(US and Canada) Maria Villar, Head of Enterprise Data Strategy and Transformation, SAP, along with Robert Abate, Band Jam CEO and Founder, speak with Michael Servaes, Executive Director, International Society of Chief Data Officers, about how the need for a CDO job description and action plan arose, and how the description, roles and responsibilities of a CDO were created. 

Villar states that the team of board members at ISCDO had discussions about the job description of CDOs and wanted to be the trusted source for it. Adding to that, Abate explains that the International Society of Chief Data Officers is a vendor-neutral professional organization established by and for CDOs to promote data leadership. 

He adds that the isCDO serves as a peer-to-peer advisory resource for all members. To that end, the organization decided to create a best practices document called the CDO Job Description as various corporations inquired about the industry standard practice description for CDOs. The impetus to create the document came from the need to start a conversation about CDOs, and their crucial role in driving business outcomes by making accurate data available to the right people.

Abate and Villar authored the first draft and look for it to grow in content and structure eventually. Villar maintains that they made the document available to the rest of the society after getting additional expert inputs. She asserts that all CDO, CDAO, and Head of Data roles are customized depending on business priorities and seniority.

Abate asserts that the responsibilities of CDOs are based on the knowledge, skills, qualifications, and characterization of the role. Villar states that there are three main job responsibilities of a Chief Data Officer – the data strategy role, data execution, and culture building, leadership and communication. 

Abate continues that one reason behind developing the document was to clarify and solidify the position and its requirements. Driving data literacy, building and maintaining data relationships, data-driven decision-making skills, training, and leadership qualities are what makes a data leader. The primary responsibilities of a data leader include an enterprise data vision, data strategy, a plan for investments, and adoption of standards, classifications, or policies, adds Abate. 

Villar contrasts that the data leaders cannot be experts at everything. As a good leader, she urges them to understand their strengths and staff their weaknesses faster in order to carry out the role successfully. She mentions the need for great communication skills, and the ability to lead the team and translate data strategy into business value.

Moving forward, Abate states that to share their knowledge as Chief Data Officers, they collaborated on documents to help newly hired CDOs better understand their role. This led to developing a CDO action plan which describes the best practices data leaders should be following during their first 30, 60, and 90 days. 

Abate affirms that their insights come from interviewing industry thought leaders while understanding the approach people take in the first 90 days. As CDOs, it is their responsibility to identify and create value for data assets. The mission of the CDO is to enable and leverage information so that the organization moves toward a data-driven business model, he says.