CDOs’ biggest problem? Getting colleagues to understand their role

“At the end of the day, it’s all the company’s data or the consumer’s data,” he adds.

Those dreaded silos

Part of the CDO’s job is to break down silos and change the practice of data hoarding in individual company units, Berkowitz says. “This notion of data in combination as opposed to a silo is something different for companies,” he adds. “This notion that the data is within their power to mine it for business advantage is different. It’s a new way of thinking.”

Many organizations are just beginning to embrace the concept of data as a huge business asset, adds Chetna Mahajan, chief digital and information officer at Amplitude, a data analytics firm.

“There’s more and more focus on being data-driven,” says Mahajan, who leads the Amplitude data strategy efforts, in addition to her digital and technology roles. “It really drives sustainability and is a growth engine that helps develop a competitive advantage.”

Until organizations realize the value of their data, the CDO role will be misunderstood, she adds. CDOs may not be valued until the “realization that the data is, if not as important, actually even more important than the technology, because data is where the company decisions are made,” she says.

Company data can drive its go-to-market strategy, she adds. With the right data, a company can tell if it is marketing its products to the right segment of the market, she says. For example, one company she’s worked with had targeted its product to the SMB market, but after examining its data, it realized that the large enterprise market was its future.