data governance

An expanded and more mobile-friendly version of the Data & Analytics Dictionary

Peter James Thomas big data, business intelligence, chief data officer, data governance, data quality, data science, data visualisation, data warehousing, machine learning, management information

The Data and Analytics Dictionary

A revised and expanded version of the peterjamesthomas.com Data and Analytics Dictionary has been published.

Mobile version of The Data & Analytics Dictionary (yes I have an iPhone 6s in 2020, please don't judge me!)

The previous Dictionary was not the easiest to read on mobile devices. Because of this, the layout has been amended in this release and the mobile experience should now be greatly enhanced. Any feedback on usability would be welcome.

The new Dictionary includes 22 additional definitions, bringing the total number of entries to 220, totalling well over twenty thousand words. As usual, the new definitions range across the data arena: from Data Science and Machine Learning; to Information and Reporting; to Data Governance and Controls. They are as follows:

  1. Analysis Facility
  2. Analytical Repository
  3. Boosting [Machine Learning]
  4. Conformed Data (Conformed Dimension)
  5. Data Capability
  6. Data Capability Framework (Data Capability Model)
  7. Data Capability Review (Data Capability Assessment)
  8. Data Driven
  9. Data Governance Framework
  10. Data Issue Management
  11. Data Maturity
  12. Data Maturity Model
  13. Data Owner
  14. Data Protection Officer (DPO)
  15. Data Roadmap
  16. Geospatial Tool
  17. Image Recognition (Computer Vision)
  18. Overfitting
  19. Pattern Recognition
  20. Robot (Robotics, Bot)
  21. Random Forest
  22. Structured Reporting Framework

Please remember that The Dictionary is a free resource and quoting contents (ideally with acknowledgement) and linking to its entries (via the buttons provided) are both encouraged.

If you would like to contribute a definition, which will of course be acknowledged, you can use the comments section here, or the dedicated form, we look forward to hearing from you [1].

If you have found The Data & Analytics Dictionary helpful, we would love to learn more about this. Please post something in the comments section or contact us and we may even look to feature you in a future article.

The Data & Analytics Dictionary will continue to be expanded in coming months.
 

Notes

 
[1]		  
Please note that any submissions will be subject to editorial review and are not guaranteed to be accepted.

peterjamesthomas.com

Another article from peterjamesthomas.com. The home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases.

 

The latest edition of The Data & Analytics Dictionary is now out

Peter James Thomas big data, business analytics, business intelligence, chief data officer, dashboards, data architecture, data governance, data management, data quality, data science, data visualisation, data warehousing, infographics, machine learning, management information

The Data and Analytics Dictionary

After a hiatus of a few months, the latest version of the peterjamesthomas.com Data and Analytics Dictionary is now available. It includes 30 new definitions, some of which have been contributed by people like Tenny Thomas Soman, George Firican, Scott Taylor and and Taru Väre. Thanks to all of these for their help.

  1. Analysis
  2. Application Programming Interface (API)
  3. Business Glossary (contributor: Tenny Thomas Soman)
  4. Chart (Graph)
  5. Data Architecture – Definition (2)
  6. Data Catalogue
  7. Data Community
  8. Data Domain (contributor: Taru Väre)
  9. Data Enrichment
  10. Data Federation
  11. Data Function
  12. Data Model
  13. Data Operating Model
  14. Data Scrubbing
  15. Data Service
  16. Data Sourcing
  17. Decision Model
  18. Embedded BI / Analytics
  19. Genetic Algorithm
  20. Geospatial Data
  21. Infographic
  22. Insight
  23. Management Information (MI)
  24. Master Data – additional definition (contributor: Scott Taylor)
  25. Optimisation
  26. Reference Data (contributor: George Firican)
  27. Report
  28. Robotic Process Automation
  29. Statistics
  30. Self-service (BI or Analytics)

Remember that The Dictionary is a free resource and quoting contents (ideally with acknowledgement) and linking to its entries (via the buttons provided) are both encouraged.

If you would like to contribute a definition, which will of course be acknowledged, you can use the comments section here, or the dedicated form, we look forward to hearing from you [1].

If you have found The Data & Analytics Dictionary helpful, we would love to learn more about this. Please post something in the comments section or contact us and we may even look to feature you in a future article.

The Data & Analytics Dictionary will continue to be expanded in coming months.
 

Notes

 
[1]		  
Please note that any submissions will be subject to editorial review and are not guaranteed to be accepted.

peterjamesthomas.com

Another article from peterjamesthomas.com. The home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases.

 

A Simple Data Capability Framework

Peter James Thomas business analytics, business intelligence competency centres, chief data officer, data architecture, data governance, data management, data quality, data science, strategy

Introduction

As part of my consulting business, I end up thinking about Data Capability Frameworks quite a bit. Sometimes this is when I am assessing current Data Capabilities, sometimes it is when I am thinking about how to transition to future Data Capabilities. Regular readers will also recall my tripartite series on The Anatomy of a Data Function, which really focussed more on capabilities than purely organisation structure [1].

Detailed frameworks like the one contained in Anatomy are not appropriate for all audiences. Often I need to provide a more easily-absorbed view of what a Data Function is and what it does. The exhibit above is one that I have developed and refined over the last three or so years and which seems to have resonated with a number of clients. It has – I believe – the merit of simplicity. I have tried to distil things down to the essentials. Here I will aim to walk the reader through its contents, much of which I hope is actually self-explanatory.

The overall arrangement has been chosen intentionally, the top three areas are visible activities, the bottom three are more foundational areas [2], ones that are necessary for the top three boxes to be discharged well. I will start at the top left and work across and then down.
 
 
Collation of Data to provide Information

Dashboard

This area includes what is often described as “traditional” reporting [3], Dashboards and analysis facilities. The Information created here is invaluable for both determining what has happened and discerning trends / turning points. It is typically what is used to run an organisation on a day-to-day basis. Absence of such Information has been the cause of underperformance (or indeed major losses) in many an organisation, including a few that I have been brought in to help. The flip side is that making the necessary investments to provide even basic information has been at the heart of the successful business turnarounds that I have been involved in.

The bulk of Business Intelligence efforts would also fall into this area, but there is some overlap with the area I next describe as well.
 
 
Leverage of Data to generate Insight

Voronoi diagram

In this second area we have disciplines such as Analytics and Data Science. The objective here is to use a variety of techniques to tease out findings from available data (both internal and external) that go beyond the explicit purpose for which it was captured. Thus data to do with bank transactions might be combined with publically available demographic and location data to build an attribute model for both existing and potential clients, which can in turn be used to make targeted offers or product suggestions to them on Digital platforms.

It is my experience that work in this area can have a massive and rapid commercial impact. There are few activities in an organisation where a week’s work can equate to a percentage point increase in profitability, but I have seen insight-focussed teams deliver just that type of ground-shifting result.
 
 
Control of Data to ensure it is Fit-for-Purpose

Data controls

This refers to a wide range of activities from Data Governance to Data Management to Data Quality improvement and indeed related concepts such as Master Data Management. Here as well as the obvious policies, processes and procedures, together with help from tools and technology, we see the need for the human angle to be embraced via strong communications, education programmes and aligning personal incentives with desired data quality outcomes.

The primary purpose of this important work is to ensure that the information an organisation collates and the insight it generates are reliable. A helpful by-product of doing the right things in these areas is that the vast majority of what is required for regulatory compliance is achieved simply by doing things that add business value anyway.
 
 
Data Architecture / Infrastructure

Data architecture

Best practice has evolved in this area. When I first started focussing on the data arena, Data Warehouses were state of the art. More recently Big Data architectures, including things like Data Lakes, have appeared and – at least in some cases – begun to add significant value. However, I am on public record multiple times stating that technology choices are generally the least important in the journey towards becoming a data-centric organisation. This is not to say such choices are unimportant, but rather that other choices are more important, for example how best to engage your potential users and begin to build momentum [4].

