Reflections on the New Chief Data Officer

It was a pleasure to represent GoodData at the Chief Analytics & Data Officer Exchange in Ojai, CA. From my vantage point, attendees were engaged by the presentation and discussions GoodData led on “Unlocking the Value of Data – The Data Product Revolution.” A number of 1:1 meetings with senior executives further reinforced that something was different about these conversations.

Most of the attendees were Chief Data Officers (or similar, equivalent titles) from Fortune 100 companies. It struck me that, even over the last six months as I have been speaking with other executives about GoodData, there has been a noticeable shift in their mandate and mindset.

Classically, the persona of a newly-minted CDO was that of a senior IT or analytics professional – reporting into IT or the CFO – whose main concerns were data quality and governance; which open source technology to use for handling big data in order to better aggregate many data sources; and how to provide advanced analytics to the people in their organizations with the word “analyst” or “scientist” in their titles.

During this event, I saw the emergence of something different. Many of the CDOs I spoke with were thinking first about how to drive and grow their business, and only secondarily about feeds-and-speeds. One CDO I met with – from one of the largest banks in North America – actually reports to that company’s CMO. I almost fell off my chair when he told me that!

This is why GoodData’s message of unlocking the value of customers’ data by distributing it to their business networks was so well received. More forward-thinking CDOs like the ones I met at the Exchange will increasingly understand there are differentiating-solutions today that can help them create true value from the information they manage.

Unlock the Value of Your Data Investments
Join GoodData experts, customers, and industry peers in San Francisco on February 11th as we focus on turning data into your biggest asset. You’ll learn how distributing analytics to your business network will enable your team to:

• Generate new revenue streams
• Increase customer retention
• Improve partner and customer relationships

I look forward to meeting you at a future event. In the meantime, let’s connect on Twitter at @BlaineMathieu and @GoodData.