As Demand Soars for Pandemic Analytics, Chief Data Officers Need a Business Leader Mindset

Almost every facet of the business needs more frequent intelligence and analysis. Executives throughout the enterprise have consistently expressed this. Chief financial officers are forecasting cash flow on a weekly or daily basis with more top-down analysis. Chief risk officers are seeking actionable real-time data to support an increase in requests for reports from internal stakeholders, including the board of directors. Chief marketing officers are using shorter review cycles to track campaigns, and chief sales officers are providing constant updates to their teams, based on market research, to highlight nuanced differences with rivals.

Running a business on monthly stats and quarterly pie charts is from a bygone era. Some 59% of global enterprises are using advanced and predictive analytics, according to a 2020 40 Gartner Business Quarterly survey. But only 39% provide real-time updates to their key performance indicators (KPIs), and just 14% are making Data and Analytics broadly accessible to employees.

When organizations do have the Data and Analytics chops to provide real-time insight, problems that once seemed intractable become manageable or go away, as long as they answer the right questions.

Those that did the hard work of infusing Data and Analytics into their workflows before the pandemic were able to respond to information needs quickly and effectively when the crisis hit — in a way that propelled the core mission forward.

To help your organization meet the increased demand for intelligence, Data and Analytics leaders need to adopt a business leader mindset, support scenario planning to cope with uncertainty, prioritize the right projects and improve the data literacy of all employees.