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

Getting senior management (Exec. Board members) to fully realise the value of leveraging all of an organisations existing data, and how this can have direct benefits to both its business strategy and the operational efficiency of its business units.

How do you think Big Data will impact your industry?

Significantly, as it will be the main driver of efficiency gains within organisations - and most importantly, it will contribute to increased health and safety outcomes across the entire healthcare sector.

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?

It is a mixed bag, some do and some don’t. By collecting information/data currently used by those who don’t, and applying insightful analysis then presenting it in a way that is useful for the user, you can often convince them of the inherent value of their own information that they would not have seen otherwise.

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

I believe a good CDO is a combination of the following skills;

Analyst – understands how to analyse data (methods), has a strong interest in data/information, always wants to learn more from the data/information at hand, is always trying to get their hands on more of it!

Communicator – of ideas and concepts, and has the ability to pitch them to all levels within and outside of the organisation,

Coordinator – can organize and manage people, teams and other organisations to work together well.

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

As organisations start to see the value that CDO’s can bring in regard to a better understanding of the organisations business and how it operates, the CDO position will evolve to become an integral part of the organisations executive. The role will also be viewed as necessary/fundamental to the on-going success of an organisation.

Putting up a credible data analytics infrastructure is always a cost issue? How would you justify this to your company’s CEO/CFO?

One should always approach this by describing how the analytics infrastructure can support the business units it will be providing the reporting or analysis to - and often one can demonstrate ROI with some basic $ figures using something as simple as time/effort. However it is vital that one has the data owners/users fully involved and co-opted into their own reports and analytics - as they will be the ones who can most likely sway a reluctant or unconvinced CEO/CFO.