Insightly_Ep14
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Jordan Walker: [00:00:00] Well, hi, Alyssa. Welcome back.

Alyssa McGinn: Welcome back.

Jordan Walker: Yeah, if you are joining us for the first time on Insightly, Alyssa and I get together and we just have a lot of data, nerdy conversations that we would typically have in an office by ourselves. And we decided one day that we should share this with everyone else if they're interested.

So we kind of just talk about all things data and what interests us, what trends are happening, and like, especially what we see, you know, working with our clients in data [00:01:00] capacities. In today's short episode, though, we're going to focus on a role within data and talk a little bit about the evolving role of a chief data officer.

So I recently read an article in, I think it was Wall Street Journal, and it was talking about this evolving state of a chief data officer. Typically speaking,

chief data officers only tend to exist in large enterprise organizations. I think the statistic that was reported is four out of five large companies tend to have this role.

So you're thinking, ~you know, ~large companies that probably have like multiple departments, multiple divisions, and have a lot of customer data. And this could be any industry.

Alyssa McGinn: And when they say large, I'm thinking, like, large, large. Like, enterprise.

Jordan Walker: I have noticed, at least just in my own client portfolio, I have noticed more of a shift in seeing more [00:02:00] mid sized organizations adopt this role. And it's in, ~you know, ~industries where a lot of ~like ~customer and financial data is likely stored, so, which is really where the evolution of this role is.

Is kind of centered where the chief data officer historically has been focused on data security and data compliance. Yeah. Those have been typically the only major responsibilities of that role if a company hasn't turned them into a unicorn to do other things. Mm-Hmm.

Alyssa McGinn: typically, I feel like they're rolling CTO, CIO,

Jordan Walker: Oh yes.

Alyssa McGinn: CISO,

CDO all into one role that oversees all of that.

Jordan Walker: And that

Alyssa McGinn: maybe we'll get into that, but that's just a lot for one role. ~Well, all~

Jordan Walker: All of those are different levels of expertise, and I think we talked about this a little bit in one of our previous episodes where we were talking about like data infrastructure and moving things to the cloud so that it was more accessible. If you [00:03:00] are in charge of data security and compliance and all, and we've talked data privacy on one of these episodes too, like that is an evolving area within itself that I don't know how you can appropriately have a CDO, CTO, CIO, at least those three in one person. Like that's,

Alyssa McGinn: ~us. ~And, so I have a lot of friends that are fractional CFOs, or kind of in a CFO role, and they talk about how they're not doing the bookkeeping, they're not in the nitty gritty of, you know, reconciling the books or preparing taxes, they're really performing a strategic function, which is guiding the company financially and making, you know, really guiding the strategy, and I think the same has to be true with this.

Jordan Walker: Yes.

so the evolving role now, rather than it just being a chief data officer, it's now weaving in analytics. So the expectation is now turning more to a chief data and analytics officer. where there are four [00:04:00] key areas of responsibility that live in that strategic place that you were just mentioning. One is data governance and ethics, so of course that has to be a part of it.

And these CDO, CDAOs,

Alyssa McGinn: these CDO, CDAOs.

Jordan Walker: are responsible for not only how is the data stored, but how are we ethically using it to

Alyssa McGinn: Especially customer data. Exactly.

Jordan Walker: How are we ethically using it, especially because of like data privacy and all of these things, and You also have to be concerned about like, hacking, all of that

Data driven decision making. So, just, we were just having an episode about this where we talked about innovation and product offering. If you have this role on staff, this person should be sitting with the CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO, all of the C's, all of them, just bring them all into a room, right? This person should be helping take, these are the business initiatives, here is how we can use data to help us make great decisions, [00:05:00] here's what I can bring to the table with my team.

In some cases, data monetization is now a key responsibility. We talked a little bit about Amazon in our last episode.

Amazon definitely has, ~you know, ~monetization opportunities. Google has monetization opportunities. A lot of companies actually do, but that goes back into the ethics component of it.

Alyssa McGinn: So, this is something really interesting. I think data monetization has been historically understood as let us gather our data to then sell externally, but there's some different ideas and avenues of how data can be monetized now.

Even as an internal asset. And so, companies especially that are looking to buy and sell data is becoming something that's a balance sheet asset. And something that can be utilized internally to grow revenue. That's monetizing data, but that's not something where you're selling it. Like Google or Amazon is selling their data.

~It's something where it's monetized to grow revenue.~

Jordan Walker: [00:06:00] It's like a

Alyssa McGinn: bring money in some other way and then when you ~go to, if you do ~go to sell or even to acquire, like, that's truly an asset and I think historically as this is evolving, the data hasn't been seen as an asset. Like, people do, you know, due diligence on technology,

But is the data itself truly being seen as an asset?

~Which is a totally, a tangent rabbit hole, but ~I think monetization is more than just how can we add a revenue stream to sell this to someone else.

Jordan Walker: A good episode for those listening to tune into that kind of gets into this topic without saying data monetization is the interview that we had with Emily and Leah from Meritrust Credit Union because their roles on the growth strategies team ~is to, ~is to basically harness the power of data to create better member experiences, grow, you know, so.

Member profitability, all of those kind of

Alyssa McGinn: arguably they're monetizing.

Jordan Walker: They are monetizing data. ~Yeah.~

Alyssa McGinn: should do a whole episode on data monetization.

