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The evolving role of the Chief Data Officer

The evolving role of the Chief Data Officer 

Data has become a big part of organization decision making and success. Organizations rely on data as a predictive tool for making decisions such as target market, how much product to produce, and upcoming trends they can take advantage of. With such a greater emphasis on data and data quality, more and more organizations are hiring Chief Data Officers and considering their role to be an essential part of the executive team.

With the emergence of such a new role, the associated job descriptions of Chief Data Officers, or sometimes called Chief Analytics Officers, vary drastically from organization to organization depending on the organization’s needs. As with all change, there are some who hesitate or don’t understand the importance and need for change. For many stakeholders this is the case, as stakeholders need to understand the importance of the CDO’s work before they will buy-in.

Without a narrowly defined role, CDO’s have a lot of leeway for shaping their jobs, much like entrepreneurs. With a business focus and a understanding of the strategy and direction their organization is heading, CDO’s find a way to accomplish their objectives by using data.

Many organizations are even combining the roles of Chief Data Officer and Chief Analytics Officer into one, because data only becomes useful when it is good quality and once it can be explained by means such as analytics.

With the growth of the role, certain trends and patterns are being set and followed for the progression of the CDO role, but there is still a lot of room for change.