Advertisment

C-suite sponsorship remains top driver of big data success

C-suite sponsorship was critical for the success of big data implementation in organizations

author-image
Sonal Desai
New Update
ID

MUMBAI, INDIA: C-suite sponsorship is the top driver of big data success.

Advertisment

A survey conducted by Teradata, McKinsey and Forbes Insights on the state of big data analytics; found that leading-edge organizations – ones that placed a higher level of importance on big data and analytics indicated that C-suite sponsorship was critical for the success of big data implementation in organizations.

In organizations where big data is viewed as the single most important way to gain competitive advantage, over half are led by CEOs who personally focus on big data initiatives.

In organizations where big data is viewed as a top-five issue that gets significant time and attention from top leadership, the sponsor is typically one level below top leadership.

Advertisment

The survey found that companies that are gaining the most traction with their big data initiatives are looking beyond transactional data.

The most-cited was location data (used to identify an electronic device's physical location), collected by over half of the respondents, followed by text data (unstructured data like email messages, slides, Word documents, and instant messages). In addition to exploring these new data types, leading companies are selectively combining structured and multi-structured data sets in an analytic ecosystem, enabling the discovery of analytic insights that drive new innovations, the survey noted.

It also revealed obstacles especially with regard to culture, strategy and operations.

Advertisment

Over half of the survey respondents noted that adopting a data-driven culture is the single biggest barrier, suggesting that the idea of a data-driven approach is not universally accepted today.

Rewarding the use of data and fostering experimentation and creativity with data were also highlighted as significant cultural challenges.

“Despite the progress we see reported, as companies make the most of big data resources, there remains plenty of room for improvement. The cultural challenges can handicap every facet of a big data initiative,” said Matt Ariker, Chief Operating Officer, Consumer Marketing, McKinsey. “But the good news is that the reverse is true as well: improving how a company fosters a culture and mindset that rewards the use of data experimentation can help a data and analytics initiative gain momentum and impact.”

big-data tech-news cio-leadership