The Chief Data Officer playbook
Creating a game plan to sharpen your digital edge

IBM Institute for Business ValueExecutive Report
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Tailoring the CDO role

Executive summary

The Chief Data Officer (CDO) is quickly becoming a

The Chief Data Officer is increasingly the C-suite’s solution to navigating today’s disruptive,

pivotal member of the C-suite for organizations acrossdynamic, data-intensive world. It’s a bespoke role that must be tailored to the needs andthe globe. This rapidly emerging role is characterized byculture of the business. At the same time, the CDO is responsible for enabling the organization

the breadth of its influence and involvement across thewith a core set of capabilities engineered to sense and respond to changing demands.

organization, agility to transform as markets demand,and twenty-first century innovation. Indeed, our recent
research revealed that organizations with a Chief Data
Officer onboard tend to be analytically mature, businessdriven enterprises that outperform their competitors.

The research for our 2015 annual analytics report identified that 422 of 1,225 organizations
had adopted the CDO role – statistically 34 percent of the market.1 And adoption of the CDO
function continues in 2016, with an almost weekly cadence of new appointments in the firstquarter across industries – from banking and healthcare to travel and beyond.2

The CDO function can provide a competitive edge in

The case for appointing a CDO is compelling; our research revealed that two-thirds oftoday’s digital marketplace.

respondents who reported their organization as outperforming its competitors haveappointed one. Moreover, organizations with a CDO are:3
Business driven• 1.9 times more likely to have business-driven data and analytics governance• 1.7 times more likely to have a big data and analytics strategy
Analytically mature• 1.8 times more likely to use big data and analytics technologies pervasively
across their organization• 1.5 times more likely to have a Hadoop/Spark platform in place
Outperformers• 1.3 times more likely to outperform peers• 1.5 times more likely to use data and analytics to stay ahead of competitors

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Given these differentiators, we expect more and more organizations will embrace the

One-third of organizations surveyedhave appointed a CDO.

Almost two-thirds of respondents
who reported their organization isoutperforming its competitors
have appointed a CDO.

CDO role. However, a number of organizations are still refining their vision for the role and,
subsequently, fail to define it clearly. It is not surprising that the rate of turnover among CDOs
is unusually high, with few candidates retaining the role for more than 24 months.4
One factor underpinning this high turnover is the position’s enormous scope; the CDO’s roleis as multifaceted as it is amorphous. Polling a room of 50 CDOs likely will result in 50 very
different job descriptions, candidate qualifications and implementation approaches.
Organizations are developing and defining the role to fit their unique cultural andorganizational objectives.
With this IBM Institute for Business Value report, we aim to assist executives in making

Organizations with a CDO are almost
two times more likely to have a
big data and analytics strategy.

strategic decisions about the CDO role by outlining the key questions an organization must
answer as it goes about defining the role of this newest member of the C-suite. The report isbased on results from both the 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey and the2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey, as well as extensive informal
and formal interviews with CDOs and subject matter experts around the globe (see theStudy approach and methodology section).
Through this research, we identified key patterns for consideration both before initiallyappointing a CDO and after to manage the role as capabilities evolve. We believe executives
can leverage these patterns to help them make better decisions about the goals, structuresand priorities of the CDO role. This CDO Playbook offers quantitative and qualitative data tohelp organizations ask and answer the right questions when creating – or recreating – theChief Data Officer role.

3

Chapter one: Expectations
In general, the CDO is responsible for the enterprise-wide management and use of data as anorganizational – often strategic – asset. This role is often tasked with acquiring and managing
the capabilities needed to drive enterprise innovation, transformation and market-facing
competitive advantage through the use of data and analytics.
What is the chief business goal of the CDO?

Figure 1
Most CDOs are measured by their impact on data management,
organizational efficiency and business outcomes, which aligns with thedata value chain
Data
Business
Integrator Optimizer

MarketInnovator

The first – and most crucial – step for an organization either implementing or revamping the
CDO role is to clearly define its primary goal; we find abundant evidence among job-hopping
CDOs that too many concurrent (often unrealistic) expectations were the root of their downfall.
CDOs report they are appointed primarily to gain control of the onslaught of data within theorganization, increase operational efficiency and impact business outcomes. Slightly more72%

than half are being measured on impacts to organizational agility and more than a third on

69%

69%

profitability and revenue impacts.5

52%
38%

These metrics align with the three key aspirations on the data value chain, which represents

34%

different ways of exploiting the value of data based on the capabilities and needs of theorganization. These three aspirations are: Data Integrator, Business Optimizer andMarket Innovator (see Figure 1).

