It is widely understood now that data drives business success. Data today is understood as a strategic asset – a critical ingredient for business innovation, and the currency for digital transformation. Data is now increasingly “owned” by business leaders, partnering with IT to realize the greatest value from their data. For many enterprises, this has... more
The best IT leaders will play a strong and active role in the business strategy process. Their role is not just to “be the implementers,” but to advise the business on technology and data issues, and to ensure that the data architecture will support the business strategy in the near terms and in the future.
Somebody at a conference once said to me: “Nobody knows what the role of a Chief Data Officer is, and if they did, they would not take the job!” That was 18 months ago, and even though the definition of the CDO role has clarified a great deal, but the improved role clarity has not reduced the challenge one iota.
From the recent, MITCDOIQ event, I have already shared the “7 reasons why the CDO is here to stay”. Today, I want to dig in on the key functions of the CDO. To do this, I will use the football analogy suggested by Tom Davenport during the event. With this analogy, Tom claimed that CDOs need... more
While the answer to this question will take time to answer, it is clear now that digital disruption is the reason that Chief Data Officers (CDOs) often get hired in the first place. This is a finding of research recently conducted by Forrester Consulting for Informatica. The research will be released at The Digital Disruption... more
Congratulations to BJ Fesq, Chief Architect & Chief Data Officer at CIT Group, who received the 2015 Overall Information Technology Leader Award from Ventana Research. This award recognized BJ for his work to enhance CIT Group’s data management to comply with new regulatory requirements. With their latest acquisition, CIT Group has crossed over the $50B... more
“Data management is commanding a place in boardrooms through the Chief Data Officer,” says Poornima Ramaswamy, Associate Vice President, Enterprise Information Management & Analytics Practice from Cognizant. “Executives recognize the big impact of data on business outcomes. Data is getting its own strategy, its own office, and its own mandate.” The two of us discussed... more
Who remembers the closing scene in the James Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan? Elektra: I could have given you the world, James. Bond: The world is not enough. How does James Bond fit into the world of data? Focusing Solely on product information is short sighted thinking, if your customer is at your heart. Have you... more
Data changes from ownership to access, this is a new paradigm is happening in the digital workplace. Last years with the growth of omnichannel, the growing devices along the customer journey I talked a lot about the information overload for customers. Studies have shown that your typical social media user consumes 285 pieces of content daily, which... more
Forget degrees from Harvard or MIT, forget NoSQL, Hadoop or OBIEE. These are all powerful tools but they will not win you the face-off. It starts with who you are (or are not), who or what you are going up against and what has happened in the past. Why should martial arts be a job requirement... more