What would you consider as the biggest challenge faced by CDOs today?

Executive  management and indeed Regulator, recognition of data as being

pivotal  to the business strategy is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing

as  data  has  never  been  more  high profile and top of mind for Board

members  and  a  curse  as  the weight of expectation is huge.  Years of

neglect  has  meant  that  most organisations face an uphill struggle to

change  the  culture  to treat data as an asset and to make the data fit

for purpose.  There is no magic wand, not even with big data.

How do you think Big Data will impact your industry?

Big  data  gives  us  the capability to ingest and interrogate data on a

much  bigger  scale  and  in  a  much  more  real-time way than was ever

possible  before,  problems and opportunities can be spotted much faster

and trends that were invisible before become obvious.   Once the quality

of  the  data  can  be  assured,  real-time  data driven decision making

becomes more than possible.

In your opinion, do people, in general, in your organization appreciate

the  value  of data in decision-making? What do you think can be done to

improve the situation?

Short answer is yes, certainly at Executive and Management levels and we

are  running  a Group-wide programme of Training and Awareness to ensure

everyone who creates or corrects data is also fully aware.

How would you explain the role of a CDO to a fresh graduate?

The  CDO  is the person who sets the Vision and Strategy and Roadmap for

Data  in  an organisation, she is the Executive accountable to the Board

and to the Regulator, the person responsible for promoting best-practice

and championing quality and innovation, the one responsible for changing

the  culture  and  the  go-to  person  or  face  of  data internally and

externally.

How do you see the role of CDO evolving in the next 3-5 years?

Once  the  foundations of data management best practice are laid and the

entire organisation has become data aware, the natural progression is to

focus   on  using  the  now  trusted  information  to  improve  business

intelligence  and  insights.   The  focus  of most CDO’s in the next 3-5

years  will be on unlocking the asset using analytics and fostering data

innovation.

Putting  up  a  credible data analytics infrastructure is always a cost

issue? How would you justify this to your company’s CEO/CFO?

Start  by  stating  the  business  outcomes  and  outlining  how trusted

information  and  analytics  can  help to enable that outcome.  And then

remind  them  of the competitive landscape and how quickly it is moving.