The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of data: organizations facilitate better decisions and faster course changes during crisis based on what they learn from data. Management and technology consultancy BearingPoint’s new Chief Data Officer (CDO) survey reveals that while leadership roles in data and analytics come with different titles, they all ultimately involve the same responsibility: to drive data management and governance throughout the organization. According to the survey, only 41% of respondents indicate that their organization has a CDO office, out of which only 19% have reached a high maturity level.
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CDOs are responsible for more than just data management
The survey findings show that most companies see the data and analytics leader function as a pathfinder to increase competitiveness and address data governance challenges, whereas data security concerns seem to be less pressing. In the consumer and production industries, organizations appoint CDOs primarily due to business factors and the need to derive better business insights using data and analytics.
These sectors typically operate in highly competitive conditions with low margins, where innovation is paramount to compete by launching new products and improving operational efficiency. Unsurprisingly, for both financial and public services industries, issues with data quality, regulatory compliance, and the subsequent challenges with data management and governance are the main reasons to introduce a CDO office.
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Tomas Chroust, Data & Analytics and AI Leader in Germany, Switzerland and Austria at BearingPoint, explains: “Chief Data Officers need to shift the focal point further up the data value chain. Data availability, quality, and security are basic requirements; however, data leaders are expected to spend more time on data exploration and creating actionable business insights while playing a crucial role in promoting the data culture across the organization.”
Lack of talent is still an issue, but data literacy and cultural challenges are the biggest obstacles to success
Successful data and analytics leaders bridge the gap between technical and business stakeholders by advocating data-citizenship. The survey confirms the general communication challenge between business and technology stakeholders: a lack of data literacy, meaning the ability to derive, understand, communicate and act upon data, is the top challenge CDOs face when increasing the value of data and analytics, said 65% of respondents, alongside cultural resistance to change (56%) and a lack of talent (49%).
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