CDO: The Ned Stark of This Game of Thrones

It may sound like just another alphabet soup. But the CDO designation houses many conflicts, twists and turns. The question hangs in the air- are we approaching the terrible 9th episode here?

- Pratima H

Step-brothers or Siamese twins. It's hard to decide when you see a CIO and CDO sitting at the same table. Specially a table that has grown bigger after the advent of CHROS, CFOs, CISOs and CTOS.

When the CDO (Chief Data Officer) designation was coined, it was supposed to be the specialist hat for all things data. It made sense. Because enterprises had started noticing the real impact of buzzwords like Big Data, Analytics and digital transformation.

The hat took a lot of feathers. And then it started growing heavy. At other places it became frazzled. But surprisingly, gaining the colour of relevance and existential dilemma alike in the last two to three years. Where do CDOs stand today?

THE NIGHT'S WATCH

If we look at the 2022 senior data and Al leadership survey from NewVantage Partners, we can see that 74 per cent of firms have a chief data officer or chief data and analytics officer, but leaders in charge of these initiatives aren't sticking around. Looks like the average tenure of a CDO is merely 2 1/2 years. Put that against the 4 1/2 years for the average chief financial officer or chief information officer; and it's clear why the relevance of a CDO can be a question-mark in some places.

The NewVantage survey also unravels many other threads here. Like only half of CDOs are able to drive innovation using data. Only 26 per cent of CDOs have been able to create a data-driven organization. What's surprising is that as many as 25 per cent of CDOs have no single point of accountability for data within their organisation. That explains why just 40 per cent of respondents said the CDO role is successful and established within their organization.