Impacton datamanagement

Impactonorganizational
efficiency

Impactonbusinessoutcomes

Impactonorganizational
agility

Impacton
profitability

Impactonrevenues

Source: 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer
Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Bank CDO turns to big data and analytics forcompetitive edge
Grupo Financiero Banorte wanted to understandwhat financial services its clients needed – andthen market those services to them effectively.
The bank’s new Chief Data Officer led a project toimplement a big data and analytics solution that
integrates and masters all customer data, andgenerates targeted campaigns to offer clients theright services at the right time. The results were
unprecedented insights into customers, channels
and campaigns that support strategic decision
making and data-driven marketing. The solution
has helped the bank deliver better customer
service, boost loyalty, increase ROI and achieve
higher response rates achieved by making theright offer to the right customer at the right time.6

The three aspirations on the data value chain can be used as a proxy for an
organization’s primary data needs:• Data Integrators primarily pursue implementation of a modern, integrated internal
data infrastructure, yet with the latitude to innovate as opportunities arise. A strong data
foundation enables agility and creates a defense against digital disruptors.
• Business Optimizers focus primarily on exploiting the established data foundation to
make internal and customer-centric business processes as effective and efficient as
possible, laying the foundation for cognitive capabilities that can sense and respond toboth individual customers and market forces. They also focus on expanding theorganization’s data ecosystem to include context-rich external data while maintaining
the agility needed to spark innovation.
• Market Innovators focus primarily on expanding cognitive capabilities to become
digital disruptors. They monetize data through new products, services or experiences– while parsing off non-core data and analytics competencies to ecosystem partners.
These market leaders leverage a strong data foundation and optimized systems topush the boundaries in the digital economy.
Each of these aspirations requires a unique set of capabilities, some more
foundational and others more mature. Yet, two-thirds of CDOs are being measured
against all three objectives at once. To increase an organization’s odds of success,data decisions should be made in context of a primary point on the data value chain
based on a current data maturity assessment and business priority snapshot. As
capabilities increase, the value aspiration will evolve, and the role of the CDO willneed to evolve with it.

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Decision point: Define the mandate
The CDO’s mandate must align with the core competencies of the organization, andexpectations need to be set accordingly. We recommend organizations align the mandate
for and expectations of the CDO role to one of these primary value aspirations. Once
identified, the primary aspiration can serve as a guide for other key questions the organization
will face as it appoints or evolves the role, as well as help the appointed CDO more readily
meet expectations (see Figure 2).
Figure 2
The CDO mandate should align with the organization’s key aspiration on the data value chain
Data
Integrator

Business
Optimizer

MarketInnovator

Raw internal data
exploration

External context andbenchmarking

Data monetization

Diagnostic analytics

Efficiency and cost
reduction analysis

Cognitive trend analysis

Value-added data quality
and integration

Business-driven growth
opportunities

Innovative businessmodels

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value. 2016.

“If you’re solving business problems,
creating value and continually
gaining additional insight to improve,
you’re probably succeeding (as a Chief
Data Officer). But take the long view:
implementing a transformation takes
time. Don’t force it. You’re altering
the way people look at data. That
doesn’t happen overnight.”7
Inderpal Bhandari, Global Chief Data Officer, IBM

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Figure 3

What is the scope of the CDO role?

