Firstly, do you need a Chief Data Officer, not to be confused with a Chief Digital Officer who are tasked with managing business digital transformation projects.
The chief data officer is the senior person within a business who understands the strategy and direction of the business, but their focus is on how to underpin that with data. Chief Data Officers are responsible for areas such as data quality, data governance, data management, information strategy, data science, and business analytics.
Organisations sometimes mix the two roles of Chief Analytics Officer and Chief Data Officer together, where a good data strategy and data management allows for quality data to analyse to then work closely and in partnership with a Chief Information Officer.
CDOs should be looking for ways to find opportunities for and through data analytics, whether that’s predicting customer trends or finding new revenue-generating opportunities.