(Europe) Lorraine Waters, Chief Data Officer, Solidatus, speaks with Michael C. Fillios, Founder & CEO, IT Ally, about the evolution of the role of a CDO over the years.

Waters, in the CDO role for about a decade, has her career origins in business management. This, she says, drives her commercial mindset while developing data services and data capabilities. She notes that it is extremely important for CDOs to focus on outcomes rather than just output and listen to and speak the same language as their business counterparts.

So, instead of focusing just on data quality testing and issues management, and instead of putting preventive controls in place which leads to recurring problems and remediation, Waters suggests that it is better for CDOs to be proactive. Collaborating across industries to develop best industry standards is a trend that is likely to continue, she says. 

She continues, noting that the modern C-suite executive is more data-aware along with everyone else across an organization who handles data.This has made developing business cases a lot easier, and it’s now on the CDO to deliver the business outcomes.

Waters emphasizes that CDOs should be familiar with an organization’s business strategy and able to communicate at the same level as the CEO, sharing the same goals and strategies. They need to focus on preventing data issues instead of remediating them. Waters concludes by stating that this focus will achieve more sustainable results in the long run. 

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