Jayant Dhamne
Chief Data Officer
Ecolab
MODERATOR
Sravan Kasarla
Chief Data Officer
Thrivent
PANELIST
Matthew Schrag
VP, Revenue Technology & Data Analytics
Delta Air Lines
PANELIST
May 2020
In the Minneapolis CDAO Town Hall that took place in mid-May, data leaders in the area discussed the impact of current events on data and analytics, strategies to balance the increased demand with current resources, and how they’re empowering teams and finding creative opportunities to grow the business.
To set the stage for the conversation, C-suite leaders across North America participated in a survey indicating the following:
51% are continuing standard business operations at a reduced or severely restricted level
33% expect to return to standard business operations in 6-12 months
61% predict disruption in new projects and ventures
61% expect a significant decrease in revenue
This panel was moderated by Jayant Dhamne, chief data officer at Ecolab. Dhamne was joined by Sravan Kasarla, chief data officer at Thrivent and Matthew Schrag, vice president of revenue technology and data analytics at Delta Air Lines.
Impact of Current Events on Data & Analytics
The goal of a data leader is to find innovative ways to look at data and provide actionable insights for their organizations. When thinking about the world pre-COVID, data leaders in Minneapolis would be asked: “What’s the Amazon Effect?” In this new world, that question has been vastly multiplied. The world is moving towards digital faster than ever, and data leaders are doubling down on transformation.
There is a bright spot in this crisis — the response has accelerated digital transformation in many companies, even those that were not in the digital space previously. Any hesitancy to shift has fallen by the wayside out of necessity. Businesses are powered by data and driven by insight, so this shift has a tremendous effect on data & analytics. Digital business will be the new normal as all companies are looking at their current models. The more data capabilities that are leveraged to enrich, inform, validate, or reduce risk, the better-positioned companies will be for digital transformation.
Balancing Increased Demand with Current Resources
The general consensus on how to balance increased demand with current resources was reprioritization. Due to their critical role in decision-making, many CDAOs have seen their workloads increase during the pandemic response. There has been a significant rise in the demand for data due to companies undergoing significant transformations. CDAOs are working to push the business towards mission-critical priorities. There is a balancing act between long-term planning and real-time actions — setting everything up in a way that will enable quick pivots as the landscape changes.
A common theme when discussing resource planning was cash preservation and long-term impact. CDAOs need to look at the most important projects and systems to upgrade and automate right now. A leadership principle shared was “Don’t spend money on things that don’t matter to your customer.” It’s time to push the limits and really think of ways to advance the business very strategically. What will bring less friction from the company and customers, as well as the benefits of cost reductions regarding automation and scale?
Team Empowerment & Creative Opportunities
Perhaps surprisingly, some teams have seen an increase in productivity in work-from-home environments. Many employees are enjoying a lack of commute and putting those hours typically spent traveling to work instead. There are challenges with engagement — the water-cooler moments and organic connections are harder to come by in a remote environment. An extra effort needs to be made for those connections, but video conferencing and faster collaboration tools ensure employees are maintaining relationships with their teams.
A sense of urgency has sprung up in terms of data and analytics delivery. This brings a method that the new normal needs to be more agile in delivering capabilities. That sense of urgency and truly being agile to quickly deliver mission-critical insights is essential. This urgency and shift have created very positive changes in the way CDAOs are leveraging data and analytics to transform the business.
Thoughts from the Community
The Minneapolis data community agreed that while data security and governance are always important, the need to protect against bad actors is now critical. As CDAOs are accelerating their plans, digital data security needs to be baked into every project and upgrade.
Overall, data and analytics leaders predict their roles will become even more vital to their organizations going forward, both in decision-making and developing a long-term strategy. The push towards digital business is rapidly increasing in both speed and importance. Getting creative and finding innovative ways to look at data and provide actionable insights is critical, and data leaders in Minneapolis are rising to the challenge.
by CDAOs, for CDAOs
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