Having said this, the model that seems to have emerged of late is somewhat different to the single version of the truth aspired to for many years by organisations. Instead best practice now encompasses two repositories: the first Operational, the second Analytical. At a high-level, arrangements would be something like this:

Data architecture

The Operational Repository would contain a subset of corporate data. It would be highly controlled, highly reconciled and used to support both regular reporting and a large chunk of dashboard content. It would be designed to also feed data to other areas, notably Finance systems. This would be complemented by the Analytical Repository, into which most corporate data (augmented by external data) would be poured. This would be accessed by a smaller number of highly skilled staff, Data Scientists and Analytics experts, who would use it to build models, produce one off analyses and to support areas such as Data Visualisation and Machine Learning.

It is not atypical for Operational Repositories to be SQL-based and Analytical Repsoitories to be Big Data-based, but you could use SQL for both or indeed Big Data for both according to the circumstances of an organisation and its technical expertise.
 
 
Data Operating Model / Organisation Design

Organisational design

Here I will direct readers to my (soon to be updated) earlier work on The Anatomy of a Data Function. However, it is worth mentioning a couple of additional points. First an Operating Model for data must encompass the whole organisation, not just the Data Function. Such a model should cover how data is captured, sourced and used across all departments.

Second I think that the concept of a Data Community is important here, a web of like-minded Data Scientists and Analytics people, sitting in various business areas and support functions, but linked to the central hub of the Data Function by common tooling, shared data sets (ideally Curated) and aligned methodologies. Such a virtual data team is of course predicated on an organisation hiring collaborative people who want to be part of and contribute to the Data Community, but those are the types of people that organisations should be hiring anyway [5].
 
 
Data Strategy

Data strategy

Our final area is that of Data Strategy, something I have written about extensively in these pages [6] and a major part of the work that I do for organisations.

It is an oft-repeated truism that a Data Strategy must reflect an overarching Business Strategy. While this is clearly the case, often things are less straightforward. For example, the Business Strategy may be in flux; this is particularly the case where a turn-around effort is required. Also, how the organisation uses data for competitive advantage may itself become a central pillar of its overall Business Strategy. Either way, rather than waiting for a Business Strategy to be finalised, there are a number of things that will need to be part of any Data Strategy: the establishment of a Data Function; a focus on making data fit-for-purpose to better support both information and insight; creation of consistent and business-focussed reporting and analysis; and the introduction or augmentation of Data Science capabilities. Many of these activities can help to shape a Business Strategy based on facts, not gut feel.

More broadly, any Data Strategy will include: a description of where the organisation is now (threats and opportunities); a vision for commercially advantageous future data capabilities; and a path for moving between the current and the future states. Rather than being PowerPoint-ware, such a strategy needs to be communicated assiduously and in a variety of ways so that it can be both widely understood and form a guide for data-centric activities across the organisation.
 
 
Summary
 
As per my other articles, the data capabilities that a modern organisation needs are broader and more detailed than those I have presented here. However, I have found this simple approach a useful place to start. It covers all the basic areas and provides a scaffold off of which more detailed capabilities may be hung.

The framework has been informed by what I have seen and done in a wide range of organisations, but of course it is not necessarily the final word. As always I would be interested in any general feedback and in any suggestions for improvement.
 

 
Notes

 
[1]		  
In passing, Anatomy is due for its second refresh, which will put greater emphasis on Data Science and its role as an indispensable part of a modern Data Function. Watch this space.
 
[2]		  
Though one would hope that a Data Strategy is also visible!
 
[3]		  
Though nowadays you hear “traditional” Analytics and “traditional” Big Data as well (on the latter see Sic Transit Gloria Magnorum Datorum), no doubt “traditional” Machine Learning will be with us at some point, if it isn’t here already.
 
[4]		  
See also Building Momentum – How to begin becoming a Data-driven Organisation.
 
[5]		  
I will be revisiting the idea of a Data Community in coming months, so again watch this space.
 
[6]		  
Most explicitly in my three-part series:

  1. Forming an Information Strategy: Part I – General Strategy
  2. Forming an Information Strategy: Part II – Situational Analysis
  3. Forming an Information Strategy: Part III – Completing the Strategy

 
peterjamesthomas.com

Another article from peterjamesthomas.com. The home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases.

 
 

The Chief Marketing Officer and the CDO – A Modern Fable

Peter James Thomas chief data officer, data architecture, data governance, data management, data quality, data science

The Fox and the Grapes

This Fox has a longing for grapes:
He jumps, but the bunch still escapes.
So he goes away sour;
And, ’tis said, to this hour
Declares that he’s no taste for grapes.

— W.J.Linton (after Aesop)

Note:

Not all of the organisations I have worked with or for have had a C-level Executive accountable primarily for Marketing. Where they have, I have normally found the people holding these roles to be better informed about data matters than their peers. I have always found it easy and enjoyable to collaborate with such people. The same goes in general for Marketing Managers. This article is not about Marketing professionals, it is about poorly researched journalism.

 
Prelude…

The Decline and Fall of the CDO Empire?

I recently came across an article in Marketing Week with the clickbait-worthy headline of Why the rise of the chief data officer will be short-lived (their choice of capitalisation). The subhead continues in the same vein:

Chief data officers (ditto) are becoming increasingly common, but for a data strategy to work their appointments can only ever be a temporary fix.

Intrigued, I felt I had to avail myself of the wisdom and domain expertise contained in the article (the clickbait worked of course). The first few paragraphs reveal the actual motivation. The piece is a reaction [1] to the most senior Marketing person at easyJet being moved out of his role, which is being abolished, and – as part of the same reorganisation – a Chief Data Officer (CDO) being appointed. Now the first thing to say, based on the article’s introductory comments, is that easyJet did not have a Chief Marketing Officer. The role that was abolished was instead Chief Commercial Officer, so there was no one charged full-time with Marketing anyway. The Marketing responsibilities previously supported part-time by the CCO have now been spread among other executives.

The next part of the article covers the views of a Marketing Week columnist (pause for irony) before moving on to arrangements for the management of data matters in three UK-based organisations:

  • Camelot – who run the UK National Lottery
     
  • Mumsnet – which is a web-site for UK parents
     
  • Flubit – a growing on-line marketplace aiming to compete with Amazon

The first two of these have CDOs (albeit with one doing the role alongside other responsibilities). Both of these people:

[…] come at data as people with backgrounds in its use in marketing

Flubit does not have a CDO, which is used as supporting evidence for the superfluous nature of the role [2].

Suffice it to say that a straw poll consisting of the handful of organisations that the journalist was able to get a comment from is not the most robust of approaches [3]. Most of the time, the article does nothing more than to reflect the continuing confusion about whether or not organisations need CDOs and – assuming that they do – what their remit should be and who they should report to [4].

But then, without it has to be said much supporting evidence, the piece goes on to add that:

Most [CDOs – they would probably style it “Cdos”] are brought in to instill a data strategy across the business; once that is done their role should no longer be needed.

Symmetry

Now as a Group Theoretician, I am a great fan of symmetry. Symmetry relates to properties that remain invariant when something else is changed. Archetypally, an equilateral triangle is still an equilateral triangle when rotated by 120° [5]. More concretely, the laws of motion work just fine if we wind the clock forward 10 seconds (which incidentally leads to the principle of conservation of energy [6]).

Let’s assume that the Marketing Week assertion is true. I claim therefore that it must be still be true under the symmetry of changing the C-level role. This would mean that the following also has to be true:

Most [Chief marketing officers] are brought in to instill a marketing strategy across the business; once that is done their role should no longer be needed.