A CDO can manage one, two or all three objectives, dependingon the unique circumstances within an organization

The potential scope of the CDO role can be seen as three legs of the data stool, explains
Andrew Salesky, Global Data Officer for Charles Schwab. The first leg, the data leg,encompasses the care, protection and governance of the data itself; the second, the analytics

Dataleg, encompasses the capabilities needed to analyze that data and create meaningful
insights; and the third, the technology leg, is the underlying infrastructure that ingests, moves
and stores the data. All three support data. A CDO could legitimately manage one, two or all
three of these objectives, depending on the unique circumstances within each organization(see Figure 3).
“A key requirement is really to narrow what it is they’re going to get done and be very

Management Technology

Analytics

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value. 2016.

specific and consistent,” says Salesky, whose responsibilities are focused on what hecalls foundational issues: master data management, governance, data organization andarchitecture. “We intentionally focused the group (on data management) and said we would
use partnerships (with peer executives) to draw the insights and to deliver the technology,
and so far so good.”
Decision point: Define the responsibilities
There is no way to quantitatively tell an organization what is the best scope for the CDO. But
CDOs can only do so much at once. With each value aspiration added to the mix, the layers– of thought and people – between the CDO and the data itself increase.

7

For a Data Integrator, it is incumbent upon the CDO to guide the architecture, governanceand quality of the data to help enable its use as a strategic asset. Creating an integrated, agile
data foundation built around core competencies of data quality and protection, extensibility
and agility is the chief objective. CDOs must collaborate, if not lead, with the technology leg,
as well. Focus beyond the data itself should be tangential skunkworks projects aimed atinnovation and optimization to offset costs.
Business Optimizers can take one of two paths, but taking both increases risk of failure. The
first path is to focus on the data leg, expanding the ecosystem to include non-native data while
protecting it, maintaining quality, and enabling agility and speed. Here, cross-silo collaboration
is important to optimize internal and customer-centric processes. The second path focuseson the analytic application of the data, optimizing systems by creating algorithmic andmachine-managed processes that lay the foundation for cognitive computing capabilities;
expansion into data science is needed here.
Market Innovators use the role of the CDO to push the boundaries of the digital economy
and, as such, need close collaboration with business unit and function leaders. They rarely
oversee the data or technology leg, often only teamed by an elite force of data specialists
aimed at disrupting competitors and delighting customers.

“A key requirement is reallyto narrow what it is they’re goingto get done and be very specificand consistent.”
Andrew Salesky, Global Data Officer, Charles Schwab

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Chapter two: Structure
Who should the CDO report to?
Who the CDO reports to is among the hottest topics when executives come together to discuss
the CDO role. Organizations are almost evenly divided among the top-three options: 34 percent
report to the Chief Executive Officer; 31 percent report the Chief Information Officer; and34 percent report to a C-suite executive, namely the Chief Operating Officer (17 percent), theChief Marketing Officer (10 percent) or a technology-related vice president (7 percent).8
We have identified positive and negative aspects to each structure; the most critical factor is
to maintain close, collaborative relationships across the C-suite, IT, and business units andfunctions (see Figure 4).9
Figure 4
Each of the three most common reporting structures has positive and negative implications to consider

Model

Pros and cons

1. Direct report to CEO

34%
2. Integration within IT

31%

CEO

CIO

CXO

CDO

data as an operational enabler forþ Leveragebusiness decisions

CEO

CIO

CXO

34%

CEO
CIO

þ Easily coordinate data management,architecture and IT

ý Risk loss of business relevance for data

CDO

3. Report to functional area

þ Raise data to CEO’s agenda for full empowerment
Ensure data ownership independence from individual
þ business units (BUs).
ý Risk power issues between CIO and CDO

CXO

þ Provide data independence from IT
þ Enable cross-BU functions for data management
diminished operational effectiveness caused
ý Riskby loss of IT contact

CDO

Sources: “The new hero of big data and analytics: The Chief Data Officer.” IBM Institute for Business Value. 2014;2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey. 2015.

9

Decision point: Determine the reporting hierarchy
Most CDOs we’ve talked with agree – at least privately – that reporting to the CEO is the ideal
situation, regardless of the value objective. This structure emphasizes the strategic value
placed on data and reflects an organizational mandate for culture change and innovation.
Chances of success diminish when layers are added between the CDO and CEO. Ultimately,
the reporting structure decision should be based on where the CDO organization can mosteffectively support the agenda. Data Integrators do well reporting to the CIO as they work toestablish a core data foundation and governance. Business Optimizers and Market
Innovators are better served by the stronger business ties that come with reporting toanother C-suite executive, primarily the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Marketing Officer
or the Chief Finance Officer (see Figure 5).
Figure 5
Organizational structure should align with an organization’s data priorities and needs
Data
Integrator

Business
Optimizer

Reports to CEO to emphasize the strategic value placed on data
and reflect an organizational mandate for culture change and innovation
Reports to C-suite CxO (functional or operational)
to align data and analytics capabilities to business drivers
Reports to CIO to establish core data
foundation and governanceSource: IBM Institute for Business Value. 2016.

