Deborah Nightingale - MIT CDOIQ 2014 - TheCUBE  - #MITIQ
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2014-07-23

Deborah Nightingale, MIT, at MIT CDOIQ 2014 with Dave Vellante and Jeff Kelly
8th Annual MIT Chief Data Officer  & Information Quality Symposium

@theCUBE
#MITIQ
Data is a key enabler in enterprise IT, but there are more aspects to consider before deciding what solutions or systems to implement. Deborah Nightingale, Professor of the Practice of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems and Co-Director, MIT Lean Advancement Initiative, recommends an approach that is “looking at the whole enterprise in a more holistic way. It starts with the strategic objective, and then understanding what’s going on around you” – ecosystem, stakeholders, and then thinking about it from multiple dimensions, she explained in a live interview with theCUBE co-hosts Jeff Kelly and Dave Vellante at the MIT CDOIQ conference.

Vellante stressed that IT permeates every part of our life and our organizations much more so than ten or twenty years ago. He asked if this development has made her mission harder or easier. Nightingale’s answer was, “both.”

Because IT is such a key enabler, organizations can do things they were not able to do before. “You can come up with new business models, new ways of doing things,” but IT needs to be used in an effective manner, otherwise it creates more chaos, Nightingale explained. That requires presenting a more systematic approach based on concepts of system engineering and organizational change that highlight where and organization is going and how it gets there.

Asked to describe the typical situation she encounters in an enterprise, Nightingale said “often times they have taken a very siloed, reductionist approach.” Or they have already gone through failures and want to avoid them. The typical go-to scenario is “When in doubt, let’s reorganize.”

She used Netflix as an example, who a few years back decided to split the online streaming from the DVD business. They did not check with the stakeholders, who were not very happy with the decision, so the company needed to change back.

She also typically helps organizations that have grown really rapidly around a new technology or product, but “don’t know how to design the organization to really take advantage of that.”

Explaining how she goes about having everyone involved better communicate, Nightingale said one of the most effective ways is to get everyone in the same room — top management, IT, HR, finance, and “getting them to understand who are the stakeholders, what is their value. They do not understand what the stakeholders want from them,” although typically they know what they want from the stakeholders.

She then helps them understand what’s working and what’s not working. The next step is “getting them to create a shared vision of where they want to go. Often times they all have a vision of where they want to be. Getting them to collectively define this, and share it, and then getting them to think about the future and which are some options on how to architect it” is the goal, Nightingale explained. In short, “getting them to think about things before they go and change everything.”
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Impacting business decisions as CDO
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“When you work with an organization, how prescriptive do you get, specifically with the role of the CDO?” Vellante asked. Nightingale responded that “data and information, they run everything within the organization. Once you get the strategic direction and everyone agree on that,” then you can decide on a specific data system.

Asked if there was a consensus for a the need of a CDO in the organization, Nightingale said “there isn’t a consensus yet, but it is evolving. There’s also this movement towards distributed things, and part of the challenge is what things do we need to standardize, and what things does that really not matter.”
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