5 Winning Data Management Strategies:
The Next Step For Chief Data Officers
Establishing Your Data Management Strategy: The Next Step For Chief Data Officers
Introduction
The first Chief Data Officer may have been appointed back in 2002, but it’s only very recently that widespread
adoption of this role has been seen. The advent of big data & analytics has prompted companies to appoint CDOs
to oversee the ambitious and costly data projects currently being seen across industries.
However while the role is fast becoming more common, the minutiae of the data strategy CDOs will be overseeing
is still very foggy. Companies look to data for answers, however many are still also grasping at the questions.
This eBook outlines and compares five different big data approaches which you can draw upon to build a forwardthinking and innovative strategy. Each approach is currently used by the few companies currently leading the way
in this exciting new field.
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Establishing Your Data Management Strategy: The Next Step For Chief Data Officers
Adopting a start-up mentality
Big data & analytics are still very much in their formative years. The possibilities and potential applications for data
analytics are virtually endless, and during this period of discovery, there is an unprecedented opportunity for
experimentation.
‘Fail fast, fail often, fail forward’ is an often trumpeted start-up mentality more readily found in Silicone Valley, but it is
as applicable here as it is anywhere. Where there is new ground to tread, and new technologies to experiment with,
failures, big or small, are almost inevitable. The key is to ensure these are properly considered and calculated failures
to mitigate cost and risk. Once you’ve embraced this approach, you free up your staff to truly experiment, and take
educated risks for the long-term benefit of your company.
Adopting a start-up mentality to your data management model is a mindset; for Hugues Le Bars, CDO at Neopost
Technologies, "it's not the investment that counts, it's the behaviour.“
Start-up also calls for collaboration - breaking down data silos and overcoming the insulated approach to IT which has
taken hold in most industries. James Hanscomb, CDO, Tenth Avenue puts it best when he says it’s about
“democratizing access to data”, which in turn encourages a culture of discovery and innovation, granting people the
“power to use data to make people sit up and think ooh that’s magic.”
Hugues agrees, “create a culture of data sharing" to break down the ownership and silo mentality of data owners and
drive innovation.
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Establishing Your Data Management Strategy: The Next Step For Chief Data Officers
Housing data within finance
For some, data and analytics is less its own beast, and is instead intertwined with other key departments.
Companies known for being data-driven organisations, companies like eBay, PayPal and MoneySupermarket.com for
example, deploy their data analytics with finance at the forefront.
The reality of this means that each and every data project is closely tied with finance, and requires sign-off from the
finance team prior to implementation. More than this though, projects are green-lit based on solid financial numbers
and risk-assessment at the monetary level, which may mean for less “start-up” but does mean for a little more
certainty with each roll of the dice.
This doesn’t mean the task is any easier however, Ilda Dajci, a data and analytics expert at AXA explains that it’s “not
and easy journey, each project has different difficulties and different dimension.”
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Establishing Your Data Management Strategy: The Next Step For Chief Data Officers
Data for customer-centric thinking
In a recent survey, we discovered that the top-two objectives for companies investing in big data were “improve
customer experience and customer relationships” and “a better understanding of customers and their habits” – in
short, for many businesses big data is all about the customer!
Making the consumer the focus of your big data efforts is a solid investment for your time and resources. Knowing
your customer better, anticipating their needs… mapping their DNA if you will, will pay dividends further down the
road in customer retention and increased sales. Many companies are intelligently using big data to this end – Amazon
and eBay for example - and are successfully distinguishing themselves from the competition in the process.
Antoine Bonello, Global Head of Process Improvement at Betfair summed it up quite nicely in a past interview with PEX
Network, "You have - in ones and zeros - the customer’s behaviour. It is not speculation, it is not what the customer
thinks - it is actually what the customer has done so it helps any company understand the customer better and better
anticipate what the customer might need, which is very powerful."
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Establishing Your Data Management Strategy: The Next Step For Chief Data Officers
Data to drive innovation
Another possible strategy is to use your data and analytics resource to identify new products and business
opportunities. By tracking customer interaction with your products and services, and more importantly acquiring
customer feedback, businesses are able to pinpoint gaps within their portfolios and accurately determine whether
there is an unmet need or opportunity.
One example of this would be Market IQ, a product launched by MoneySupermarket.com that offers customer insights
to insurance companies. The product made the company approximately £2m in additional revenue in 2012 and has
since grown to approximately 5% of their annual revenue.
Analytics is the key for new business opportunities. Analysing the data, understanding customer habits and acting on
the insights gained could open up revenue streams you hadn’t previously considered.
A retailer might notice correlation between customer spending habits and the way customers navigate their website,
allowing them to redesign their online experience to provide a new, clean sales experience for their online audience,
for example. In short, if your focus is new business and revenue streams, this would be the model for you to adopt.
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Establishing Your Data Management Strategy: The Next Step For Chief Data Officers
Data for the risk-averse
Data isn’t just for experimentation or product discovery, intelligent data usage can also save your company from
damaging losses and costly mistakes.
Many companies currently use data analytics to accurately forecast markets and sales figures, you can also use data to
look for patterns in behaviour or environmental elements that may impact the business.
The practice extends to many industries, telcos, retailers and insurers are equally keen to mitigate risks on future
investment.
A good example of this would be AIG, David Pardoe, Head of Science (EMEA) told us last year how they use data to
mitigate risk when assessing new clients or claims. They package the data for use internally as well as for the use of
their clients, so that their clients might have a better “understanding where their biggest risks are” and so can
accurately “mitigate these risks.”
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Want to learn more? The Chief Data Officer Forum
Explores the evolution of business transformation under the digital
stewardship of the Chief Data Officer.
The exciting role of the Chief Data Officer and the remit for executive digital stewardship is still an
evolving process. Join the global Chief Data Officer forum: the strategic opportunity for Chief Data
Officers to evaluate, debate, and gain insight from other digital leaders using insight to drive
action and transform their organization - exclusive to executives only.
Key questions to be addressed include:

How are CDO’s changing their business through data insight led action?

What is the impact for data driven transformation and how is this measured?

Do organizations include digital skills as a key component in their workforce plans?

How to ensure digital leaders stay at the forefront of digital and analytics skill?

What will the decreasing life cycle for digital skill sets mean for transforming business
models?
http://www.chiefdataofficersummit.com
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