MarketInnovator“We need to start selling theconversation around data as a
strategic business asset. It’s not
an IT problem; it’s actually abusiness problem.”Chief Data Officer for a finance organization

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Figure 6

Who should report to the CDO?

Key teams reporting to the CDO

The size of a CDO’s team ranges from the hundreds – often Data Integrators tasked withdata quality remediation – down to no one – usually a Market Innovator tasked with

CDO

collaborative innovation; it truly depends on how the role was scoped (see Figure 6).
We found two-thirds of CDOs have data architects and business analysts reporting tothem, while 60 percent have data scientists and data analytics staff. Almost half have data

Data strategy• Data acquisition• Communications• Stakeholder relations• Change management

Data governanceacquisition or data management specialists reporting to them, while 40 percent oversee a
center of competency for analytics, and 30 percent oversee a Chief Analytics Officer.
One-third of CDOs oversee data stewards as part of their information governance programs.10
Finding talent – especially qualified data scientists – is often one of the more overlooked
challenges for a CDO. Almost 40 percent of CDOs reported a lack of skills as one of their• Data quality• Data policy

top-two obstacles, yet only 20 percent of organizations with plans to hire a CDO consider thisData architect

Alfred Essa, Vice President of Analytics and Research & Development at McGraw-Hill• Data models• Master data
• Reference data

Analytics• Business analysts• Data analysts• Data scientists• Data engineers• Visualizers/storytellers
Source: 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer
Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.

an obstacle.11

Education, is not one of those struggling to create a highly skilled team. Focused exclusively
on deep analytics and data innovation, he targets candidates with relentless curiosity – ones
who get excited when presented with unsolved problems. Essa believes if there is a trick tofinding strong analytic talent, it’s to make sure candidates understand why they should workfor your company.

11“The best talent isn’t in it for the money,” he says. “They need to understand the mission;
people want to do great things. You have to show them how you can do great things together.”
Essa emphasizes the need for soft skills in building team dynamics and supporting generalwork objectives: good listening, visualization and storytelling skills. “Business partners andclients get so energized just being around these employees,” he explains.
Decision point: Construct the team
CDOs must have the resources – both human and financial – to achieve their primary goal.
Empowering the CDO with an adequate budget and timeline to acquire the right talent can
result in a more agile and efficient organization.
Given potential talent scarcity, organizations should consider which roles are most related
to the value objective. For Data Integrators, more technical roles, such as data architects,
analysts and integration specialists, are important as the internal data foundation isestablished. Data acquisition specialists – tasked with sourcing and managing external data
– are key resources for Business Optimizers and Market Innovators (see Figure 7).

“We’re going to find people whowant to learn. If they can havethree out of five of the key skills andshow aptitude in the other two, then
we’ll take the time to train them.”
VP of Enterprise Architecture for a U.S. insurance company

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Figure 7
A CDO should source talent that complements the organization’s data value aspiration
Data
Integrator

Business
Optimizer

MarketInnovator

Communications specialists to support change management governance and ecosystem/
partner relations
Data analysts and business analysts

Data scientists anddata visualization specialists

Data architects and data acquisition
specialists

Ecosystem partners

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value. 2016.

Data scientists, data modelers and business analysts are needed to drive optimizationand innovation, even for Data Integrators as a means of generating revenue to offset
infrastructure investments. Visualization specialists are also keenly important to Market
Innovators, often tasked with conveying complex new concepts. Often overlooked – but
crucial to success regardless of aspiration – are the social skill sets of communication,organizational change and governance specialists.