Now maybe this statement is indeed true. However, I can’t really see the guys and gals at Marketing Week agreeing with this. So maybe it’s false instead. Then – employing reductio ad absurdum – the initial statement is also false [7].

If you don’t work in Marketing, then maybe a further transformation will convince you:

Most [Chief financial officers] are brought in to instill a finance strategy across the business; once that is done their role should no longer be needed.

I could go on, but this is already becoming as tedious to write as it was to read the original Marketing Week claim. The closing sentence of the article is probably its most revealing and informative:

[…] marketers must make sure they are leading [the data] agenda, or someone else will do it for them.

I will leave readers to draw their own conclusions on the merits of this piece and move on to other thoughts that reading it spurred in me.

 
…and Fugue

Electrification

Sometimes buried in the strangest of places you can find something of value, even if the value is different to the intentions of the person who buried it. Around some of the CDO forums that I attend [8] there is occasionally talk about just the type of issue that Marketing Week raises. An historical role often comes up in these discussions is that of Chief Electrification Officer [9]. This supposedly was an Executive role in organisations as the 19th Century turned into the 20th and electricity grids began to be created. The person ostensibly filling this role would be responsible for shepherding the organisation’s transition from earlier forms of power (e.g. steam) to the new-fangled streams of electrons. Of course this role would be very important until the transition was completed, after that redundancy surely beckoned.

Well to my way of thinking, there are a couple of problems here. The first one of these is alluded to by my choice of the words “supposedly” and “ostensibly” above. I am not entirely sure, based on my initial research [10], that this role ever actually existed. All the references I can find to it are modern pieces comparing it to the CDO role, so perhaps it is apochryphal.

The second is somewhat related. Electrification was an engineering problem, indeed it the [US] National Academy of Engineering called it “the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th Century”. Surely the people tackling this would be engineers, potentially led by a Chief Engineer. Did the completion of electrification mean that there was no longer a need for engineers, or did they simply move on to the next engineering problem [11]?

Extending this analogy, I think that Chief Data Officers are more like Chief Engineers than Chief Electrification Officers, assuming that the latter even exists. Why the confusion? Well I think part of it is because, over the last decade and a bit, organisations have been conditioned to believe the one dimensional perspective that everything is a programme or a project [12]. I am less sure that this applies 100% to the CDO role.

It may well be that one thing that a CDO needs to get going is a data transformation programme. This may purely be focused on cultural aspects of how an organisation records, shares and otherwise uses data. It may be to build a new (or a first) Data Architecture. It may be to remediate issues with an existing Data Architecture. It may be to introduce or expand Data Governance. It may be to improve Data Quality. Or (and, in my experience, this is often the most likely) a combination of all these five, plus other work, such as rapid tactical or interim deliveries. However, there is also a large element of data-centric work which is not project-based and instead falls into the category often described as “business as usual” (I loathe this term – I think that Data Operations & Technology is preferable). A handful of examples are as follows (this is not meant to be an exhaustive list) [13]:

  1. Addressing architectural debt that results from neglect of a Data Assets or the frequently deleterious impact of improperly governed change portfolios [14]. This is often a series of small to medium-sized changes, rather than a project with a discrete scope and start and end dates.
     
  2. More positively, engaging proactively in the change process in an attempt to act as a steward of Data Assets.
     
  3. Establishing a regular Data Audit.
     
  4. Regular Data Management activities.
     
  5. Providing tailored Analytics to help understand some unscheduled or unexpected event.
     
  6. Establishment of a data “SWAT team” to respond to urgent architecture, quality or reporting needs.
     
  7. Running a Data Governance committee and related activities.
     
  8. Creating and managing a Data Science capability.
     
  9. Providing help and advice to those struggling to use Data facilities.
     
  10. Responding to new Data regulations.
     
  11. Creating and maintaining a target operating model for Data and is use.
     
  12. Supporting Data Services to aid systems integration.
     
  13. Production of regular reports and refreshing self-serve Data Repositories.
     
  14. Testing and re-testing of Data facilities subject to change or change in source Data.
     
  15. Providing training in the use of Data facilities or the importance of getting Data right-first-time.

The above all point to the need for an ongoing Data Function to meet these needs (and to form the core resources of any data programme / project work). I describe such a function in my series about The Anatomy of a Data Function.

Data Strategy

There are of course many other such examples, but instead of cataloguing each of them, let’s return to what Marketing Week describe as the central responsibility of a CDO, to formulate a Data Strategy. Surely this is a one-off activity, right?

Well is the Marketing strategy set once and then never changed? If there is some material shift in the overall Business strategy, might the Marketing strategy change as a result? What would be the impact on an existing Marketing strategy of insight showing that this was being less than effective; might this lead to the development of a new Marketing strategy? Would the Marketing strategy need to be revised to cater for new products and services, or new segments and territories? What would be the impact on the Marketing strategy of an acquisition or divestment?

As anyone who has spent significant time in the strategy arena will tell you, it is a fluid area. Things are never set in stone and strategies may need to be significantly revised or indeed abandoned and replaced with something entirely new as dictated by events. Strategy is not a fire and forget exercise, not if you want it to be relevant to your business today, as opposed to a year ago. Specifically with Data Strategy (as I explain in Building Momentum – How to begin becoming a Data-driven Organisation), I would recommend keeping it rather broad brush at the begining of its development, allowing it to be adpated based on feedback from initial interim work and thus ensuring it better meets business needs.

So expecting that a Data Strategy (or any other type of strategy) to be done and dusted, with the key strategist dispensed with, is probably rather naive.

 
Coda

Coda

It would be really nice to think that sorting out their Data problems and seizing their Data opportunities are things that organisations can do once and then forget about. With twenty years experience of helping organisations to become more Data-centric, often with technical matters firmly in the background, I have to disabuse people of this all too frequent misconception. To adapt the National Canine Defence League’s [15 long-lived slogan from 1978:

A Chief Data Officer is for life, not just for Christmas.

With that out of the way, I’m off to write a well-informed and insightful article about how Marketing Departments should go about their business. Wish me luck!
 

 
Notes

 
[1]		  
I first wrote “knee-jerk reaction” and then thought that maybe I was being unkind. “When they go low, we go high” is a better maxim. Note: link opens a YouTube video.
 
[2]		  
I am sure that I read somewhere about the importance of the number of data points in any analysis, maybe I should ask a Data Scientist to remind me about this.
 
[3]		  
For a more balanced view of what real CDOs do, please take a look at my ongoing series of in-depth interviews.
 
[4]		  
As discussed in:
 
[5]		  
See Glimpses of Symmetry, Chapter 3 – Shifting Shapes for more on the properties of equilateral triangles.
 
[6]		  
As demonstrated by Emmy Noether in 1915.
 
[7]		  
At this point I think I am meant to say “Fake news! SAD!!!”
 
[8]		  
The [informal] proceedings of some of these may be viewed at:
 
[9]		  
Or Chief Electrical Officer, or Chief Electricity Officer.
 
[10]		  
I am doing some more digging and will of course update this piece should I find the evidence that has so far been elusive.
 
[11]		  
Self-driving electric cars come to mind of course. That or running a Starship.

Scotty

 
[12]		  
As an aside, where do Programme Managers go when (or should that be if) their Programmes finish?
 
[13]		  
It might be argued that some of these operational functions could be handed to IT. However, given that some elements of data functions have probably been carved out of IT in the past, this might be a retrograde step.
 
[14]		  
See Bumps in the Road.
 
[15]		  
Now Dogs Trust.

