Editor’s note: Todd Goldman is VP of marketing at computer software firm Infoworks.io, Palo Alto, Calif. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared under the title, “Are CDOs being stretched too thin?”
Though NewVantage’s Big Data Executive Survey has been out for a few months, TechTarget recently posted what remains a timely piece on how the defining role of the chief data officer (CDO) is being perceived and evangelized within organizations today.
While most (63 percent) of the firms NewVantage surveyed have employed CDOs (where virtually none of them had just four years ago), many of them – including companies like Goldman Sachs, IBM and Ford – could not seem to agree on what the role of the CDO should be.
Let’s be clear: At its highest level, the CDO should be creating business value with data.
That’s it!
But let’s go back to around the same time when Gartner published the results of its own CDO survey. This one found two-thirds of CDOs were responsible for combining strategic endeavors that directly add value to the business with data management tasks. Wow, these CDOs can handle anything! Data quality, governance, master data management, information strategy, data science, business analytics – all while making sure the copier is always full of paper and walking everyone’s dogs at lunch, right?
Wrong.
The problem is many of today’s CDOs are being stretched too thin. They’re getting bogged down by discussions that the technologists should handle. They’re getting pulled away from the work that pushes the business forward. It’s like pulling aside the person responsible for pumping coal into the steam engine and putting him in charge of collecting passenger tickets.
CDOs should be focused on strategy. They should be zeroing in on how data can be utilized as a strategic business asset, deciding on the kind of information the business should be collecting and determining how it should be exploited. They should be partnering with IT to determine how that strategy and associated data-oriented processes should get implemented in technology. But IT should still be responsible for ensuring the technical implementation is properly executed.
Instead, many CDOs are getting mired in the details. Why? Because there isn’t enough knowledgeable talent available to take this off their hands. And so what’s happening is the CDO is prevented from being able to do much of anything that can be detected in terms of innovation that affects the bottom line and, as a result, businesses that think they got ahead of the game by hiring a CDO are still missing out on the big data revolution in a big way.
In short supply
It’s not entirely their fault. Big data-related skill sets are the “number one skill in short supply” for the fourth year in a row, according to the latest Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey. This talent will surely come in time. More and more schools are offering computer science at A-level of GCSE to help fill the gap. But what do you do in the meantime? Sit and wait? That’s probably not what your competitors are doing. That’s certainly not what Amazon is doing. Billions of venture capital dollars are going into big data technological innovation, with much of that focusing on automation, machine learning and AI. These solutions will take much of the manual work out of many day-to-day but extremely time- and labor-intensive tasks, allowing officers to focus on strategy while dramatically accelerating delivery of data projects for faster innovation and greater operational and competitive agility. There are many more companies that are similarly automating critical big data processes so as to free up human brains for more strategic and creative efforts that can ensure their big data is being converted into productive data.
But businesses must realize this technology needs to be adopted now. Big data is no longer in a wait-and-see moment. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, UPS, LinkedIn and Capital One are already deep into their big data journeys. If you’re still picking out your walking stick, you’re falling behind. By next year, Gartner says 90 percent of large organizations will have a CDO.
Many of them will know exactly what those CDOs are there to do. And many of them will have the technology in place that lets them do it.