Prioritize Business-Facing KPIs to Enhance Influence and Impact
While data quality (51%), ROI from D&A investments (44%) and data sharing (43%) are D&A leaders’ top objectives, their role will not be seen as valuable unless they focus on stakeholders’ KPIs.
“It’s not enough to manage data and create insights,” said Ms. Logan. “These activities must deliver measurable business outcomes.
“Data sharing is the way to optimize higher quality data and more robust data and analytics to solve business challenges and goals,” said Ms. Logan. “Data sharing is an important KPI and a business necessity. It accelerates digital business transformation.”
Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations that promote data sharing will outperform their peers on most business value metrics.
Successful CDOs Translate Data Into Business Results
CDOs who have business-facing KPIs and multiple business partners are 1.7 times more likely to be effective at consistently producing clear business value by successfully demonstrating ROI from the D&A investments. They are also 2.3 times more likely to be effective at reducing time to market and 3.5 times more likely to be effective at data monetization.
Less successful CDOs are those who failed to show a link between D&A and business value and who are inclined to focus on technology instead of people.
In addition, 93% of CDOs reported that effective communication is critical to the success of their roles. Overall, the most important competencies for D&A leaders are influencing, engagement and effective communication plans. These are leadership – not management – skills. “If the CDO does not exert influence across the organization by promoting data sharing, engaging stakeholders and training the workforce to become data literate, they will likely not perform well in their role,” said Ms. Logan.
*Note for Editors:
The sixth annual Gartner Chief Data Officer survey was conducted from September through November 2020 with 469 CDOs, chief analytics officers and other high-level data and analytics leaders from across the world. They represented 16 named industry segments in companies ranging from less than $10 million to over $10 billion, with 61% having over $1 billion in revenue.
Gartner clients can read more in “CDO Agenda 2021: Influence and Impact of Successful CDOs in the Sixth Annual CDO Survey.” Learn how to use data & analytics to re-engineer decision making in the free Gartner e-book “The Future of Decisions.”
About the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit
The Gartner Data & Analytics Summit explores how to tie data and analytics strategy to business outcomes and promote the adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence. The Summit is currently taking place virtually in the Americas and will take place May 18-20 in EMEA, June 8-9 in APAC, June 23-24 in India, and July 12-13 in Japan. Follow news and updates from the conferences on Twitter using #GartnerDA.
About the Gartner Information Technology Practice
The Gartner IT practice provides CIOs and IT leaders with the insights and tools to drive the organization through digital transformation to lead business growth. Additional information is available at https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology. Follow news and updates from the Gartner IT practice on Twitter and LinkedIn using #GartnerIT.