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Chapter three: Priorities
Where do we start?
The priorities of the CDO change as organizational capabilities mature. Respondents whoseorganizations were in the pre-planning stage tend to view the CDO as the new sheriff in town,
needed to tame the “Wild West” data environment and make it conform to the businessstrategy. Once a CDO is in place, however, the role is viewed much more collaboratively, andpriorities shift to creating a business-driven data and analytics strategy and developing adata-driven culture (see Figure 8).12
Figure 8
The CDO key priorities evolve as organizational capabilities develop

91%

Creating and/or implementing
data/analytics strategy

64%
88%

Developing a data-driven culture

43%
84%

Aligning data/analytics strategy
with business strategy

86%
84%

Managing data governanceOverseeing data management,
including data acquisition andintegration
Coordinating data integration

Top twoonce CDO
is in place71%

Top two while
CDO beingplanned

75%
64%
59%
64%

Has CDO
Planning CDO

Source: 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Figure 9
The business-driven nature of organizations with a CDO is evident

The business-driven nature of organizations with a CDO is evident: They are almost two times

Business-driven governance

percent) and a big data and analytics strategy (62 percent versus 35 percent).13 (See Figure 9.)

1.9x

41%
22%

more likely

62%

With a CDO

A key conundrum for CDOs is the balance between building the data foundation – ranging
from its infrastructure to its governance – and delivering results quickly. John Foreman, Chief
Data Officer at MailChimp, says it “takes a bit of magic” to balance these competing
priorities.14

Big data and analytics strategy

35%

more likely to have a business-driven information governance team (41 percent compared to 22

1.7x

more likely

Without a CDO“…You’ve got two competing ideas here. One is that you don’t want to over-plan or overbuild
infrastructure to the point where, once you deliver the product, it’s no longer useful for thebusiness. You definitely want to move quickly, which is why people talk about doing data
science in an agile way. But there’s also a pitfall,” Foreman explains. “If you do that over andover, you’ll eventually come to realize that there’s no overall plan. At some point you need to

Source: 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey.
IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.

build an infrastructure for the next few projects.”15
Governing the organizational data assets is another key priority for most CDOs (84 percent).16
Organizations with a CDO are significantly more likely to have common data standards (55percent compared to 34 percent of non-CDO organizations), centralized data management(61 percent versus 41 percent), and centralized data and technology decision-making
processes (54 percent compared to 41 percent).17
Establishing and enforcing common standards and processes means convincing people tochange the way they do their everyday work, an undertaking many organizations fail torecognize in advance. Only 43 percent of organizations planning to appoint a CDO consider
developing a data-driven culture a key responsibility compared to 88 percent of those thathave appointed a CDO.18 In talking with CDOs, we find that culture change is often the “makeor-break” aspect to using data and analytics effectively within organizations.

15“The ability to internalize business strategy, refine it with customer insights and operationalize
it through the use of data-driven techniques is really what defines a data-driven culture,”
explains A. Charles Thomas, CDO for Wells Fargo. “Most organizations understand the needto get on board with big data, but they often focus too much on technology and fail torecognize that people are the real linchpin in cultivating a data-enabled, customer-centricbusiness.”19
Decision point: Establish organizational priorities
First and foremost, regardless of data needs, organizations need to either establish abusiness-driven data and analytics strategy, or revise the IT-driven strategy to incorporate
business leadership and direction. The strategy should be nimble to adapt to changing“I’m a true believer that, first andforemost, the CDO has to be a thought
leader. You really must have a clear
vision as to what you are going toaccomplish. You can’t just conductbusiness as usual. You can’t just show
up at the table as another IT person
who is here to do another project.”business needs and technology innovations.
As organizations move from Data Integrator to Business Optimizer, they need a strategy
that allows for an expanding ecosystem of data providers and outside analysis, both of which
fuel the innovative thinking exhibited by Market Innovators. The agility to respond to the
dynamic marketplace differentiates the CDO role.
In addition, part of the strategy must address information governance. For Data Integrators
and Business Optimizers, this entails establishing a business-driven leadership team,enterprise-wide data standards, and structured prioritization and funding processes
including scorecards measuring effectiveness and ROI analysis. As organizations transition
into Market Innovators, these structures will evolve into a “fit-for-purpose” governancesystem that incorporates more speed and agility while relying on established guiding
principles for allowances.

