and responsibilities they have in trying to guide organizations along the data driven path.
The challenges facing the newly appointed CDO can be described broadly as falling under one of three categories; people challenges, technical challenges, and organisational challenges.
You are required to write an essay that discusses the above statement and in particular, how CDOs may go about meeting these challenges. Where possible please include real-world examples that can support the arguments in your essay.
Licensed for Distribution 10 Ways CDOs Can Succeed in Forging a Data-Driven Organization Published 22 May 2019 - ID G00378249 - 24 min read Data and analytics leaders face 10 common issues that, if ignored or minimized, can undermine their effectiveness. Applying these best practices will improve the likelihood of success for their role and for critical information initiatives. Overview Key Challenges · Data and analytics leaders may not recognize that the definition of data and analytics success is to become an enterprise engine of value creation. · Culture and data literacy are the top two roadblocks for data and analytics leaders. · “Information as an asset” is a popular idea, but a scarcity of asset management standards, unfamiliarity with data monetization and a lack of experience prevents data and analytics leaders from driving value from data. Recommendations To achieve success in their role, data and analytics leaders, including chief data officers, must: · Establish clarity for the CDO’s role and purpose by defining and advocating the role’s vision, priorities and scope. · Transform their enterprise by prioritizing cultural change and fostering a data-driven orientation. · Apply asset management disciplines to select information assets and borrow ideas from other industries and competitors to monetize their data. · Apply all of these 10 best practices to aid the data-driven transformation of their enterprise. Strategic Planning Assumptions By 2022, 90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset, and analytics as an essential competency. By 2022, 30% of CDOs will partner with their CFO to formally value the organization’s information assets for improved information management and benefits. By 2023, data literacy will become an explicit and necessary driver of business value, demonstrated by its formal inclusion in over 80% of data and analytics strategies and change management programs. Introduction The chief data officer’s (CDO’s) mission has shifted from risk mitigation to creating business value with data assets. “Enhance data quality, reliability and access,” “Enhance analytical decision making” and “Drive business or product innovation” are the top three business expectations for the data and analytics team in Gartner’s most-recent CDO study.1 Although appointment as a CDO does not guarantee success, we offer 10 best practices you can apply to transform your enterprise into a data-driven organization. Analysis Define the Vision, Priorities and Scope of Your CDO Role For many organizations, the CDO role is still new, untested and somewhat amorphous. In these circumstances, the scope, priorities and responsibilities of the CDO’s role can quickly become inflated. It seems that once a CDO is hired, regardless of how small the associated budget, resources and team, every data problem that crops up, however minor, seems to fall into their lap. The problem of defining and aligning priorities, while leaving a buffer zone of flexibility for new things that come up, is a common one for almost any leadership role. To achieve clarity of role and purpose CDOs should act quickly and decisively to determine the data-driven ambitions of the enterprise, set their scope and actively communicate their role. There’s no absolute right or wrong to this determination. The critical issue is, don’t leave these items up for grabs: · Take the lead in defining your enterprise’s data-driven ambitions and the necessary governance changes to achieve these. · Craft a bold, inspiring mission statement, and then build programs that deliver indisputable value. · Establish your CDO role and shape the basic perceptions that others will associate with your subsequent plans and actions. · Proper preparation, assessment, planning, acting, measuring and, above all, communication can greatly enhance your chances of success. · Learn how to create the influence models that identify your target audiences, how to reach them, the prescriptions to advance your objectives and the metrics to measure your success in reaching them. · Avoid overemphasis on tactical actions and decisions. Our recent CDO survey highlights this potential blind spot for CDOs. The tactical bias is evident in the responses regarding the organization’s operating model — where doing is more of a focus than those elements that build organizational muscle for the future (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Balance Tactical and Strategic Priorities in Your Operating Model CDOs should strive to balance strategic and tactical activities. Being driven by business goals is important, but