Driven By Data: The Podcast’s Post

In Episode 18, of Season 5 Kyle Winterbottom was joined by Robert Kent, Data & AI Leader at Greggs Where they discuss the learnings from being one of the first (maybe the first) CDOs in the UK to report to a CEO and be on the board of a UK Plc, which includes; 🎤Starting a career in IT over 30 years ago. 🎤Building D&A functions from scratch on multiple occasions. 🎤How the common thread has been executive sponsorship at the highest level. 🎤Anchoring data strategies to business strategies. 🎤Being part of a small group of CDOs that have reported to a CEO. 🎤Sitting on the board of a UK PLC that publicly declared data as core to its strategy. 🎤The business drivers that allowed data to have a seat at a board table. 🎤The learnings and experience of reporting to a CEO. 🎤Growing an appreciation of competing with priorities of other functions. 🎤The importance of empathy when sitting on the board. 🎤Balancing wearing a corporate hat and a data hat. 🎤Still needing to justify the existence of the data analytics function. 🎤A simple three-tier model to calculate value-creation. 🎤Accepting that there is a cost of doing business. 🎤Delivering tangible benefit in a cost-effective way without a large budget. 🎤Whether reporting lines and titles actually matter. 🎤The things that the CEO will be thinking about and asking. 🎤The things that can influence the position of the data executive in an organisation. 🎤The two key questions to ask your CEO that dictate proximity to them. 🎤Why CDOs have the power to choose which organisation is right for them. 🎤Why the data industry should be pushing on open doors. 🎤Why there is often a gap in expectations. 🎤The contributing factors to being seen as a cost centre. 🎤Why attributing value is easier for B2C businesses than B2B businesses. 🎤Why you’re doing something wrong if you can’t attribute value to data initiatives. 🎤Why translation will take you further than most other things. 🎤Why business people don’t care about our data analytics world. 🎤The material differences between having a seat at the table versus being a layer removed. 🎤Why any decision is made based on facts, fear, or faith. 🎤Where the future of data analytics teams lies. 🎤Why we’re not being picked on and other functions have it worse than us. Listen ⬇️