Chief Data Officer for a major U.S. county government

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The Chief Data Officer playbook

Even the best strategy can falter if the business culture is not willing to change. Further
complicating matters, how the culture needs to change shifts as analytic capabilities mature.
Data Integrators need to establish a data-driven, evidenced-based way of operating. Once
this is firmly established, usually as a Business Optimizer, focus must shift again to adopt the“fast-fail” culture of agile software development – a core component of a Market Innovator– where multiple ideas are tested simultaneously and less promising ideas are quickly
discarded to make way for newer ideas. (See Figure 10.)Figure 10
The CDO organization’s scope and priorities should mesh with the business strategy
Data
Integrator

Business
Optimizer

MarketInnovator

Data and analytics strategy management
Establish enterprise-level, business-driven
data and information governanceInstill a data-driven culture

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value. 2016.

Establish “fit-for-purpose” governanceInstill a “fail-fast” agile culture

17

What are the top data priorities?
Data management is the top mandate for CDOs (as noted in Figure 1); perhaps unsurprisingly,
organizations with a CDO have a significantly more mature data ecosystem. Shared
operational data – or master data management and data integration – is a key enabler of bothFigure 11
Organizations with a CDO also collect a more diverse dataset
than those without one

Customer-generated data65%

business optimization and innovation. A vast majority of CDO-lead organizations haveovercome the political, technological and economic hurdles such an infrastructure incurs (8448%

percent versus 68 percent without a CDO).20
Organizations with a CDO also collect a significantly more diverse and robust dataset than

Streaming data and events

55%

those without a strategic data leader. CDO-lead organizations outpace others in collecting
customer-generated data and text (65 percent and 62 percent versus 48 percent and 46
percent), streaming data or real-time events (55 percent compared to 30 percent), social data
(49 percent versus 28 percent), third-party data (49 percent versus 31 percent) and sensors

30%
Third-party data

49%

data from Internet of Things devices (48 percent versus 27 percent).21 (See Figure 11.)31%

Decision point: Set data priorities
CDOs have a fundamental responsibility to manage the strategic use of data within an
organization, but the requirements to fulfill that mandate depend entirely on the value

Sensors and devices

48%

aspiration of the organization (see Figure 12).
For Data Integrators, the top priority is to establish shared operational data and integrated

27%

enterprise data, all while managing or improving data quality and security. Achieving thisrequires the business-driven governance structures and culture change management
discussed earlier.

With a CDO

Without a CDO

Source: 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey.
IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.

18

The Chief Data Officer playbook

Hallmarks of the transition to Business Optimizer are the collection and management of datathat answers “why?” – data from a federated ecosystem of sources that extends the context
of understanding beyond transactions. Those whose goal is revenue optimization need toconsolidate internal data about customers while augmenting it with external data about – andoften generated by – customers and competitors. Those looking to optimize costs need to
expand the data infrastructure to include sensor and device data delivered via the Internet ofThings and context-rich data such as location, weather and economic data.
Market Innovators need all this and more. Contextually rich data sources from wearables,
streaming sensors, citizen data scientists and niche data acquisition services – data that
represents a mature infrastructure capable of diverse data types and robust volumes – serve
as a key enabler to digital differentiation.
Figure 12
CDO success is rooted in the ability to enrich, leverage, monetize, protect and maintain data sources and capabilities
Data
Integrator

Business
Optimizer

Shared operational data,
master data management

Customer data andcustomer-generated data

Integrated enterprise data
Data quality andsecurityComprehensive
contextual data

Federated ecosystem of data sources
and analytics partners

IoT-enabled sensors andlocation data

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value. 2016.

MarketInnovator

Real-time/streaming data

19

Ready or not? Ask these questions
Data is ubiquitous; it underpins every transaction, operation and interaction within today’s

For more information

organizations. Data needs to be governed, architected and analyzed; data needs an

To learn more about this IBM Institute for Business

infrastructure robust enough to offer security, yet agile enough to support a dynamic set

Value study, please contact us at iibv@us.ibm.com.

of requirements. In today’s dynamic marketplace, organizations should consider whether

Follow @IBMIBV on Twitter, and for a full catalog of ourthey can continue to compete effectively without a Chief Data Officer.

research or to subscribe to our monthly newsletter,• Does your organization view its data as a strategic asset capable of generating value?
• Is your organization able to effectively leverage the data at its disposal to provide insights
into your current business challenges?
• Is data consistent, well understood and trusted within your organization?
• How efficient and informed are your organization’s business and customer-centric
processes?
• Are you competitive in the digital marketplace?