most CDOs’ operating models skew toward being a service center rather than cultivating data-driven competencies across the enterprise. The lack of attention to training and coaching, to self-sufficiency and to consultative engagement reflects an obsession with short-term achievements and a never-ending thirst for delivery. It is essential to nail down the scope and purpose of your role as soon as possible, but expect them to change over time. Set and agree on some concrete starting expectations and make these a part of your influence plan for all stakeholders. Further reading: · “Dare to Dream! Give Your Data and Analytics Programs a Mission to Transform Business and Improve the World” · “Start Your Data and Analytics Strategy With a Clear Value Proposition” · “The Chief Data Officer’s First 100 Days” · “How Data and Analytics Leaders Can Create Effective Influence and Communication Strategies” Forge a Partnership With Your CIO As a CDO, you are mostly likely to encounter a CIO who enthusiastically welcomes the introduction of your role. But some CIOs see this new role as a direct affront, if not a threat to their dominion, and a “watering down” of their responsibilities and influence. “Information” is the CIO’s “middle name,” but they are rarely able to give enterprise information the attention it deserves. In talks with Gartner clients, many CIOs express anxiety over the CDO role. This anxiety frequently relates to reporting relationships. Most CIOs ask if the top data and analytics leader must report outside IT. The answer is “no,” and they need not be concerned even if they do. This introspection is usually a sign that the CIO knows the organization needs to do something different, and they want to do what is best. That said, the CDO role is most often a business-reporting role. In Gartner’s 2018 CDO Survey, 49% of respondents reported to a top business executive (CEO, COO, CFO). This was up from 45% in 2016 and 48% in 2017. Likewise, 22% of respondents in 2018 reported to a top IT executive (CIO, CTO); down from 23% in 2017.2 A business-reporting CDO may create uneasiness for an established CIO, but it may be the only way to show the importance of data and analytics. In many larger enterprises — and those of all sizes within certain sectors — the CIO role has become extremely difficult and complex. When the CIO is responsible for the infrastructure, innovation and leadership that run digital businesses, it is more than a full-time job. Where there is a lot of regulation, legislation and even litigation, the CIO may lack the time or expertise to function as the head of information governance or that of monetizing and exploiting data. Such CIOs are more likely to appreciate a CDO. Accordingly, a CDO must understand the immense pressures on the CIO. From an enterprise perspective, CDOs and CIOs have many shared executive relationships, and the success criteria for each role indicates that one cannot succeed without the other. As a CDO, don’t hesitate to seek coaching or mentoring on relationship building. Again, clearly defining your role and, especially, having the CIO involved in this process can help. The concerns of top CDOs are very similar to those of top CIOs — innovation, digital transformation and business strategy are the three most-cited non-IT responsibilities that top CIOs have in addition to their IT responsibilities. An enterprise cannot succeed in these endeavors without the teamwork of these key executives. Those that compete against each other only damage other critical executive relationships and inhibit everyone’s ability to achieve the desired enterprise outcomes. As your organization’s top data and analytics leader, you should create a strong working relationship with the CIO. Understand their goals and how they are measured and engage them in areas that drive mutual success. The CIO should do likewise. Further reading: · “Improving the Working Relationship Between the Chief Data Officer and the Chief Information Officer” · “CDO Reporting Relationships Can Make or Break Your Information Management Program” Build a Data-Driven Enterprise, Not a Department Today, the potential for data-driven business strategies and information products is greater than ever. For some enterprises, data and analytics has become a primary driver of their business strategy. It is a part of everything they do. Genuinely data-driven enterprises ask themselves different questions, such as: · “With this data, or this type of insight, how could we fundamentally change the value propositions for our customers?” · “How can we deliver new value propositions?” Conceiving and answering these types of questions requires an expanded set of data and analytics competencies. It is not just the data and analytics department, but the entire enterprise that gets involved. Achieving data and analytics success over your competitors requires a much more expansive role for data and analytics in business value generation, and therefore in everything your organization does. This expansive approach fundamentally changes the data and analytics team’s orientation and