Democratising data is a leadership responsibility

Does your company treat data as a by-product of technology? Or is data democratised and accessible throughout your business model, enabling better decision making in real time? Experienced transformation leaders say this could be the make-or-break digital backbone of future organisations.

Last month I had the opportunity to get into the technicalities of digital transformations with two phenomenal technology specialists, Dr. Alexander Borek and Raghunath Ramanathan for SAP.

What did I learn?

I loved the way these leaders made it clear that digital transformation is so much more than installing a new software system and that unless the shareable, searchable, valuable data is the beating heart of the tech stack, we will only ever be playing around the edges of installation rather than the integration required for future business success.

Raghu hits us with the statistic that digital transformations have a 30% success rate at best, and this is in technology-based organisations. The number is far lower when we cut the rates down to different industries. This underpins the knowledge that adoption is not just about the usefulness of the technology, it is heavily reliant on leadership vision and management incentive structures. Alex explains the balancing act leaders of digital transformation face, on one hand bottlenecking data flow via a centralised control structure is dangerous as it slows down innovation. On the other, decentralised data inputs and outputs can become chaotic, detracting from a coherent whole and reinforcing silos across the business.

In our conversation Raghu and Alex hit upon three enablers of digital transformation:

1. Data democratisation. Data needs to be in the hands of people on the front line.
2. Data and sustainability. Digital transformation taps investor, employee and consumer sentiment.
3. Data is the business. Data is not a byproduct of your main business, it must become the core product in order to survive into the future.

Data democratisation

Data flow should not mirror the hierarchal structures of outdated leadership. Beyond being used by the CEO and management for reporting purposes,??data is much more valuable in the hands of frontline employees who can access the data to make insightful decisions about customers, products, suppliers, and investments in real time. Data should support decentralisation. This is difficult to have everyone commit to but essential to make the leap from collecting data to connecting data.

Democratisation of data means being able to deliver a clear rationale for transformation and a clear change story.??If we don't start with a fundamental belief across all layers of the organisation that this is critical to our collective future existence, transformation won't go anywhere.

Raghu reminds us “At the end of the day digital transformation is about human beings. It’s about convincing human beings to behave differently. And the only way it works is if they know that there's a path for them in the future.” The reality is that the very individual we need to embrace and empower this technology is probably thinking, “Okay, the company wants me to do it, I intellectually agree. But if I go down this route, my current job doesn't exist. So why am I doing this?” That creates a cognitive dissonance that can be a huge cultural barrier to transformation.

Companies need to heavily invest in reskilling people. Digital transformation must directly link to the vision we give people for their own futures. We must show them how this could be a more exciting way to take their career to the next level. Raghu insists this is at the heart of successful transformations.

Data and a sustainable future

Alex makes the point that “digital transformation is really sustainability”. A transformation project is as much about knowing where investors and consumers are going as where the internal processes need to go. For example, ESG is a key movement empowering businesses to look at how they might contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Many companies??previously relying heavily on fossil fuels are able to harness data to make energy consumption more efficient, whether this means stating a net zero emission goal, decarbonising supply chains or transitioning to renewable energy. This movement requires data to both enable the systems change and translate the behaviour change. For sustainability efforts to inspire trust and positive brand sentiment from an increasingly conscious consumer market, the data must be traceable and trustworthy.?

For a change movement to be sustainable within a company, data needs more than automation and scale to make it truly powerful. Alongside the sheer amount of data being accumulated, it’s clear that collaboration is required to ensure the metadata enables searchability, can be trusted and provides a comprehensive picture of the whole business as well as providing insights about the moving parts. As with the case for reskilling employees alongside a digital transformation movement, data flow throughout a business can be linked to purpose, company values and the dots drawn between digitisation for a brighter future for the business and the world.

Data is the business

Where does data sit in the value structure of the company? How can data be a greater percentage of the market value? Data is often the intangible asset correlating the more visible moving parts. Alex challenges us to think about changing our business model to wrap around the data. Real transformation means data should never be seen as a by-product, necessary or unnecessary of a digital transformation. Data should become the core product and competitive advantage of a successful digital transformation. Two useful questions to discuss with the team are ‘where are the core capabilities of the business?’ and, ‘how does data support core capabilities for greater resilience?’

When it comes to small business, technology transformations help place innovation at the core. While large corporates may be able to roll out customised technology solutions, there are many out of the box technology platforms to get started. Raghu advises starting small with something easy and building on the front end. For startups or new businesses, the advice is to build the technology backbone architecture so everything will be interconnected and integrated from the outset. Consumers, customers and suppliers all rely on this and become key contributors to the data-based business value.

On a final note, I was buzzed by the way both Alex and Raghu spoke about the need for human skills to sit adjacent to tech-literacy within the business. Essentially, we need to be good at our craft?and?tech literate. As leaders, it’s essential to foster curiosity and cross-pollinate tech literacy throughout the organisation, democratising access as well as the ability to form and use insights.?

The thought I’m still rattling around in my mind a few weeks after this conversation is ‘How does technology complement culture, weaving an intelligent fabric through the firm?’ From what I understand, the algorithm is simple. Intelligent leadership = (democratised data + enabled culture) x tech literacy.

I hope you enjoy this conversation. There is so much to takeaway no matter what stage of digital transformation you find yourself in today.