What Makes a Good Chief Data Officer? [INFOGRAPHIC]

The board room seating arrangement is about to change in many organisations. With the vast amounts of data being created on a daily basis and the organisations acknowledging the value in data-driven decision making, there is room for the Chief Data Officer. Earlier I described what a job description of a Chief Data Officer should look like. He or she is someone who should be responsible for the overall Big Data strategy of an organisation, has a thorough understand of the business as well as of data analytics. He or she should be a business leader that is responsible for defining, developing and implementing how an organisations should leverage the data they have as well as how to obtain the data the still lack.

It is a role that requires being able to understand all the different aspects of data. Ranging from ensuring the quality of the data (veracity) and ensuring that there are procedures in place that ensure that the right data is collected correctly. A good Chief Data Officer is also responsible for ensuring ensuring proper data governance as well as enable the employees to become more data-driven and do the right data analysis, using the right technology. A high-level understanding of the latest technology is therefore required. Of course, the CDO should see and understand the importance of data security, as that will only become more important in the coming years. Finally, the Chief Data Officer should be able to identify new business opportunities through the effective use of data. It is a difficult role, which according to IBM, requires at least 10+ years of business expertise as well as 10+ years of data expertise.

Important is however, that the CDO is not a Big Data scientist as he or she should be able to execute change and lead a multi-disciplinary team, understand the business drivers and be able to deal with the political world most of the time present at C-level. IBM has released an infographic that explains this role of the Chief Data Officer and why the CDO is the new hero of Big Data and Analytics.

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You might also be interested in my book: Think Bigger – Developing a Successful Big Data Strategy for Your Business.

This article originally appeared on Datafloq.