Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- About the authors
- Glossary of Technical Terms
- 1 The Accidental Entrepreneur
- 2 A Reflection on the First 300 days
- 3 Why does any Organisation need a Chief Data Officer?
- 4 The Secret Ingredients of a Chief Data Officer
- 5 The First 100 Days
- 6 Delivering a Data Strategy in the Cauldron of BAU
- 7 Avoiding the Hype Cycle
- 8 Relating to the rest of the Business, Especially the C-Suite
- 9 The Chief Data Officer as a Disruptor
- 10 Building the Chief Data Officer Team
- 11 The next 300 Days
- 12 The Different Generations of Chief Data Officers
- 13 What type of Chief Data Officer are you?
- 14 How to Present Yourself as a Chief Data Officer
- 15 The Chief Data Officer and the Technology
- 16 The Hoarding Mentality and how to Break it
- 17 Data and Information Ethics
- 18 The Chief Data Officer and Data Governance
- 19 The Data Revolution
- 20 Advice to Business owners, CEOs and the Board
- 21 Conclusion
- Index
9 - The Chief Data Officer as a Disruptor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- About the authors
- Glossary of Technical Terms
- 1 The Accidental Entrepreneur
- 2 A Reflection on the First 300 days
- 3 Why does any Organisation need a Chief Data Officer?
- 4 The Secret Ingredients of a Chief Data Officer
- 5 The First 100 Days
- 6 Delivering a Data Strategy in the Cauldron of BAU
- 7 Avoiding the Hype Cycle
- 8 Relating to the rest of the Business, Especially the C-Suite
- 9 The Chief Data Officer as a Disruptor
- 10 Building the Chief Data Officer Team
- 11 The next 300 Days
- 12 The Different Generations of Chief Data Officers
- 13 What type of Chief Data Officer are you?
- 14 How to Present Yourself as a Chief Data Officer
- 15 The Chief Data Officer and the Technology
- 16 The Hoarding Mentality and how to Break it
- 17 Data and Information Ethics
- 18 The Chief Data Officer and Data Governance
- 19 The Data Revolution
- 20 Advice to Business owners, CEOs and the Board
- 21 Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This chapter explores the concept of disruption and what it means, and whether the CDO is a disruptor or an innovator. The role of data as a disruptor is examined.
Without a doubt, many parts of a business may find a CDO challenging as they suggest different and better ways of doing things, especially related to data.
Disruption and innovation
Disruption: to radically change an industry, business strategy, etc.
(www.dictionary.com)If this is the definition, then we don't really think that in most cases the CDO is a disruptor, or indeed should be a disruptor. If you are a first-generation CDO (FCDO, probably the first CDO the business has seen) then you are probably risk-averse (more about this in Chapter 12, which explores the different generations of the CDO). In data terms, the business is probably in a fragile state – certainly in a state where the first imperative is to stabilise the current position and put out the burning fires. There is too much at stake in the early days for the FCDO to be a disruptor.
However, there is often confusion between disruption and innovation:
People are sometimes confused about the difference between innovation and disruption. It's not exactly black and white, but there are real distinctions, and it's not just splitting hairs. Think of it this way: Disruptors are innovators, but not all innovators are disruptors − in the same way that a square is a rectangle but not all rectangles are squares. Still with me?
Innovation and disruption are similar in that they are both makers and builders. Disruption takes a left turn by literally uprooting and changing how we think, behave, do business, learn and go about our day-to-day.
(Caroline Howard, Forbes Staff ‘Disruption v Innovation: What's the difference?’ Forbes, March 2013)Innovation, then, introduces new ways of doing things but maintains the same course and doesn't suggest a left turn. The majority of the products and services of the organisation, or its purpose, remain the same, they are just done in new ways. The FCDO is probably more of an innovator than a disruptor. The FCDO will suggest new ways of doing things, with new tools, and will transform the business through innovation.
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- The Chief Data Officer's Playbook , pp. 85 - 90Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2020