Chief Analytics Officer

What

Dedicated analytics advisor to the Executive team.

Why

Data and analytics require a rare mix of business and technical skills as well as the time and authority to perform the work.

How

Partner with other CxOs to establish a common framework for making effective decisions.

What does a Chief Analytics Officer do?

The Chief Analytics Officer (CAO) is a member of your executive team; tasked with providing the analytic expertise and guidance needed to help make informed business decisions. This role recognizes the fact that making sound decisions often requires solid business experience, broad organizational exposure, and deep technical skills.

The CAO is responsible for:
  • Delivering decision support services to the Executive team as new analysis is required.
  • Improving overall business performance by leading the development and execution of focused business metrics.
  • Supporting the Chief Information Officer / Chief Technology Officer / Chief  Data Officer with guidance and support on analytics, data, and integration activities.
  • Support the Chief Finance Officer and Chief Operations Officer with guidance and support on operational improvement initiatives.​
  • Assist in Supplier and Competitor opportunity assessments by performing quantitative analysis on potential partners in partnership with the rest of the Executive team. 
  • Assist in M&A opportunity assessments by performing quantitative analysis on potential partners in partnership with the rest of the Executive team. 

Being directly tied to the Executive team, the Chief Analytics Officer is the trusted source of objective, data driven analysis, and feedback the busy Executive team needs to make the right decision at the right time. 

Why do you need a Chief Analytics Officer?

You need a Chief Analytics Officer when you realize you do not have the information and insights needed to make informed decisions. Building and running a business is hard because our world is so complicated and dynamic. When it comes to data and information, our first instinct is to collect and analyze as much as possible as quickly as we can. However, this approach seldom works. 

A better approach is to start with ensuring you are making decisions based on actual business metrics that accurately reflect real business problems. Your CAO has the business knowledge and the technical skills to make this happen. One of the reasons you are not doing this today is that real business problems tend to be very sensitive and rely on financial, operational, and competitive information you can not expose to the entire company.  

While it might be tempting to assign this function to the CFO, COO, or CTO. This is unwise, because they have their own organizations to manage, and even if they have the skills, are they sufficient? Is this the best use of their time?  The CAO, because they do not have a large functional organization to manage, is the right point in the organization to deliver this capability.

How does the Chief Analytics Officer work?

Within the first month:
  • Develop a clear understanding of how the company makes money and who our customers are.
  • Develop a clear understanding of the organization and how it operates and supports the customers.
  • Identify and prioritize the core business problems and current analytic state.
  • Establish a process to receive and prioritize new analytic requests.

 Within the first three months:
  • Develop an analytics skills plan for the Executive team.
  • Partner with the Executive(s) responsible for the prioritized core business problem. Explore possible solutions and evaluate the fastest way to improve  visibility and start to achieve measurable benefits.
  • Deliver the initial release of the Analytics Blueprint.
  • Facilitate the analytics portion of executive meetings.
  • Evaluate and answer ad-hoc requests as needed.

Within the first six months:
  • Lead the creation and prioritization of the projects needed to move toward the end-state envisioned in the Analytics Blueprint.
  • Partner with additional Executive(s) responsible for the the prioritized core business problem. Explore possible solutions and evaluate the fastest way to improve  visibility and start to achieve measurable benefits.
  • Develop an analytics skills plan for aligning key managers with the Executive team.
  • Refine the Executive Analytics infrastructure and processes to improve the delivery lifecycle and quality of the analytics needed by the team.

Within the first year:
  • Continue to drive the development and adoption of business driven metrics.
  • Continue to evolve the execution of the Analytics Blueprint with the CTO / CIO.
  • Continue to expand the adoption and understanding of core business problems within the company.
  • Evaluate, delegate, and answer ad-hoc requests as needed.
    Now that my book is out in the world, I'm looking for a new opportunity. If you believe that adding a Chief Analytics Officer to your company would improve your ability to make informed and valuable business decisions, I would love to talk.