(US and Canada) Sherman Cooper, Managing Director, Big Data and Data Science Platform Leader, Marsh, speaks with Mark Johnson, Regional Vice President for Data and Analytics, Fusion Alliance, and Editorial Board Chair for CDO Magazine, about the CDO’s role in transformation, the importance of innovation in data analytics, and his bias toward generating value for clients.

Cooper says that generating actionable insights from high-quality data is a CDO’s true value addition in the digital transformation journey of any organization.

Regarding the relationship between innovation and data analytics, he says that the former is crucial at every step of the data analytics process. Innovation starts immediately from understanding the problem and follows through the various stages, like gathering data, analyzing it for actionable insights safely, and building new products. Cooper further explains that innovation is connected throughout the entire data analytics and insights life cycle. It is also essential when approaching clients with solutions and helping them explore new possibilities.

He talks about his bias toward generating value for clients. He mentions that he doesn’t just measure value from dollars invested. He also considers the team’s time and energy in building a product and getting it to the market. Cooper quantifies the impact from the client’s perspective in terms of developing solutions for their problems. This, in turn, generates trust.