TRENDING
the CDO implemented (either formally or
informally) in 2017, compared with 23%
fully implemented in 2016.
“The steady maturation of the office of the
CDO underlines the acceptance and broader
understanding of the role and recognises
the impact and value CDOs worldwide are
providing,” said Michael Moran, Research
Director at Gartner. “The addition of
new talent for increasing responsibilities,
growing budgets and increasing positive
engagement across the C-suite illustrate
how central the role of CDO is becoming to
more and more organisations.”
Budgets are also on the rise. Respondents
to the 2017 survey report an average CDO
office budget of $8 million, representing
a 23% increase from the average of
$6.5 million reported in 2016. 15% of
respondents reported budgets more than
$20 million, contrasting with 7% last year.
A further indicator of maturity is the rise
of the office of the CDO organisation.
Last year’s study reported total full-time
employees at an average of 38 (not
distinguishing between direct and indirect
reporting), while this year reports an
average of 54 direct and indirect employees,
“
ON A MEAN BASIS,
45% OF THE
CDO’S TIME IS
ALLOCATED TO
VALUE CREATION
AND/OR REVENUE
GENERATION,
28% TO COST
SAVINGS AND
EFFICIENCY, AND
27% TO RISK
MITIGATION.
22
INTELLIGENTCIO
representing the federated nature of the
office of the CDO design.
CDOs shift from defence to offence
to drive digital transformation
With more than one-third of respondents
saying ‘increase revenue’ is a top three
measure of success, the survey findings
show a clear bias developing in favour of
value creation over risk mitigation as the key
measure of success for a CDO. The survey
also looked at how CDOs allocate their time.
On a mean basis, 45% of the CDO’s time is
allocated to value creation and/or revenue
generation, 28% to cost savings and
efficiency, and 27% to risk mitigation.
“CDOs and any data and analytics leader
must take responsibility to put data
governance and analytics principles on
the digital agenda. They have the right
and obligation to do it,” said Mario Faria,
Managing Vice President at Gartner.
CDOs are responsible for more than
just data governance
According to the survey, in 2017, CDOs
are not just focused on data as the title
may imply. Their responsibilities span data
management, analytics, data science, ethics
and digital transformation. A larger than
expected percentage of respondents (36%)
also report responsibility for profit and loss
(P&L) ownership. “This increased level of
reported responsibility by CDOs reflects the
growing importance and pervasive nature of
data and analytics across organisations, and
the maturity of the CDO role and function,”
said Logan.
In the 2017 survey, 86% of respondents
ranked ‘defining data and analytics
strategy for the organisation’ as their top
responsibility, up from 64% in 2016. This
reflects a need for creating or modernising
data and analytics strategies within an
increasing dependence on data and insights
within a digital business context.
CDOs are becoming impactful
change agents leading the data-
driven transformation
The survey results provided insight into
the kind of activities CDOs are taking on in
order to drive change in their organisations.
Several areas seem to have a notable
increase in CDO responsibilities compared
with last year:
• Serving as a digital advisor: 71% of
respondents are acting as a thought
leader on emerging digital models, and
helping to create the digital business
vision for the enterprise.
• Providing an external pulse and liaison:
60% of respondents are assessing
external opportunities and threats
as input to business strategy, and
75% of respondents are building and
maintaining external relationships across
the organisation’s ecosystem.
• Exploiting data for competitive edge:
77% of respondents are developing new
data and analytics solutions to compete
in new ways.
CDOs are diverse and tackling a wide
array of internal challenges
Gartner predicts that by 2021, the CDO
role will be the most gender diverse of all
technology-affiliated C-level positions and
the survey results reflect that position. Of
the respondents to Gartner’s 2017 CDO
survey who provided their gender, 19%
were female and this proportion is even
higher within large organisations – 25%
in organisations with worldwide revenue
of more than $1 billion. This contrasts with
13% of CIOs who are women, per the
2018 Gartner CIO Agenda Survey. When
it comes to average age of CDOs, 29% of
respondents said they were 40 or younger.
The survey respondents reported that
there is no shortage of internal roadblocks
challenging CDOs. The top internal
roadblock to the success of the office
of the CDO is ‘culture challenges to
accept change’ – a top three challenge
for 40% of respondents in 2017. A new
roadblock, ‘poor data literacy’, debuted
as the second biggest challenge (35%),
suggesting that a top CDO priority is
ensuring commonality of shared language
and fluency with data, analytics and
business outcomes across a wide range of
organisational roles. When asked about
engagement with other C-level executives,
respondents ranked the relationship with
the CIO and CTO as the strongest, followed
by a broad, healthy degree of positive
engagement across the C-Suite. n
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