Hiring the Chief Data Officer or Chief Analytics Officer – where to start?

Building an analytics team can start at any number of points: bottom-up, top-down – either approach can work. Let's assume that the organization is just beginning to build the data and analytics capability; they can start by hiring the Chief Analytics Officer or the Chief Data Officer. As supported by the dialog above, and my decades of experience, and if we are using probabilities to make a choice of where most organizations will start, the majority will start by hiring the Chief Data Officer.

The Chief Data Officer

Hiring a Chief Data Officer is seen by most as a choice that is safer, easier to understand, and easier to gain consensus around. This is a valid starting point, but as called out above, it is a decision and starting point that will begin the organizational journey by looking inward – inward at the data, technology, and processes that the company currently has...