Officiating over the data

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Since 2012, there’s been a 450% increase in the number of Fortune 1000 companies with a chief data officer (CDO) position. While clearly there’s been a rapid rise in businesses seeing the value of employing a central custodian of data, what exactly that role entails, is still evolving.

“The role isn’t completely settled yet. Just like any other C-suite role, the position of CDO will grow and evolve as our ambitions with data become greater and greater, ” says Caroline Carruthers, chief executive of consultancy Carruthers and Jackson, and author of Data Driven Business Transformation.

She worked with data science software business Dataiku on its white paper based on the insights from more than 50 CDOs around the world. The research looked at the different types of CDO, the challenges they face, what support they need and how they fit within their organisations.

Titles aren’t everything, it’s not just about CDOs. Vice-presidents of data, chief analytics officers or even CEOs might effectively ...