Your CDO should drive your digital transformation initiatives.

I had written about the role of CDOs last year. Today, there is a greater need for a one– not Chief Digital Officer, but Chief Data Officer (CDO) – the fast-emerging dominant member of the C-Suite.

With COVID-19 disrupting businesses, the need for a Chief Data Officer is more than ever.

Data has always been the fuel that powers insightful business thinking. A recent Economic Times report stated: “Companies across sectors like pharma, financial services, consumer goods and industrial are looking for chief data officers, chief analytics officers and chief data scientists.”

Bertram Schulte, Chief Digital Officer, SAP, says: “The role of customer experience is incredibly important for the CDO. It is even more important for the CDO to step into the role of orchestrator, bringing these units together into one digital motion to make sense for the customer and the business.”

Now the question is: how can companies leverage all of their data if they really don’t know what they have or even where it resides?

That’s where your CDO will play a dominant role. They will not only unearth the data from various sources, including sales, marketing, operations, and field force, but also intelligently cull out formidable insights that will help in quick decision-making.

CDO Facts & Figures

Driving Forces for Next Generation CDOs

Today, the driving force behind a CDO is characterized by four technological paradigms sweeping the world. They include – Agile Projects, Big Data, Digitization & Cloud Computing and Data, Security, Privacy & Ethics.

CDO’s Responsibility

The bigger slice of a CDO’s responsibility covers a) monetizing the data b) leveraging valuable insights to make accurate and informed decisions, and c) obtaining a competitive advantage.

Gartner also recommends that even mid-size enterprise CIOs make the case for the role of chief data officer, “as it’s crucial for improving business outcomes by making business more data-driven.” The CDO’s primary objectives should be to manage information assets, deliver insights to the business to improve decision making and generate incremental business value.

I would like to leave you with this thought  – with the new emerging technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Blockchain, have you identified your CDO who can drive and deliver digital transformation?

It’s quite apparent now that only a full-time Chief Data Officer who is passionate about data munching can pull off a digital transformation.