Our July DATAVERSITY webinar, CDO vs. CAO — What’s the Difference?, focused on two key roles in the world of information management, the Chief Data Officer and the Chief Analytics Officer.
Webinar presenters Kelle O’Neal and John Ladley talked about the digital and data-driven evolution of the C-Suite, the typical organizational structure and functions of a CDO and CAO and the potential overlaps in the roles.
The webinar covered these main points:
- Differences in the two roles
- CDOs who aren’t responsible for all organizational data
- Reasons why role clarity matters
- Opportunities for organizational success without one or both roles
What follows are some key takeaways from the webinar. To listen to it in its entirety, visit DATAVERSITY’s on-demand library.
CDO Roles and Responsibilities
Chief Data Officer role characteristics:
- Focused on harnessing business value from enterprise data assets
- Owns or oversees primary data capabilities, including data governance, master data management and data quality
- Evangelizes data vision and strategy for current and future growth
- Poised for innovating existing business processes and identifying opportunities for competitive advantage, data monetization and future growth
- May be responsible for business intelligence, data science and analytics-driven insights
- Typically leads own dedicated group
What to look for in a CDO — the baseline skills:
- High level of data literacy and optimizing the data supply chain
- Understanding of data value and monetization concepts
- Business orientation
Critical skills for a CDO:
- Communication
- Organization development and change leadership
- Collaboration
Bonus points for the CDO if he/she has:
- Prior success as a leader within data management (master data management, analytics, data quality or data governance)
- Prior success implementing cross-functional programs
CAO Roles and Responsibilities
Chief Analytics Officer role characteristics:
- Focused on data analytics operations to enable analytics-driven decision-making and business transformation
- Evangelizes data analytics vision and strategy for bridging the capabilities gap between data-driven insights to data-driven actions
- Responsible for business intelligence, data science and analysis of business insights
- Drive investigation into opportunities for competitive advantage, data monetization and future growth, especially outside the organization
What to look for in a CAO — the baseline skills:
- High level of data literacy and understanding the data supply chain
- Business orientation
- Deep understanding of statistics and analytics
Critical skills for a CAO:
- Communication
- Collaboration
Bonus points for the CAO if he/she has:
- Prior success as a leader within data analysis
- Prior success implementing a data warehouse or analytics
- Understanding of data value and monetization concepts
Up Next Month: The Missed Promise of Hadoop
You can find additional recaps from our Data Insights & Analytics series, like this one, in our webinar archive.
Please join us for next month’s webinar, The Missed Promise of Hadoop and New and Emerging Technologies, on Thursday, August 2.
If you’d like to keep in touch with First San Francisco Partners and future webinars and industry events where we will be presenting, please share your name and email with us.