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20

The Chief Data Officer playbook

Study approach and methodology

About the authors

For this research, we drew upon two primary research

Bruce Tyler is an IBM Global Business Services partner and the global leader for IBM’s

sources. One was the 2015 IBM Institute for BusinessCenter of Competency for Big Data and Analytics. He is a an accomplished senior business

Value Analytics Survey, which involved asking more

executive with a proven track record of enabling Fortune 100 companies to make better

than 1,225 respondents from global organizations

decisions and optimize performance by combining strategy, information management andspanning 12 industries and more than 90 countries

advanced analytics to address important and complex business opportunities. Bruce canabout the use of big data and analytics. The other was

be reached at bruce.tyler@us.ibm.com.

the 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data
Officer Survey of almost 100 organizations that were
either planning to implement the CDO role in the next
18 to 24 months or had already installed the role. We
combined this data with qualitative research gathered
through extensive informal and formal interviews with
CDOs and subject matter experts around the globe.
Related publications“The new hero of big data and analytics: The Chief
Data Officer.” IBM Institute for Business Value. May
2014. http://www.ibm.com/business/value/

chiefdataofficer/“Analytics: The upside of disruption: Reinventing
business processes, organizations and industries in
the wake of the digital revolution.” IBM Institute for
Business Value. October 2015. http://www-935.ibm.

com/services/us/gbs/thoughtleadership/
2015analytics/

Cortnie Abercrombie is the IBM Analytics global emerging roles leader and a subject matter
expert in the Chief Data Officer role. She is a passionate evangelist and trusted advisor to
Chief Data Officers, chief analytics officers and chief data scientists in Fortune 500
companies. Her career has focused on inspiring and inciting innovation and action
using analytics in a variety of companies and industries. Cortnie can be reached at
cortnie.abercrombie@us.ibm.com.
Rebecca Shockley is the IBM Institute for Business Value’s Big Data and Analytics global
research leader, where she conducts fact-based research on the topic of business analytics
to develop thought leadership for senior executives. An IBM Global Business Services
executive consultant and subject matter expert in the areas of data and analytics strategy,organizational design and information governance, Rebecca can be reached at
rshock@us.ibm.com.

21

Notes and sources© Copyright IBM Corporation 2016

12015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
www.ibm.biz/2015analytics

2

IBM Institute for Business Value research and analysis. 2016.

32015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
www.ibm.biz/2015analytics

Route 100
Somers, NY 10589
Produced in the United States of America
May 2016

4

IBM Institute for Business Value research and market observation. 2014 to 2016.

52015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.

6“Banorte: Multi-channel, highly customized marketing to boostretention and competitiveness.” Solution brief. IBM
Mexico. January 2015. http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/wa/en/wac12462wwen/WAC12462WWEN.PDF

7“Inderpal Bhandari: When looking at Big Data, always start with a business question.” ThinkLeaders. IBM ThinkExchange website. November 2015. https://www.think-exchange.com/pacesetters/inderpal-bhandari

82015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.

9

Teerlink, Marc; Paula Wiles Sigmon; Brett Gow; and Kingshuk Banerjee. “The new hero of big data and analytics: The
Chief Data Officer.” IBM Institute for Business Value. 2014. http://www.ibm.com/business/value/chiefdataofficer/

10 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
www.ibm.biz/2015analytics
14 “Data science is equal parts technology and translation.” ThinkLeaders. IBM Think-Exchange website. November 2013.
https://www.think-exchange.com/pacesetters/john-foreman
15 Ibid.
16 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
17 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
www.ibm.biz/2015analytics
18 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Chief Data Officer Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
19 Glenn, Marie. “A. Charles Thomas: Master the art of the prototype.” Think Leaders. June 2015.
https://www.think-exchange.com/pacesetters/a-charles-thomas
20 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value Analytics Survey. IBM Institute for Business Value. 2015.
www.ibm.biz/2015analytics
21 Ibid.

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