A CMO, a CIO and a CRO walked into a bar

What happens when a conversation in data by Marketing, Technology and Risk leaders moves from bar to boardroom

With lockdown lifted, it was the first in-person catchup for the CMO, CIO and CRO in months. As they walked into the bar, they slid into a (soundproof and socially distant) corner booth. They were planning on debating priorities for their organisation’s data strategy. As execs for a financial services organisation, they knew they needed to pivot given the dramatic change in circumstances that COVID unexpectedly thrust upon the business, and the world. With a joint board presentation looming, they needed a collective and compelling narrative on the role data would play. Each had different goals. The CMO wanted to showcase the ambition for data-driven, differentiating customer experience. The CRO wanted support to swiftly address the acute data-related risks that COVID conditions had exposed. The CIO understood the criticality of technology for both objectives. She also recognised a bigger wave of data-fuelled opportunities. She was seeking an imprimatur to move forward with her ambition for data and technology innovation to survive and thrive in these turbulent times.

What the CMO wanted

As the CMO of a Financial Services organisation, she recognised the imperative to respond to customers’ changing context.  Customer empathy was top of mind as COVID cast a dark shadow, with more customers being plunged into hardship. She wanted to show how the organisation could use data to solve customer problems and make their life easier, as well as supporting decision intelligence for their team.

She was also excited about the enhanced personalisation of services that could be enabled through the rivers of data flowing from the massive customer shift to digital channels in recent months. Conscious of the looming cliff when government support for COVID-affected businesses and workers is reeled back, she wanted to ensure their plan balanced compassion with prudent business realities.

 What the CRO wanted

The CRO wanted to address serious risks emerging in recent months, like cybersecurity, he recognised the many new cyber-attack vectors opening up especially through the move from enterprise networks to home networks, and the proliferation of bad actors.  The CRO was also grappling with the ever-increasing and labyrinthine compliance burden. There was a raft of standards, guidelines and policies to uphold, navigating regulators and government departments, including ACCC, ASIC, APRA and AUSTRAC, Data 61, the Digital Transformation Agency, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Department of Home Affairs.

CRO observed the changing global sentiment towards privacy, and knew that the peak of unregulated internet was coming to an end. He knew that the Australian government had kicked off a timely review of the Privacy Act, and the movement on privacy from Europe and the US – was a portent for imminent strengthening of local privacy laws. The European commission is closing in further on digital rights, and the recent excoriating report from the US anti-trust subcommittee  would now gain further momentum through a Democrat-led US congress. The CMO nodded in agreement on the importance of privacy and security of customer data and that maintaining customer trust was non-negotiable.

What the CIO wanted

The CIO cautioned the CRO of an entirely new wave of risks on the horizon. Having begun the AI/ML journey, she could see the impending risk that AI ethics presented. Whilst she’d remained abreast of the emerging Australian AI ethics framework, she was challenged with its practical application in this still nascent field.   She knew that the many global and local regulators continued to run way behind, and that progressive organisations need to build their own guardrails: upholding fairness, transparency, explainability, accountability, and designing with customers’ best interest at heart was critical irrespective of absent or outdated regulation.

The CIO had no shortage of COVID-related challenges to address, including ramping up on cybersecurity in collaboration with the CRO. On the broader enterprise architecture, she knew that project and change deferrals to limit spend in COVID times would ultimately leave the organisation with IT hygiene implications to resolve.

In that quiet corner of the bar, a spirited conversation ensued. Priorities for the data strategy were debated, risks were confronted, and opportunities were explored.   

The CMO, the CIO and the CRO walked into a boardroom

The board could see the changing tide of the business environment in a post-COVID world. COVID had brought into sharp relief the inequities of society, the tension between economic vitality and environmental sustainability, and the importance of technology for social continuity. Expectations of shareholders were changing as they were catapulted into this new era, ready or not.  The eye-watering fines of AUSTRAC (Westpac), the cost of environmental and cultural disrespect (Rio Tinto) and the reputational damage (AMP) are examples of what happens when companies depart from stakeholder expectations. 

As the CMO, CIO and CRO laid out their data strategy, the board members nodded. As the presentation drew to an end, the chairperson leaned forward and observed: ‘this is a well-conceived plan that builds strategic resilience through tech and data. Help us to understand how this plan aligns to our purpose, and affects change to culture and mindset?’  They all blinked. The CIO looked imploringly at the CRO. The CRO looked hopefully at the CMO. The CMO looked ruefully at the ground, struggling with how to articulate the connection and wondering why they’d missed it in their presentation. After a long silence, the chairperson explained.   “We need to re-engineer our organisation to be more adaptive, more inclusive and more sustainable. An organisation that leans into its role in revitalising the economy we need and rebuilding the society we want. Data is fast becoming the lifeblood of our organisation. As we lead our business into a post-COVID world, data must underpin our resurgence, but our strategies must always reflect our purpose, and culture and mindset change will be critical to our organisation’s success”.

Unleashing the potential of data starts with mindset

The exec triumvirate left the boardroom that day acknowledging they needed a bigger, bolder change agenda. An agenda that encompassed not just data, technology and risk management, but mindset shift as well. How might they foster innovation, ingenuity and creativity? How might they truly re-imagine how to unleash the full potential of data across their business, with undeniable connection to their organisation’s purpose? They realised their post-COVID data strategy was not done.

That evening, they walked back into the bar to debate their plan a little more.