 

From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases

 

More Definitions in the Data and Analytics Dictionary

Peter James Thomas big data, business analytics, business intelligence, chief data officer, dashboards, data governance, data management, data quality, data science, data visualisation, data warehousing, Statistics

The Data and Analytics Dictionary

The peterjamesthomas.com Data and Analytics Dictionary is an active document and I will continue to issue revised versions of it periodically. Here are 20 new definitions, including the first from other contributors (thanks Tenny!):

  1. Artificial Intelligence Platform
  2. Data Asset
  3. Data Audit
  4. Data Classification
  5. Data Consistency
  6. Data Controls
  7. Data Curation (contributor: Tenny Thomas Soman)
  8. Data Democratisation
  9. Data Dictionary
  10. Data Engineering
  11. Data Ethics
  12. Data Integrity
  13. Data Lineage
  14. Data Platform
  15. Data Strategy
  16. Data Wrangling (contributor: Tenny Thomas Soman)
  17. Explainable AI (contributor: Tenny Thomas Soman)
  18. Information Governance
  19. Referential Integrity
  20. Testing Data (Training Data)

Remember that The Dictionary is a free resource and quoting contents (ideally with acknowledgement) and linking to its entries (via the buttons provided) are both encouraged.

People are now also welcome to contribute their own definitions. You can use the comments section here, or the dedicated form. Submissions will be subject to editorial review and are not guaranteed to be accepted.
 

 

From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases

 

In-depth with CDO Christopher Bannocks

Peter James Thomas business analytics, chief data officer, data governance, in-depth ,
In-depth with Christopher Bannocks

Part of the In-depth series of interviews

PJT Today I am talking to Christopher Bannocks, who is Group Chief Data Officer at ING. ING is a leading global financial institution, headquartered in the Netherlands. As stressed in other recent In-depth interviews [1], data is a critical asset in banking and related activities, so Christopher’s role is a pivotal one. I’m very glad that he has been able to find time in his busy calendar to speak to us.
PJT Hello Christopher, can you start by providing readers with a flavour of your career to date and perhaps also explain why you came to focus on the data arena.
CB Sure, it’s probably right to say I didn’t start out here, data was not my original choice, and for anyone of a similar age to me, data wasn’t a choice, when I started out, in that respect it’s a “new segment”. I started out on a management development programme in a retail bank in the UK, after which I moved to be an operations manager in investment banking. As part of that time in my career, post Euro migration and Y2K (yes I am genuinely that old, I also remember Vinyl records and Betamax video!) [2] I was asked to help solve the data problem. What I recognised very quickly was this was an area with under-investment, that was totally central the focus of that time – STP (Straight Through Processing). Equally it provided me with much broader perspectives, connections to all parts of the organisation that I previously didn’t have and it was at that point, some 20 years ago, that I decided this was the thing for me! I have since run and driven transformation in Reference Data, Master Data, KYC [3], Customer Data, Data Warehousing and more recently Data Lakes and Analytics, constantly building experience and capability in the Data Governance, Quality and data services domains, both inside banks, as a consultant and as a vendor.
PJT I am trying to get a picture of the role and responsibilities of the typical CDO (not that there appears to be such a thing), so would you mind touching on the span of your work at ING? I know you have a strong background in Enterprise Data Management, how does the CDO role differ from this area?
CB I guess that depends on how you determine the scope of Enterprise Data Management. However, in reality, the CDO role encompasses Enterprise Data Management, although generally speaking the EDM role includes responsibility for the day to day operations of the collection processes, which in my current role I don’t have. I have accountability for the governance and quality through those processes and for making the data available for downstream consumers, like Analytics, Risk, Finance and HR.

My role encompasses being the business driver for the data platform that we are rolling out across the organisation and its success in terms of the data going onto the platform and the curation of that data in a governed state, depending on the consumer requirements.

My role today boils down to 4 key objectives – data availability, data transparency, data quality and data control.

PJT I know that ING consists of many operating areas and has adopted a federated structure with respect to data matters. What are the strengths of this approach and how does it work on a day-to-day basis?
CB This approach ensures that the CDO role (I have a number of CDOs functionally reporting to me) remains close to the business and the local entity it supports, it ensures that my management team is directly connected to the needs of the business locally, and that the local businesses have a direct connection to the global strategy. What I would say is that there is no “one size fits all” approach to the CDO organisation model. It depends on the company culture and structure and it needs to fit with the stated objectives of the role as designed.

On a day to day basis, we are aligned with the business units and the functional units so we have CDOs in all of these areas. Additionally I have a direct set of reports who drive the standard solutions around tooling, governance, quality, data protection, Data Ethics, Metadata and data glossary and models.

PJT Helping organisations become “data-centric” is a key part of what you do. I often use this phrase myself; but was recently challenged to elucidate its meaning. What does a “data-centric” organisation look like to you? What sort of value does data-centricity release in your experience?
CB Data centric is a cultural shift, in the structures of the past where we have technology people and process, we now have data that touches all three. You know if you have reached the right place when data becomes part of the decision making process across the organisation, when decisions are only made when data is presented to support it and this is of the requisite quality. This doesn’t mean all decisions require data, some decisions don’t have data and that’s where leaderships decisions can be made, but for those decisions that have good data to support them, these can be made easily and at a lower level in the organisation. Hence becoming data centric supports an agile organisation and servant / leadership principles, utilising data makes decisions faster and outcomes better.
PJT I am on record multiple times [4] stating that technology choices are much less important than other aspects of data work. However, it is hard to ignore the impact that Big Data and related technologies have had. A few years into the cycle of Big Data adoption, do you see the tools and approaches yielding the expected benefits? Should I revisit my technology-agnostic stance?
CB I have also been on record multiple times saying that every data problem is a people problem in disguise. I still hold that this is true today although potentially this is changing. The problems of the past and still to this day originate with poor data stewardship, I saw it happening in front of my eyes last week in Heathrow when I purchased something in a well known electronics store. Because I have an overseas postcode the guy at the checkout put dummy data into all the fields to get through the process quickly and not impact my customer experience, I desperately wanted to stop him but also wanted to catch my plane. This is where the process efficiency impacts good data collection. If the software that supports the process isn’t flexible, the issue won’t be fixed without technology intervention, this is often true in data quality problems which have knock on effects to customers, which at the end of the day are why we are all here. This is a people problem (because who is taking responsibility here for fixing it, or educating that guy at the checkout) AND it’s a technology problem, caused by inflexible or badly implemented systems.

However, in the future, with more focus on customer driven checkout, digital channels and better customer experience, better interface driven data controls and robotics and AI, it may become further nuanced. People are still involved, communication remains critical but we cannot ignore technology in the digital age. For a long time, data groups have struggled with getting access to good tools and technology, now this technology domain is growing daily, and the tools are improving all the time. What we can do now with data at a significantly lower cost than ever before is amazing, and continues to improve all the time. Hence ignoring technology can be costly when extending capabilities to your stakeholders and could be a serious mistake, however focusing only on technology and ignoring people, process, communication etc is also a serious mistake. Data Leaders have to be multi-disciplinary today, and be able to keep up with the pace of change.

PJT I have heard you talk about “data platforms”, what do you mean by this and how do these contrast with another perennial theme, that of data democratisation? How does a “data platform” relate to – say – Data Science teams?
CB Data democratisation is enabled by the data platform. The data platform is the technology enablement of the four pillars I mentioned before, availability, transparency, quality and control. The platform is a collection of technologies that standardise the approach and access to well governed data across the organisation. Data Democratisation is simply making data available and abstracting away from siloed storage mechanisms, but the platform wraps the implementation of quality, controls and structure to the way that happens. Data Science teams then get the data they need, including data curation services to find the data they need quickly, for governed and structured data, Data Science teams can utilise the glossary to identify what they need and understand the level of quality based on consumer views, they also have access to metadata in standard forms. This empowers the analytics capability to move faster, spend less time on data discovery and curation, structure and quality and more time on building analytics.
PJT I mentioned the federated CDO team at ING above and assume this is reflected in the rest of the organisation structure. ING also has customers in 40 countries and I know first-hand that a global footprint adds complexity. What are the challenges in being a CDO in such an environment? Does this put a higher premium on influencing skills for example?
CB I am not sure it puts a higher premium on influencing skills, these have a high premium in any CDO role, even if you don’t have a federated structure, the reality is if you are in a data role you have more stakeholders than anyone else in the company, so influencing skills remain premium.

