Ryan Hale, CIO at Lithko Contracting, speaks with Toric CEO Thiago Da Costa in a video interview about the role of leadership in making the company data-driven, level of data maturity, and keeping up with technology.
Lithko is a leading provider of concrete construction services for various projects, such as commercial buildings, warehouses, and multilevel structures.
Hale begins by stating that the role of leadership is critical in driving data and analytic capabilities in an organization. He says that IT must be a true business partner with other leaders in business and stay solid in building a data-driven organization.
Delving further, Hale asserts that each sector of the organization has to be tightly knit. If the IT organization does not become a good business partner to finance and accounting, it would be unable to fulfill the right business requirements, he adds.
The cadence of the business is critical, says Hale. The IT must work with the operational leaders as well to get them the right metrics and data information that would aid their decision-making.
Commenting on the organizational level of data maturity, Hale states that Lithko as an organization relies on data-driven decisions to drive the business. He states that unlike other concrete construction companies, Lithko tries to provide real-time data to make informed decisions.
On a scale of one to five, Hale rates the different data capabilities and states that some get the high points while some need to be worked upon. Elaborating, he maintains that the organization has a solid data infrastructure with pipelines, tooling, and business rules.
Further, data quality and data accuracy need work, says Hale, while the analysis aspect of visualization is going strong. He evaluates that the organization is yet to reach a point where data democratization can be considered.
When asked about monetizing data analytics at Lithko, Hale states that the organization is striving to be in the gold standard and now is not the right time to monetize data points.
Moving forward, he shares that keeping up with the technology is hard. Lithko encourages its employees to find peer groups to talk to and share best practices. The company allows time for research, personal growth, and understanding of tools.
In conclusion, Hale states that participating in conferences and partnering with vendors or consultancies to build solid relationships is fundamental. It boils down to learning and collecting data points from various sources to turn them into actionable data.
CDO Magazine appreciates Ryan Hale for sharing his insights with our global community.
