Archives For The Year of Data Leadership

Profiles in Data Leadership

March 13, 2015 — Leave a comment

Each day we seem to be bombarded with more and more hype about the need for Proxy Leaders aka Chief Whatever Officers and other Fashion Statements such as Data Scientists. There are specialist recruiters, IT Analysts and Conference organizers who promote these roles along with a chorus of IT people who seem to not have much respect for their boss, the CIO. Frankly, I am sick of hearing/reading all of it and in spite of my best efforts to tune out these voices out they seem to be everywhere. It appears to me that the entire vendor, analyst & pundit community have sold the farm on the success of these IT Superheroes in spite of a legacy of more than 50 years of failure by IT to lead in respect to Data, Information & Analytics. I am not one of these “true believers in the next data prophet”. For my money when it comes to creating effective Data Leadership  I am going to bet on the traditional organizational hierarchy which begins with the CEO (in partnership with his/her Board). To that end that is why I have devised The Data Leadership Nexus in the fashion that I didFor those who have been following my Data Leadership Nexus articles, blogs and tweets you know that I have been promoting the notion that “2015 – The Year of (Top-Down) Data Leadership”.

In support of this, I have been working with Clients and other Like-Minded Thinkers to develop 5-year plans for CEO’s & Boards to transform their Organizations into Predictive Enterprises within this timeframe (if not sooner). To help better understand what that journey looks like from the perspective of those who have already undertaken it (albeit on a slightly different path at times) I am authoring a new series which profiles these Data Leaders.  It is loosely modeled after JFK’s book entitled “Profiles in Courage” something that I was inspired by in my youth.

I have several of these profiles in development now. The first two out of the gate will be;

  • Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley the CEO behind CitiStat (Baltimore) and StateStat (Maryland)
  • Brian Cornell, the new CEO of Target Corporation
  • Jim Smith, CEO of Thomson Reuters
  • Alistair Currie, CEO/COO of ANZ Bank

I believe that you will find all of these profiles very compelling and all will run counter to the many waves of hype that you are subject to on a daily basis in respect to data & analytics advocacy and management. Look for these postings in the coming days. In the meantime you can Recap (or read in full detail) all aspects of The Data Leadership Nexus starting here: (https://infomgmtexec.me/2014/09/16/recap-the-data-leadership-nexus/)

Stay Tuned!

Richard

“Courage profiles” by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia

In Big Data, Business Transformation, Information Governance, Information Management, Leadership , , , , , , , , ,
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The Twelve Days of Data Leadership

January 1, 2015 — 2 Comments

Over the past two+ years as the vast majority of other Thought Leaders and Industry Pundits have promoted (and hyped) the notions of Big Data, Chief Data (& Analytics) Officers, Data Scientists, etc. I have proffered a new Leadership Paradigm for adoption by all CEO’s, Boards & Executive Teams to use in creating what is widely referred to as “A Predictive Enterprise”. In this new paradigm, which I refer to as “The Data Leadership Nexus” these leaders become fully accountable for “all things data & analytics”. No longer the domain of IT and its proxies, Data, Information & Analytics become Core Competencies for the Organization to leverage pervasively across all strategic activities and operational domains. Critical to achieving the benefits of The Data Leadership Nexus is engaging with the entire Organization to adapt & become a “Culture of evidence-based decision makers” who use its Core Competencies (Data, Information & Analytics) to build and sustain Competitive Advantage in every domain of applicable use.

Missing entirely from The Data Leadership Nexus strategic framework is the need for Czars, Unicorns, Griffins or other Proxies in respect to inherent accountabilities born by the CEO, Board and Senior Executive Team. In the framework; Data, Information & Analytics are not IT Functions, but essential Core Competencies for exploitation. Additionally, the Organization’s Culture, as a reflection of the CEO’s shadow in not only fully engaged in the execution of the Core Strategy, but essential to its entire success.

I wrote extensively about much of this in blog postings of 2014 (A recap can always be found here: https://infomgmtexec.me/2014/09/16/recap-the-data-leadership-nexus/ )

I promised to write a blog in late 2014 on an integrated approach to achieving the goals of The Data Leadership Nexus and in the spirit of the recent holiday season I decided to use the traditional “Twelve Days of Christmas” as a template (via Twitter). Below is my version of this classic. I hope that you enjoy it and understand the “Integrated Approach” that I was endeavoring to achieve.

On the First Day of , the Board gave the Leadership Mantle to make & pervasive across the entire Enterprise.

On the 2nd Day of the gave the Organization a powerful core strategy that leverages & as Core Competencies to achieve strategic outcomes and create sustainable competitive advantage.

On 3rd Day of the spoke to the foundation for Strategic Success: “Top-Down Leadership, an Engaged Culture & full leverage of our Core Competencies”.

On 4th Day of the Organization began its journey to becoming a Predictive Enterprise. It embraced the Four Core Strategic Constructs. (Information is an Asset, Evidence-based Decisioning, Information-driven Risk Management & Analytics-everywhere to create Competitive Advantage.

On the 5th day of the entire Enterprise (from the Top-Down) became competent in the use & exploitation of , & .

On the Sixth Day of the laid out the blueprint for Evidence-based Decision Making at all levels across the Enterprise.

On the 7th Day of the declared to all that “Building a Predictive Enterprise is a top strategic priority for our Organization.”

On the 8th Day of the Board & integrated , & into their Accountabilities.

On Ninth Day of the & the entire Senior Executive Team pledged their accountability to be -Literate Leaders.

On 10th Day of the Nexus of Top-Down Leadership, Deep Core Competencies & an Engaged Culture formed the basis of becoming a Predictive Enterprise.

On the Eleventh Day of #DataLeadership the #CEO & Board rolled-out the Organization’s five-year strategy to become a Predictive Enterprise.

On the 12th Day, the #CEO & Board declared; “2015 will be the Year of #DataLeadership” for our Organization, the first major step in evolving into a Predictive Enterprise .

I am looking forward to The Year of Data Leadership and will be writing many more postings on the topic in my Information Age (UK) (www.information-age.co.uk) monthly column, this blog & during keynote presentations outlined in my Calendar of Events on this site. I will be working vigilantly with CEO’s, Boards and Senior Executive Teams to help them use The Data Leadership Nexus to achieve competitive advantage and other strategic outcomes as A Predictive Enterprise.

Stay tuned!

In Big Data, Business Analytics, Governance, Information Governance, Information Management, Leadership , , , , , , , ,
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