S4 | Ep 5 | Getting Data & Analytics into the Boardroom with Kate Sargent, Chief Data Officer at The Financial Times

In Episode 5, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Kate Sargent, Chief Data Officer at The Financial Times, where they discuss the importance of getting data into the boardroom to ensure D&A success, which includes;

• Why data strategies often articulate the role that data can play and not often what it will play
• What should be included in your data strategy
• Understanding the business strategy and objectives if it’s not obvious
• Why D&A teams need to constantly reinvent themselves
• Why you need to befriend your commercial/finance colleagues
• Transcend D&A into the boardroom by meeting people where they are
• Why it’s imperative that you’re easy to work /do business with
• The need for a voice in the boardroom for D&A to be successful
• Why very few other functions have or need a strategy but data still does
• Why new tools and techniques should be additive, not substitutional
• Why the “old school” work is still where the most value is derived
• Why finding the right balance of the team structure will underpin the success of any Data Leader  
• The importance of staying alert to disengagement
• Identifying the issues and choosing the solution to fix them
• Why ‘data product’ demonstrates the growing-up of data as a discipline
• The differences between ‘data product’ and ‘data as a product’ and why the differentiation matters
• Driving top-down and bottom-up
• Why data is viewed as important but not urgent (and how to create urgency)
• The power of demonstrating the risk of missed opportunities to drive change