Jordan Walker: That's a good [00:07:00] idea. The fourth big area, and this is where analytics definitely starts to come in, is the fourth big responsibility that the CDAOs are now having to take charge on is data science and artificial intelligence.

So, you know, We hit on this a little bit in our last innovation conversation about, ~you know, ~a lot of companies want to get into artificial intelligence and really figure out how do we harness this to help us within our organization. But you have to have a foundation and you have to have that data, ~you know, ~stored in the right ways to be able to utilize it for artificial intelligence.

And that is now an expectation of the CDO. So again, when we're thinking about those. Unicorns of CDO, CIO, CTO, and now really understanding these four big

responsibilities. Like this is a validation for why you need one person or even like a contracted, ~you know, ~individual to help with that piece because ~it's, ~it's a lot.

Alyssa McGinn: [00:08:00] a lot, and

Even for a company that has I'd say, like a moderate amount of data, like, even if you're not an enterprise that has ~like ~gobs and gobs of data.

~Like, ~there is still so much that can be done with this, ~like, ~a client of ours is very much considered mid market, ~and they, ~but they have 8, 000 customers. ~And so it's like, ~there's so much customer data, ~there's ~so much~ you know, ~internal operational data, and ~they, I mean ~a company of that size could for sure handle, you know, a CDO type role, or even like a fractional CDO, because there's a lot of data to be harnessed and handled and strategized around.

Jordan Walker: Yeah, I think that's a good point. ~And you know, ~In these episodes we always try to acknowledge that there are challenges that exist.

~We don't wanna just make. It sound like all of this is super easy. ~One of the biggest challenges of having a dedicated CDO on staff is expense. These are highly trained experts, like very curious people who are constantly learning and cannot get complacent because of the responsibilities that they have.

Alyssa McGinn: Low supply, also high demand for that skillset.

Jordan Walker: [00:09:00] Yeah, yeah. So if you are a young person looking for a career path, maybe consider data, you know.

Alyssa McGinn: career path.

Jordan Walker: So yeah, the challenge is the expense of it, but you just hit on a good point that there are fractional opportunities. Or if you are in that stage where, you know, maybe you're not yet a mid size. Like maybe you're inching there, like you're gonna get there, you're kind of on that cusp.

Look for individuals in your market that you can, like as a consultant, bring in and just start to help you identify like, okay, what does my foundation look like now? What are the opportunities? Build out a roadmap. It doesn't mean that you have to start necessarily like working your way to a CDO, but if you can start thinking about what that would mean for your business and kind of taking stock with what you've got to work with now, when your business is ready for it, or when you're ready to like pull in a more dedicated, consistent person, then you have a foundation Yeah,

Alyssa McGinn: work with.[00:10:00]

Just data consulting someone that can help you audit understand what you have where you can go I mean because you're right like even bringing in a fractional CDO is still a big You know step and people feel like they have to be at a certain level to do that But I will say I feel like it's gonna be The way of the future.

Jordan Walker: Yeah.

Alyssa McGinn: for sure

Jordan Walker: One point that I want to make before we break this short episode is I have a note here about what are the benefits of the CDO role specifically to analytics, and one of the things that I really loved about the Wall Street Journal article that I read is that~ one of the points it made made was ~CDAOs know how technology and people work together, and I think that is something that is so important about this role is it's not just the responsibilities over these, ~like, ~big, ever changing, evolving areas in data and analytics, but ~it, ~these are individuals who ~you know, they're, they ~are used to collaborating and figuring out how do we integrate technology appropriately for the people.[00:11:00]

And so that it doesn't cause additional like tension or friction or how do we roll it out appropriately so that it is utilized appropriately. And I love that because what that ends up doing is it essentially like integrates all of that. This role helps integrate the entire value chain within a, an organization, so.

Which

Alyssa McGinn: ultimately createss culture. Yes. Like we've talked a lot about data culture. ~Yeah. ~And I think that's something that could be even like a fifth point on a role. ~Yeah. ~Like for areas, it's like a fifth area is like data

Jordan Walker: Data culture.

Alyssa McGinn: ~And that's, I mean, I feel like that's a big endeavor. ~And I will say like, I think having someone that's technically. capable and strategically minded and knows people

Jordan Walker: that's

Alyssa McGinn: That's

Jordan Walker: that's a triple threat.

And if you are in one of these roles, we want to talk to you. I would love to live in your brain for one of these, like for an interview and just see like, how did you get into it? What are the things that interest you and how have [00:12:00] you helped develop a data culture? Because that is a key component for literally everything that we're talking about.

If anyone is listening and they are. Getting, you know, these really great ideas of what they can do for their companies. It has to start with developing a data culture in

Alyssa McGinn: ~order ~Mm-Hmm.

Jordan Walker: for it to work well.

Alyssa McGinn: at least in parallel. Yeah. With your effort, your technical efforts. Yeah. Has to be like, the people have to understand what's happening. So please, ~yeah. That's our, that's our ask for this episode. ~Yeah. If you're listening to this and you know anyone that's in a CDO role. A CDAO role if they're very progressive.

We would love to have them on as an interview. Yeah.

Jordan Walker: So with that, we're going to leave that ask open to the universe. We're going to manifest it.

And if you are that person, email us at hello at insightlypodcast. com. Or if you have a topic that you'd like us to cover in another short episode, you can also drop us a line at hello at insightlypodcast. com.

Alyssa McGinn: We'll see you on the next episode. [00:13:00]