Simon Asplen-Taylor is a chief data officer with multi-sector experience, from his current role in the insurance market at Lloyds via previous berths in leisure, retail, business services and IT. He told DataIQ what makes for a successful CDO and how to embed data science into an organisation.
DataIQ (DIQ): You have been a chief data officer on the client side at Rank and now at Lloyds Insurance. How have your roles differed?
Simon Asplen-Taylor (SA-T): As the CDO at Rank, I had an internal-facing role, looking at the organisation and using data to drive four key things: revenue growth, internal efficiency, reducing risk and customer satisfaction.
At Lloyds, however, what I do is directed at the marketplace, so my role has evolved to be not only about my own organisation, but about 400 participants in the Lloyds marketplace. For this, there is the need to scale outside of your own organisation and ensure that the data strategy is agreed and adopted by the other participants. I am still delivering the same drivers that I was in my internal role, but across a community and driving what they are doing, too.
It is another level of complexity and demonstrates how a data community is critical - you can’t do things to people, you have to do it with them. I have to think about and cater to other organisations’ different timescales and agendas, segmenting markets depending on data needs.
For me, the most challenging aspect is people and their way of thinking. If you think about it, Lloyds has been around for 334 years. It has had the same systems and processes in place for some time, so now as we are embracing digital transformation, it can be hard for people to adjust and to shift mindsets from what they and the industry have always known. It can be a challenge, but seeing change and being able to change a marketplace is rewarding.
DIQ: The role of CDO is still a relatively new one – what do you see it as encompassing?
SA-T: As a CDO, you have to be able to identify where data can help an organisation. Really, you need to start off as an evangelist saying, “this is where it can help.” Then you need to pivot to a more business focus and consider the outcomes - revenue, costs, risk, efficiency, customer and employee satisfaction. So, for the CDO, it’s about viewing through all of these lenses and considering, what else can I do with the data to help deliver these results for the business?
As CDO, you need to own the problem, figure the solution and drive the approach, delivering value on the business objectives. In effect, the CDO is a supporting function to the CEO who, through proof of concept and prototyping, supports business operations by leveraging data strategy and delivering value.
Data is just the truth of your business. The facts around your customer base, your revenue and profits, for example. However, along the way there can be an awful lot of data leakage and that can be a waste of crucial customer information. In overlooking quality and governance of data, it can be a lost opportunity.
Some get confused as to whether the CDO is an IT role or not - it isn’t. It doesn’t matter to whom or where the CDO reports, as long as there’s the focus around business value. The role of the CDO has a wide remit and is ever-evolving, which demands a breadth of experience and broad skillset. An individual in this role must be a leader, and someone that people will listen to in order to understand the significance and value of the data team.
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