A global footprint means complexity for sure, it means differences in a world where you are trying to standardise and it means you have to be tuned in to cultural differences and boundaries. It also means a great deal of variety, opportunities to learn new cultures and approaches, it means you have to listen and understand and flex your style and it means pragmatism plays an important part in your decision making process.

At ING we have an amazing team of people who collaborate in a way I have never experienced before, supported by a strong attachment and commitment to the success of the business and our customers. This makes dealing with the complexity a team effort, with great energy and a fantastic working environment. In an organisation without the drive and passion we have here it would present challenges, with the support of the board and being a core part of the overall strategy, it ensures broad alignment to the goal, which makes the challenge easier for the organisation to solve, not easy, but easier and more fun.

PJT Building on the last point, every CDO I have interviewed has stressed the importance of relationships; something that chimes with my own experience. How do you go about building strong relationships and maintaining them when inevitable differences of opinion or clashes in interests arise?
CB I touched on this a little earlier. Pragmatism over purism. I see purist everywhere in data, with views that are so rigid that the execution of them is doomed because purism doesn’t build relationships. Relationships are built based on what you bring and give up, on what you can give, not on what you can get. I try every day to achieve this, but I am human too, so I don’t always get it right, I hope I get it right more than I get it wrong and where I get it wrong I hope I can be forgiven for my intention is pure. We owe it to our customers to work together for their benefit, where we have differences the customer outcomes should drive our decisions, in that we have a common goal. Disagreements can be helped and supported by identifying a common goal, this starts to align people behind a common outcome. Individual interests can be put aside in preference of the customer interest.
PJT I know that you are very interested in data ethics and feel that this is an important area for CDOs to consider. Can you tell the readers a bit more about data ethics and why they should be central to an organisation’s approach to data?
CB In an increasingly digital world, the use of data is becoming widespread and the pace at which it is used is increasing daily, our compute power grows exponentially as does the availability of data. Given this, we need an ethical framework to help us make good decisions with our customers and stakeholders in mind. How do you ensure that decisions in your organisation about how you use data are ethical? What are ethical decisions in your organisation and what are the guiding principles? If this isn’t clear and communicated to help all staff make good decisions, or have good discussions there is a real danger that decisions may not be properly socialised before all angles are considered.

Just meeting the bar of privacy regulation may not be enough, you can still meet that bar and do things that your customers may disagree with of find “creepy” so the correct thought needs to be applied and the organisation engaged to ensure the correct conversations take place, and there is a place to go to discuss ethics.

I am not saying that there is a silver bullet to solve this problem, but the conversation and the ability to have the conversation in a structured way helps the organisation understand its approach and make good decisions in this respect. That’s why CDOs should consider this an important part of the role and a critical engagement with users of data across the organisation.

PJT Finally, I have worked for businesses with a presence in the Netherlands on a number of occasions. As a Brit living abroad, how have you found Amsterdam. What – if any – adaptations have you had to make to your style to thrive in a somewhat different culture?
CB Having lived in India, I thought my move to the Netherlands could only be easy. I arrived thinking that a 45 minute flight could not possibly provide as many challenges as an 11 hour flight, especially from a cultural perspective. Of course I was wrong because any move to a different culture provides challenges you could never have expected and it’s the small adjustments that take you by surprise the most. It’s always a hugely enjoyable learning experience though. London is a more top down culture whereas in the Netherlands it’s a much flatter approach, my experience here is positive although it does require an adjustment. I work in Amsterdam but live in a small village, chosen deliberately to integrate faster. It’s harder, more of a challenge but helps you understand the culture as you make friends with local people and get closer to the culture. My wife and I have never been a fan of the expat scene, we prefer to integrate, however more difficult this feels at first, it’s worth it in the long run. I must admit though that I haven’t conquered the language yet, it’s a real work in progress!
PJT Christopher, I really enjoyed our chat, which I believe will also be of great interest to readers. Thank you.

Christoper Bannocks can be reached at via his LinkedIn profile.

Disclosure: At the time of publication, neither peterjamesthomas.com Ltd. nor any of its Directors had any shared commercial interests with Christopher Bannocks, ING or any entities associated with either of these.

If you are a Chief Data Officer, a Chief Analytics Officer, a Director of Data, or hold some other “Top Data Job” and would like to share your thoughts with the readers of this site in an interview like this one, please get in contact.

 
Notes

 
[1]		  
Specifically:
 
[2]		  
So does the interviewer.
 
[3]		  
Know your customer.
 
[4]		  
Most directly in: A bad workman blames his [Business Intelligence] tools

From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases

 

Version 2 of The Anatomy of a Data Function

Peter James Thomas business analytics, business intelligence, data governance, data management, data science, data visualisation, data warehousing

Between November and December 2017, I published the three parts of my Anatomy of a Data Function. These were cunningly called Part I, Part II and Part III. Eight months is a long time in the data arena and I have now issued an update.

The Anatomy of a Data Function

Larger PDF version (opens in a new tab)

The changes in Version 2 are confined to the above organogram and Part I of the text. They consist of the following:

  1. Split Artificial Intelligence out of Data Science in order to better reflect the ascendancy of this area (and also its use outside of Data Science).
     
  2. Change Data Science to Data Science / Engineering in order to better reflect the continuing evolution of this area.

My aim will be to keep this trilogy up-to-date as best practice Data Functions change their shapes and contents.

 
If you would like help building or running your Data Function, or would just like to have an informal chat about the area, please get in touch
 

From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases

 

In-depth with CDO Jo Coutuer

Peter James Thomas business analytics, chief data officer, data governance, data science, in-depth ,
In-depth with Jo Coutuer

Part of the In-depth series of interviews

PJT Today’s guest on In-depth is Jo Coutuer, Chief Data Officer and Member of the Executive Committee of BNP Paribas Fortis, a leading Belgian bank. Given the importance of the CDO role in Financial Services, I am very happy that Jo has managed to spare us some of his valuable time to talk.
PJT Jo, you have had an interesting career in a variety of organisations from consultancies to start-ups, from government to major companies. Can you give readers a pen-picture of the journey that has taken you to your current role?
JC For me, the variety of contexts has been the most rewarding. I started in an industry that has now sharply declined in Europe (Telco Manufacturing), continued in the consulting world of ERP tools, switched into a very interesting job for the government, became an entrepreneur and co-created a data company for 13 years, merged that data company into a big 4 consultancy and finally decided to apply my life’s learnings to the fascinating industry of banking. The most remarkable aspect of my career is the fact that my current role and the attention to data that goes with it, did not exist when I started my career. It illustrates how young people today can also build a future, without really knowing what lies ahead. All it takes is the mental flexibility to switch contexts when it is needed.
PJT At present – at least in Europe, and maybe further afield – there is no standard definition of a CDO’s role. Can you tell me a bit about the scope of your work at BNP Paribas Fortis? Are you most focussed on compliance, leverage of data, or a balance of both activities?
JC At BNP Paribas Fortis, the CEO and his executive committee made a courageous decision back in 2016 to create a specific department dedicated to Data. The move was courageous, not only because it defined a new leadership role and a budget, but also because it settled a debate between the businesses and the IT function. At the time of creation of the department, it was decided to carve out of IT the traditional function of “business intelligence and data warehousing” and to establish a central competence centre for “analytics and artificial intelligence“, which before was mostly scattered or non-existing. On top of that, the new department was tasked to assume the regulatory duties that relate to data. More and more, banking regulation focusses on reliable reporting, traceable data flows, systematic data quality measurement and well documented metadata, all embedded in a solid organisational governance. So yes, I would say our Data department is both “defensive” as well as “offensive”. As a CDO, I am privileged to be able to work with experts and leaders in the fields of regulation, data warehousing expertise and data science innovation. Without them, the breadth of the scope and the required depth, would not be manageable.
PJT Do you collaborate with other Executives in the data arena, or is the CDO primus inter pares when it comes to data matters?
JC I would not speak of a hierarchical order when it comes to data. It helps to distinguish three identities of a Data department.

