Episode Overview:

While the CDO role gains prominence and importance across most organizations, many CDOs are set up to fail from poorly defined roles, a lack of trust, and an insufficient focus on business outcomes. In this 31st episode of the CDO Matters Podcast, Malcolm interviews Allison Sagraves, the founding CDO of M&T Bank, to ask why so many CDOs face these challenges, and what they must do to overcome them.

In reference to an insightful HBR article Allison recently published on CDO success, she provides her insights on how CDO’s can manage a critical balance between patience and urgency, and the importance of taking the time to recognize where positive strides are being made to deliver on a data strategy. Malcolm reminds CDO’s how important it is to ‘pound the drum’, a metaphor for the importance of marketing – and celebrating – all the strides companies are making towards becoming more data-enabled.

From data literacy, to data quality, to the next generation of data leaders, Malcolm and Allison have a wide-ranging conversation on some of the biggest issues facing data leaders today.

Episode Links and Resources:

• Follow Malcolm Hawker on LinkedIn

• Follow Allison Sagraves on LinkedIn

• Read Allison’s article on Harvard Business Review, “Why Chief Data and AI Officers Are Set Up to Fail”