| | MARCH 202219transformation. Thus, `cultural alignment' towards data driven decision making is the biggest factor impacting business value. As they say, `Culture eats Strategy for breakfast'; it's time for enterprises to create `Data Driven Transformation Strategy' to be ahead in this digital race. So how does one create Data Culture in the Enterprise?Lets define what is Data Culture ­ It is building a culture in an enterprise where all the levels (Senior/Middle/Junior) understand, appreciate, decide and act on data to make their decisions. The roadmap towards this has to be built as a business transformation initiative led by the CEO along with board by aligning the existing team and importing modern digital talent. The biggest factor why this change is seen as difficult is the lack of skills and capability of the current teams to upgrade their skills.Shift Mindset and Strengthen Skillset are touching the change management aspect, while the last two pillars are technology enabled transformation. The Chief Data Officers need to work on charting a path along with the CEO to drive this change. The five watchouts for undertaking these transformations are as mentioned below.Don't Try to Change the Entire Organization Identify areas where the impact is high and skill levels are also high. This will help realize larger business value and higher impact.Identify `Quick Wins' Identify areas were change management is not very difficult and widespread. This will help in realizing value faster, which can then become a role model for rest of teams to follow.Define Clear Outcomes This is the most convoluted area which leads to value identification. Data and business process are sometimes intertwined; hence, it is not very easy to segregate the business benefits from each of these items. It requires maturity as well as clear framework to identify clear outcomesTransformation is a Long Term ProcessData Transformation is long term journey; hence, ensure that the team has patience to identify outcomes.Silos are the Biggest Barrier for DataFragmented/siloed data is the single biggest roadblocks for effective decision making. Data comes to life only when these silos are broken and data stories are based on outcomes and not by departments.The Data officers need to ensure that they play the role of Data Champion ­ to lead from front for usage of data, Data Enabler ­ to ensure that data availability is democratized, and Data Story Teller ­ to demonstrate data stories which impact business outcomes. Data Transformation journeys are tough and time taking, which is proven by multiples failures which are seem from various organizations. It is a wake-up call for the leaders (CEOs) of these organizations to understand the path towards being a Data Driven setup. DATA ANALYTICS HAS BEEN SOLD BY TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS AND UNFORTUNATELY, MOST BUSINESS TEAMS SEE THAT AS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION RATHER THAN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONPiyush Chowhan Group Chief Information Officer
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