You Need a Chief Data Officer. Here’s Why. Eric D. Brown

Big data has moved from buzzword to being a part of everyday life within enterprise organizations. An IDG survey reports that 75% of enterprise organizations have deployed or plan to deploy big data projects. The challenge now is capturing strategic value from that data and delivering high-impact business outcomes. That’s where a Chief Data Officer (CDO) enters the picture. While CDO’s have been hired in the past to manage data governance and data management, their role is transitioning into one focused on how to best organize and use data as a strategic asset within organizations.

Gartner estimates that 90% of large global organizations will have a CDO by 2019. Given that estimate, it’s important for CIOs and the rest of the C-suite to understand how a CDO can deliver maximum impact for data-driven transformation. CDOs often don’t have the resources, budget, or authority to drive digital transformation on their own, so the CDO needs to help the CIO drive transformation via collaboration and evangelism.

“The CDO should not just be part of the org chart, but also have an active hand in launching new data initiatives,” Patricia Skarulis, SVP & CIO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said at the recent CIO Perspectives conference in New York.

Chief Data Officer – What, when, how

A few months ago, I was involved in a conversation with the leadership team of a large organization. This conversation revolved around whether they needed to hire a Chief Data Officer and, if they did, what that individual’s role should be. It’s always difficult creating a new role, especially one like the CDO whose oversight spans multiple departments. In order to create this role (and have the person succeed), the leadership team felt they needed to clearly articulate the specific responsibilities and understand the “what, when, and how” aspects of the position.

The “when” was an easy answer: Now.

The “what” and the “how” are a bit more complex, but we can provide some generalizations of what the CDO should be focused on and how they should go about their role.

First, as I’ve said, the CDO needs to be a collaborator and communicator to help align the business and technology teams in a common vision for their data strategies and platforms, to drive digital transformation and meet business objectives.

In addition to the strategic vision, the CDO needs to work closely with the CIO to create and maintain a data-driven culture throughout the organization. This data-driven culture is an absolute requirement in order to support the changes brought on by digital transformation today and into the future.

“My role as Chief Data Officer has evolved to govern data, curate data, and convince subject matter experts that the data belongs to the business and not [individual] departments,” Stu Gardos, CDO at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said at the CIO Perspectives conference.

Lastly, the CDO needs to work with the CIO and the IT team to implement proper data management and data governance systems and processes to ensure data is trustworthy, reliable, and available for analysis across the organization. That said, the CDO can’t get bogged down in technology and systems but should keep their focus on the people and processes as it is their role to understand and drive the business value with the use of data.

In the meeting I mentioned earlier, I was asked what a successful Chief Data Officer looks like. It’s clear that a successful CDO crosses the divide between business and technology and institutes data as trusted currency that is used to drive revenue and transform the business.

Originally published on CIO.com.

from Eric D. Brown https://ericbrown.com/you-need-a-chief-data-officer-heres-why.htm
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Marketers – You have too many choices Eric D. Brown

I have a little secret for everyone in the world of marketing: You have too many choices.

There are way too many technology platforms in existence today. Too many ‘tools’ and too many products.  You have too many choices when it comes to getting your work done. Let’s take a quick second to glance at Scott Brinker’s MarTech 5000 landscape:

I’m sorry, but that’s just too many choices; especially when put in the hands of people that don’t really understand the long-term implications of multiple technology platforms.

Sure, there may be a formal selection process (in my experience, there’s not…or at least it isn’t followed) and  rarely is there a strategic vision when it comes to MarTech. There’s a bunch of tactical ‘needs’ for why a particular type of platform is needed/wanted and even a hand-wave toward ‘strategy’ but rarely is there an in-depth review of how a new platform will make things better for the marketing team and the organization as a whole and (ahem…most importantly) help reach the strategic objective of the organization.

Too many choices can be a real problem.  Need an ‘optimization’ platform for A/B testing (or other optimization issues)?  I’m sure you can find 30 or 40 vendors out there selling some version of a platform that will do what you need it to do.  Do you take the time to run a thorough selection process or do you find the first one that fits your ‘right now’ need and your budget and push ‘buy’?  Based on my experience, people do the latter and pick the first one they find that does what they need to do.  They find a solution to the problem they have today with very little to no thought put into how that platform will integrate into their broader organization’s ecosystem and/or whether the solution will solve their problem tomorrow.

Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I love the possibilities that these choices offer an organization, but only if proper governance is used when selecting and implementing these choices.  Based on my conversations with clients and marketing /  IT professionals over the last few years, there’s very little of this happening.

Over the last 3 years about half the projects I been asked to be a part of are projects to help simplify the  ecosystem within an organization.  I’ve seen companies with over 100 platforms being used within the marketing team with very few of those systems able to talk to each other — and the lives of the marketing team had become a living hell because they had too many systems, too little control of their data and too little insight into what they are able to do, how to do things and who to go to for help.

What’s the solution?

There’s not an ‘easy’ answer.

It will take hard work, focus and a real drive toward reducing the complexity within your marketing organization.  Think of it as putting your team on a diet – a MarTech diet.  When you ‘need’ (by the way – its rarely a ‘need’ and usually a ‘want’ in these cases) some new function that you just can’t live without – check your existing platforms before going out to buy some new tool. If you are absolutely sure you don’t have the functionality in your existing platforms, take a look at what you’re trying to do and think about if its an absolute need and not just a ‘want’.  More importantly, think about the long term vision / strategy of the organization – how does ‘MarTech Platform X’ get you there?  If you can’t easily answer the question, it might be best to try to find a way to do what you need to do with your existing ecosystem.

 

from Eric D. Brown https://ericbrown.com/marketers-too-many-choices.htm
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