The first one is the identity of the “Governor”. In that identity, peers accept that the CDO translates external duties into internal best practices, as long as this happens in a co-creation mode. We have established a “College of Data Managers”, who are 13 senior managers, representing each a specific “data perimeter”, which in its turn rather well maps to our fields of business or our internal functions. These senior managers intimately link the Data activities to the day-to-day business functions and their respective executives.

A second identity is that of the “Expert”. In that identity, we offer expertise in fields of data integration, data warehousing, reporting, visualisation, data science, … It means that I see my fellow executives as clients and partners and the Data department helps them achieve their business objectives. Mentally (and sometimes practically), we measure up to external professional services or IT companies.

A third identity is that of the “Integrator”. As an integrator, we actively make the link between the business of today, the technological and data potential of today and the business of tomorrow. We actively try to question existing practices and we introduce new concepts for a variety of business applications. And although we are more driving in this role than we are in the role of the “Expert”, we still are fully at the service of our clients.

PJT More generally, how do you see the CDO role changing in coming years, what would 2020’s CDO be doing? Will we even need CDOs in 2020?
JC Ahah! One of the most frequently asked questions on CDO related social media! If previous two years are any predictor of the future, I would say that the CDO of 2020 is one who has solidly matured the governance aspects of Data, just like the CFO and CRO have done that for financial management or risk management. Let’s say that Data has become “routine”.

At the same time, the 2020 CDO will need to offer to his peers, the technical and expert capabilities that are data centric and essential to running a digital business.

And on top of that, I believe that 2020 will be the timeframe in which data valorisation will become an active topic. I explicitly do not use the word “monetisation” because we currently associate data to often with “selling data for advertising purposes”. In our industry, PSD2 [1] will define our duties to be able to exchange data with third party service providers, at the explicit request of our clients. From that new reality, an API-driven ecosystem will surface in which data will be actively valorised, to the direct service of our clients, not to the indirect service of our marketing departments. The 2020 CDO will be instrumental in shaping his or her company’s ecosystem to make sure this happens in a well governed, trusted and safe way. Clients will seek that reassurance and will reward companies who take data management seriously.

PJT Of course, senior roles tend to exist because they add value to their organisations, what do you feel is the value that a CDO brings to the table?
JC I have already mentioned the CDO’s challenge to be schizophrenic ally split between his or her various identities. But it is exactly that breadth of scope that can add value. The CDO should be an “executive integrator”. He can employ “governors” and “experts”, but his or her role in the peer team of executives is to represent the transversality of data’s nature. Data “flows”, data “unites”. More than it is “oil”, data is “water”. It flows through the company’s ecosystem and it nourishes the business and the future business potential. As such, the CDO needs to keep the water clean and make sure it gets pumped across the organisation, so that others can benefit from the nutrients it. And while doing so, the CDO has a duty to add nutrients to the water, in the form of analytical or artificial intelligence induced insights.
PJT Focussing on Analytics, I know you have written about how to build the ideal Analytics team and have mentioned that “purple people” are the key. Can you explain more about this?
JC Purple people are people that integrate the skills of “red” people and “blue” people. Red people bring the scientific data methodologies to the table. Blue people bring the solid frameworks of the business. Data people as individuals and a Data department as an entity, must have as a mission to be “purple” and to actively bridge the gap between the fast growing set of data technologies and methodologies on the one hand and the rapidly evolving and transforming business challenges on the other hand. And of course, if you like Prince [2] as a musician, that can be an asset too!
PJT In my discussions with other CDOs [3] and indeed in my own experience, it seems that teamwork is crucial for a CDO. Of course, this is important for many senior roles, but it does seem central to what a CDO does. My perspective is that both a CDO’s own team and the virtual teams that he or she forms with colleagues are going to have a big say in whether things go well or not. What are your views on this topic?
JC You are absolutely right. A CDO or data function cannot exist in isolation. At some times, transversality feels a burden because it imposes a daily attention to stakeholders. However, in reality, it’s exactly the transversal effect that can generate the added value to an organisation. At the end of the day, the integration aspects between departments and people will generate positive side effects, above and beyond the techniques of data management.
PJT Artificial Intelligence in its various guises has been the topic of conversation recently. This is something with strong linkage to the data field. Obviously without divulging any commercial secrets, what role do you see AI playing in banking going forwards? What about in our lives in general?
JC It’s funny that AI is being discovered as a new topic. I remember writing my Master thesis on the topic a long time ago. Of course, things have evolved since the 90s, with a storage and computing capacity that is approximately 50,000 times stronger for the same price point. This capacity explosion, combined with the connectivity of the internet and the cloud, combined with the increased awareness that data and algorithms have become central elements in a many business strategies, has fundamentally re-calibrated the potential of AI.

In banking, AI and Analytics will soon help clients understand their finances better, will help them to take better and faster decisions, will generate a better (less friction) client experience for “the easy stuff” and it will allow the banks to put humans on “the hard stuff” or on those interactions with their clients that require true human interaction. Behind the scenes, Analytics and AI are already helping to prevent fraud, monitoring suspicious transactions to detect crime, money laundering and fraud. And even deeper inside the mechanics of a bank, Analytics and AI are helping prevent cyber-crimes and are monitoring the stability of the technological platforms onto which our modern financial and societal system is built.

I am convinced that the societal role of banks will continue to exists, despite innovative peer-to-peer or blockchain driven schemes. As such, Analytics and AI will contribute to society as a whole, through their contribution to a reliable and stable financial services system.

PJT With GDPR [4] coming into force only a couple of months ago, the subject of customer data and how it is used is a topical one. Taking BNP Paribas Fortis to one side, what are your thoughts on the balance between data privacy and the “free” services that we all pay for by allowing our data to be sold?
JC I believe that GDPR is both important legislation and brings benefits to customers. First of all, we have good historical reasons to care about our privacy. In times of societal crises or wars, it is the first weapon that is used against society and its citizens. So we should care for it deeply. Second, being in an industry for which “trust” is the most essential element of identity, protecting and respecting the data and the privacy of clients is a natural reflex. And putting the banking question aside for a moment, we should continue to educate aggressively about the fact that services never come for free. As long as consumers are well informed that they pay for their convenience with their data, there is no fundamental concern. But because there is still no real “paid” economy surfacing, the consumer does not really have a choice between “pay-for-service” or “give-data-for-service”. I believe that the market potential for paid services, that guarantee non-exploitation of personal data, is quietly growing. And when it finally appears, consumers will start making choices. Personally, I admit to having moved from being on all possible digital channels and tools, towards being much more selective. And I must admit that digital life with a privacy aware mind is still possible and still fun.
PJT It seems to me that a key capability of a CDO is as an influencer. Influence can take many shapes, from being an acknowledged expert in an area, to the softer skills of being someone that others can talk to openly. Do you agree about this observation? If so, how do you seek to be an influencer?
JC It’s a thin line to walk and it depends on the type of CDO that you are and the mandate that you have. If you have a mandate to do “governance only”, then you should have the confidence of delivering on your mandate, just like a CRO or a CFO does. For that I always revert to the phrase: “we agreed that data is a valuable asset, just like money or people or buildings, … so let’s then act like it.” If you have mandate to “change”, to “create value”, then you have to be an integrator and influencer because you can never change an organisation and its people on your own.
PJT Before letting you go, a quick personal question. I know you spent some time at the University of Cambridge. I lived in this town while my wife was working on her PhD. Like Cambridge, Leuven [5] is a historic town just outside of a major capital city. What parallels do you see between the two and what did you think of the locals?
JC Cambridge is famous for its “punts”, Leuven for its Stella Artois “pints”. And both central churches (or chapels) are home to iconic paintings by Flemish masters, Rubens in Cambridge and Bouts in Leuven. Visit both!
PJT Jo, thank you so much for talking to me and giving readers the benefit of your ideas and experience.

