Dive Brief:

• The Chief Data Officer (CDO) role is becoming more common in companies as they look to improve competitiveness, according to a new Gartner study.
• Given the CDOs’ contribution to strategic planning and digital business initiatives, Gartner predicts 15% of successful CDOs will move into CEO, COO, CMO or other C-level positions by 2020. 
• Primary CDO business duties include increasing customer intimacy, competitive advantage and efficiency, according to the survey of 180 high-level data and analytics leaders from around the world.

Dive Insight:

A report released by Forrester Research last August found more companies are hiring chief data officers. Overall, CDOs tend to serve as a bridge between IT and business groups, and the hiring of one often demonstrates a company’s desire to sharpen its focus on data. As companies turn more and more to data, the influence of CDOs is set to increase. 

Almost one-third of CDOs surveyed said they report directly to the CEO, indicating the rising importance of the role.

While the role of the CDO varies across organizations and industries, it tends to include responsibilities such as data management, data governance, data analysis and the delivery of insights. The Gartner survey, which included responses from chief data officers and chief analytics officers, found main organization-wide CDO responsibilities are oversight of analytics initiatives (69%) and data governance (68%).