work: · It demands building new enterprise competencies. · It broadens out the purpose of the office of the CDO from functioning solely as a service center that responds to requests. · It expands the role to being a problem-solving collaborator with an enterprise perspective about data and analytics, building communities of practice and developing competencies (see Figure 2). Figure 2. Develop Essential Data-Driven Competencies CDOs should deliberately orchestrate the creation of competencies across the enterprise, ensure the consistency of distributed practices and build enterprise abilities that underlie future success. Further reading: · “Build a Data-Driven Enterprise” · “Survey Analysis: Where to Target Your Data and Analytics Investments to Improve Business Value” · “The 30 Capabilities That Your Analytics Center of Excellence May Be Lacking” · “5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Designing an Effective Data and Analytics Organization” Prioritize Cultural Change and Foster a Data-Driven Orientation The importance of a data-driven culture is shown in Gartner’s fourth annual CDO survey, which found that attending to a data-driven culture is, as in past years, most critical to CDO success (see Figure 3). Figure 3. CDOs Identify “Data-Drive Culture” as Critical to Success Some describe culture as “the collective conversations of an enterprise.” As a result, one cannot change the behaviors and belief systems of an enterprise without changing the conversations within it. The CDO is the source of leadership for fostering a data-driven business. But this role achieves its goals far more by influence than control. In fact, you can think of the CDO as the “chief data influencer,” working steadily to enable the organization to become increasingly data-driven in its decision making and operations, and in the behaviors of its people. This means that CDOs must engage with business and IT stakeholders at a human level, taking into account their motivations, desires and even emotions (see “How Data and Analytics Leaders Must Address Emotional Impacts to Foster a Data-Driven Culture”). In this way, the human context dovetails with the business context of digital transformation, business outcomes and workforce digital dexterity. CDOs should lead in three key areas of influence: · Demonstrating the business value of data. · Managing the effects on organizational culture of a data-driven approach to business. · Confronting the ethical implications of data and analytics. Significant cultural change is necessary to creating a data-driven organization. Therefore, CDOs must consciously address and reinforce the desire, attitude and behaviors that are needed to become a data-driven organization. Determining how to get started with a data-driven change management campaign is a vital challenge for CDOs and other data and analytics leaders committed to creating a data-driven culture. Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture. An information language barrier exists across business units and IT functions, rooted in ineffective communication across a range of stakeholders. As a result, data and analytics leaders, including CDOs, struggle to get their message across and to fully utilize key information assets. The increasingly pervasive nature of data makes it crucial for all employees to learn to “speak data” — to become data literate (see “Information as a Second Language: Enabling Data Literacy for Digital Society”). Data literacy is the ability to read, write and communicate data in context. This includes an understanding of data sources and constructs, analytical methods and techniques applied, and the ability to describe the use case, the application and the resulting value. In conjunction with attention to the data-driven culture, addressing better data literacy enables the skills, knowledge and aptitudes required to work with, interpret and act upon data (see “Getting Started With Data Literacy and Information as a Second Language: A Gartner Trend Insight Report”). Speaking a common data language results in: · Business leaders internalizing the expectation that data assets exist to be shared · Frontline associates taking responsibility for ensuring quality data · Stakeholders collaborating in conceiving and creating data-intense solutions · Employees “conversing” with data — using self-service tools — to discover new insights and opportunities Further reading: · “How Chief Data Officers Show Leadership in Influencing the Data-Driven Culture” · “How to Foster a Data-Driven Culture and Stakeholder Relationships That Last” · “How Data and Analytics Leaders Must Address Emotional Impacts to Foster a Data-Driven Culture” · “Data-Driven Decision Making: The Role of Emotional Intelligence” Focus Your Organization on Treating Information as a Business Asset Today, accountants don’t recognize information as an asset comparable to auto parts or pharmaceutical ingredients, or stock certificates. Yet, information clearly meets the core definition of an asset: something that is owned and controlled by an entity, can be converted to cash and