Jo Coutuer can be reached at via his LinkedIn profile.

Disclosure: At the time of publication, neither peterjamesthomas.com Ltd. nor any of its Directors had any shared commercial interests with Jo Coutuer, BNP Paribas Fortis or any entities associated with either of these.

If you are a Chief Data Officer, a Chief Analytics Officer, a Director of Data, or hold some other “Top Data Job” and would like to share your thoughts with the readers of this site in an interview like this one, please get in contact.

 
Notes

 
[1]		  
Payment Services Directive 2.
 
[2]		  
Prince Rogers Nelson.
 
[3]		  
Two recent examples include:
 
[4]		  
General Data Protection Regulation.
 
[5]		  
Leuven.

From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases

 

Did GDPR highlight the robustness of your Data Architecture, the strength of your Data Governance and the fitness of your Data Strategy?

Peter James Thomas data architecture, data governance, strategy

GDPR

So GDPR Day is upon us – the sun still came up and the Earth is still spinning (these facts may be related of course). I hope that most GDPR teams and the Executives who have relied upon their work were able to go to bed last night secure in the knowledge that a good job had been done and that their organisations and customers were protected. Undoubtedly, in coming days, there will be some stories of breaches of the regulations, maybe some will be high-profile and the fines salutary, but it seems that most people have got over the line, albeit often by Herculean efforts and sometimes by the skins of their teeth.

Does it have to be like this?

A well-thought-out Data Architecture embodying a business-focussed Data Strategy and intertwined with the right Data Governance, should combine to make responding to things like GDPR relatively straightforward. Were they in your organisation?

If instead GDPR compliance was achieved in spite of your Data Architectures, Governance and Strategies, then I suspect you are in the majority. Indeed years of essentially narrow focus on GDPR will have consumed resources that might otherwise have gone towards embedding the control and leverage of data into the organisation’s DNA.

Maybe now is a time for reflection. Will your Data Strategy, Data Governance and Data Architecture help you to comply with the next set of data-related regulations (and it is inevitable that there will be more), or will they hinder you, as will have been the case for many with GDPR?

If you feel that the answer to this question is that there are significant problems with how your organisation approaches data, then maybe now is the time to grasp the nettle. Having helped many companies to both develop and execute successful Data Strategies, you could start by reading my trilogy on creating an Information / Data Strategy:

  1. General Strategy
  2. Situational Analysis
  3. Completing the Strategy

I’m also more than happy to discuss your data problems and opportunities either formally or informally, so feel free to get in touch.
 
 

From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases

 

An in-depth interview with experienced Chief Data Officer Roberto Maranca

Peter James Thomas chief data officer, cultural transformation, data governance, data management, in-depth
In-depth with Roberto Maranca

Part of the In-depth series of interviews

PJT Today’s interview is with Roberto Maranca. Roberto is an experienced and accomplished Chief Data Officer, having held that role in GE Capital and Lloyds Banking Group. Roberto and I are both founder members of the IRM(UK) Chief Data Officer Executive Forum and I am delighted to be able to share the benefit of his insights with readers.
PJT Roberto, you have had a long and distinguished career in the data space, would you mind starting by giving readers a brief overview of this?
RM Certainly Peter, looking back now Data has been like a river flowing through all my career. But I can definitely recall that, at a certain point in my life in GE Capital (GEC), someone who I had worked with before called me to take a special assignment as IT lead for the Basel II implementation for the Bank owned by GEC in Europe. For the readers not in the Finance industry, Basel II, for most of us and certainly for me, was our Data baptism of fire because of its requirement to collect a lot of data across the organisation in order to calculate an “enterprise wide” set of risk metrics. So the usual ETL build and report generation wasn’t good enough if not associated to a common dictionary, validation of mappings, standardised referential integrity and quality management.

When Basel went in production in 2008, I was given the leadership of the European Business Intelligence team, where I consolidated my hunch that the reason that a 6 months dashboard build project would fail pre-production tests was mainly “data is not good enough” and not our lack of zeal. Even if was probably amongst the first in GEC to adopt a Data Quality tool, you had the feeling that IT could not be the proverbial tail shaking the dog in that space. A few years went by where I became much closer to operations in a regulated business, learning about security and operational risk frameworks, and then one day at the end of 2013, I saw it! GEC was to be regulated by the Federal Reserve as one entity, and that posed a lot of emphasis on data. The first ever job description of CDO in GEC was flashed in front of my eyes and I felt like I had just fallen on the way to Damascus. All those boxes that had been empty for years in my head got ticked just looking at it. I knew this was what I wanted to do, I knew I had to leave my career in IT to do it, I knew there was not a lot beyond that piece of paper, but I went for it. Sadly, almost two years into this new role, GE decided to sell GEC; you would not believe how much data you need to divest such a large business.

I found that Lloyds Banking Group was after a CDO and I could not let that opportunity go by. It has been a very full year where I led a complete rebuild of their Data Framework, while been deeply involved in the high-profile BCBS239 and GDPR initiatives.

