Today, the Chief Data Officer has become an established figure for a majority of corporations, as firms come to recognize the central importance of developing and managing to a data strategy, defining and implementing a data governance process, and ensuring regulatory compliance. There is a building consensus and recognition that data is a vital corporate asset and that management of this asset requires an executive leadership function and mandate. What remains less clear is how the role and responsibilities of the Chief Data Officer will evolve to meet the demands of large, complex organizations as we move deeper into the Era of Information.

CDOs play a critical role in transforming their organizations, whether business executives recognize it or not. CDOs need to accelerate their organizations’ evolution through the stages of intelligence and develop world-class people, processes, programs, and platforms (P4) to deliver value (V) with data (D). But this is a tall order; it’s hard to know where to start. This article provides a simple framework to help CDOs identify their key points of leverage to help their organizations cross the data divide before it’s too late.

The modern CDO, sometimes called a chief analytics officer or chief data and analytics officer, addresses a lot more than compliance. This individual owns the creation of value from data across the organization and building a central data strategy to help shape business strategy. The CDO also seeks to create a data driven culture and increase data literacy. While reporting structures vary by organization, CDO’s often have hard-line or dotted-line responsibility for BI, Analytics, Data Quality, Data Governance, MDM & Compliance activities.(Transcribed)