PJT Can you perhaps highlight a single piece of work that was important to you, added a lot of value to the organisation, or which you were very proud of for some other reason?
RM I always had a thing about building things to last, so I have always tried to achieve a sustainable solution that doesn’t fall apart after a few months (in Six Sigma terms you will call it “minimising the long term sigma shift”, but we will talk about it another time). So trying to have change process to be mindful of “Data” has been my quest since day one, in the job of CDO. For this reason, my most important piece of work was probably the the creation of the first link between the PMO process in GEC and the Data Lineage and Quality Assurance framework, I had to insist quite a bit to introduce this, design it, test it and run it. Now of course, after the completion of the GEC sale, it has gone lost “like tears in the rain”, to cite one of the best movies ever [1].
PJT What was your motivation to take on Chief Data Officer roles and what do you feel that you bring to the CDO role?
RM I touched on some reasons in my introductory comments. I believe there is a serendipitous combination of acquired skills that allows me to see things in a different way. I spent most of my working life in IT, but I have a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering and a diploma in what we in Italy call “Classical Studies”, basically I have A levels in Latin, Greek, Philosophy, History. So for example, together with my pilot’s licence achieved over weekends, I have attended a drama evening school for a year (of course in my bachelor days). Jokes apart, the “art” of being a CDO requires a very rich and versatile background because it is so pioneering, ergo if I can draw from my study of flow dynamics to come up with a different approach to lineage, or use philosophy to embed a stronger data driven culture, I feel it is a marked plus.
PJT We have spoken about the CDO role being one whose responsibilities and main areas of focus are still sometimes unclear. I have written about this recently [2]. How do you think the CDO role is changing in organisations and what changes need to happen?
RM I mentioned the role being pioneering: compared to more established roles, CFO, COO and, even, CIO, the CDO is suffering from ambiguity, differing opinions and lack of clear career path. All of us in this space have to deal with something like inserting a complete new organ in a body that has got very strong immunological response, so although the whole body is dying for the function that the new organ provides (and with the new breed of regulation about, dying for lack of good and reliable data is not an exaggeration), there is a pernickety work of linking up blood vessels and adjusting every part of the organisation so that the change is harmonious, productive and lasting. But every company starts from a different level of maturity and a different status quo, so it is left to the CDO to come up with a modus operandi that would work and bring that specific environment to a recognisable standard.
PJT The Chief Data Officer has been described as having “the toughest job in the executive C-suite within many organizations” [3]. Do you agree and – if so – what are the major challenges?
RM I agree and it simply demonstrated: pick any Company’s Annual Report, do a word search for “data quality”, “data management“, “data science” or anything else relevant to our profession, you are not going to find many. IT has been around for a while more and yet technology is barely starting now to appear in the firm’s “manifesto”, mostly for things that are a risk, like cyber security. Thus the assumption is, if it is not seen as a differentiator to communicate to the shareholders and the wider world, why should it be of interest for the Board? It is not anyone’s fault and my gut feeling is that GDPR (or perhaps Cambridge Analytica) is going to change this, but we probably need another generational turnover to have CDOs “safely” sitting in executive groups. In the meantime, there is a lot we can do, maybe sitting immediately behind someone who is sitting in that crucial room.
PJT We both believe that cultural change has a central role in the data arena, can you share some thoughts about why this is important?
RM Data can’t be like a fad diet, it can’t be a program you start and finish. Companies have to understand that you have to set yourself on a path of “permanent augmentation”. The only way to do this is to change for good the attitude of the entire company towards data. Maybe starting from the first ambiguity, data is not the bits and bytes coming out of a computer screen, but it is rather the set of concepts and nouns we use in our businesses to operate, make products, serve our customers. If you flatten your understanding of data to its physical representation, you will never solve the tough enterprise problems, henceforth if it is not a problem of centralisation of data, but it is principally a problem of centralisation of knowledge and standardisation of behaviours, it is something inherently close to people and the common set of things in a company that we can call “culture”.
PJT Accepting the importance of driving a cultural shift, what practical steps can you take to set about making this happen?
RM In my keynotes, I often quote the Swiss philosopher (don’t tell me I didn’t warn you!) Henry Amiel:

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd: it must be communicated by contagion.

This is especially the case when you are confronted with large numbers of colleagues and small data teams. Creating a simple mantra that can be inoculated in many part of the organisation helps to create a more receptive environment. So CDOs should first be keen marketeers, able to create a simple brand and pursuing relentlessly a “propaganda” campaign. Secondly, if you want to bring change, you should focus where the change happens and make sure that wherever the fabric of the company changes, i.e. big programmes or transformations, data is top priority.

PJT What are the potential pitfalls that you think people need to be aware of when embarking on a data-centric cultural transformation programme?
RM First is definitely failing to manage your own expectations on speed and acceptance; it takes time and patience. Long-established organisations cannot leap into a brighter future just because an enlightened CDO shows them how. Second, and sort of related, it is a problem thinking that things can happen by management edicts and CDO policy compliance, there is a lot niftier psychology and sociology to weave into this.
PJT A two-part question. What do you see as the role of Data Governance in the type of cultural change you are recommending? Also, do you think that the nature of Data Governance has either changed or possibly needs to change in order to be more effective?
RM The CDO’s arrival at a discussion table is very often followed by statements like “…but we haven’t got resources for the Governance” or “We would like to, but Data Governance is such an aggro”. My simple definition for Data Governance is a process that allows Approved Data Consumers to obtain data that satisfies their consumption requirements, in accordance with Company’s approved standards of traceability, meaning, integrity and quality. Under this definition there is no implied intention of subjecting colleagues to gruelling bureaucratic processes, the issue is the status quo. Today, in the majority of firms, without a cumbersome process of checks and balances, it is almost impossible to fulfil such definition. The best Data Governance is the one you don’t see, it is the one you experience when you to get the data you need for your job without asking, this is the true essence of Data Democratisation, but few appreciate that this is achieved with a very strict and controlled in-line Data Governance framework sitting on three solid bastions of Metadata, User Access Controls and Data Classification.
PJT Can you comment on the relationship between the control of data and its exploitation; between Analytics and Governance if you will?Do these areas need to both be part of the CDO’s remit?
RM Oh… this is about the tale of the two tribes isn’t it? The Governors vs. the Experimenters, the dull CDOs vs the funky CAOs. Of course they are the yin and the yang of Data, you can’t have proper insight delivered to your customer or management if you have a proper Data Governance process, or should we call it “Data Enablement” process from the previous answer. I do believe that the next incarnation of the CDO is more a “Head of Data”, who has got three main pillars underneath, one is the previous CDOs all about governance, control and direction, the second is your R&D of data, but the third one that getting amassed and so far forgotten is the Operational side, the Head of Data should have business operational ownership of the critical Data Assets of the Company.
PJT The cultural aspects segues into thinking about people. How important is managing the people dimension to a CDO’s success?
RM Immensely. Ours is a pastoral job, we need to walk around, interact on internal social media, animate communities, know almost everyone and be known by everyone. People are very anxious about what we do, because all the wonderful things we are trying to achieve, they believe, will generate “productivity” and that in layman’s terms mean layoffs. We can however shift that anxiety to curiosity, reaching out, spreading the above-mentioned mantra but also rethinking completely training and reskilling, and subsequently that curiosity should transform in engagement which will deliver sustainable cultural change.
PJT I have heard you speak about “intelligent data management” can you tell me some more about what you mean by this? Does this relate to automation at all?
RM My thesis at Uni in 1993 was using AI algorithms and we all have been playing with MDM, DQM, RDM, Metadata for ages, but it doesn’t feel we cracked yet a Science of Data (NB this is different Data Science!) that could show us how to resolve our problems of managing data with 21st century techniques. I think our evolutionary path should move us from “last month you had 30k wrong postcodes in your database” to “next month we are predicting 20% fewer wrong address complaints”, in doing so there is an absolute need to move from fragmented knowledge around data to centralised harnessing of the data ecosystem, and that can only be achieved tuning in on the V.O.M. (Voice of the Machines), listening, deriving insight on how that ecosystem is changing, simulating response to external or internal factors and designing changes with data by design (or even better with everything by design). I yet have to see automated tools that do all of that without requiring man years to decide what is what, but one can only stay hopeful.
PJT Finally, how do you see the CDO role changing in coming years?
RM To the ones that think we are a transient role, I respond that Compliance should be everyone’s business, and yet we have Compliance Officers. I think that overtime the Pioneers will give way to the Strategists, who will oversee the making of “Data Products” that best suit the Business Strategist, and maybe one day being CEO will be the epitome of our career ladders one day, but I am not rushing to it, I love too much having some spare time to spend with my family and sailing.
PJT Roberto, it is always a pleasure to speak. Thank you for sharing your ideas with us today.

Roberto Maranca can be reached at r.maranca@outlook.com and has social media presence on LinkedIn and Twitter (@RobertoMaranca).

Disclosure: At the time of publication, neither peterjamesthomas.com Ltd. nor any of its Directors had any shared commercial interests with Roberto Maranca.

If you are a Chief Data Officer, a Chief Analytics Officer, a Director of Data, or hold some other “Top Data Job” and would like to share your thoughts with the readers of this site in an interview like this one, please get in contact.

 
Notes

 
[1]		  
 
[2]		  
The CDO – A Dilemma or The Next Big Thing?
 
[3]		  
Randy Bean of New Vantage Partners quoted in The CDO – A Dilemma or The Next Big Thing?

From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary, The Anatomy of a Data Function and A Brief History of Databases