Developing a New Leadership Mindset for Data

With a wide array of tested tools and software in the market, it’s easier than ever for companies to store and process large amounts of important data. To take advantage of the new strategic opportunities this provides, business leaders need to adopt a modern mindset oriented toward building a strong data culture and creating a shared vision with technology partners.

Our upcoming MIT SMR Executive Guide, “The New Leadership Mindset for Data & Analytics,” provides business and technical decision makers with new insights, research, and strategies to help them tackle organizational change, lead data initiatives from the top down, and empower a data-driven culture.

Summaries of the upcoming article series, which begins on Nov. 18, are included below. Sign up to be notified when new articles are published, and in the meantime, explore our library of recent data and analytics articles available now.

How Large Companies Can Grow Their Data and Analytics Talent

Thomas H. Davenport

Companies today must identify the type of talent required to become data-driven and then classify and certify the types of analytical jobs in their organizations. They can also benefit from expanding their talent pools by working with universities directly on educational programs and by nurturing communities within their organizations to develop employees for their data teams. Read the full article.

Changing Culture Is Central to Changing Business Models

Lanham Napier, Barry Libert, and K.D. de Vries

Organizational culture — driven by the beliefs and values of an organization’s leaders — has a profound impact on efforts to adopt big data, machine learning, and multisided revenue models. If leaders truly expect to derive meaningful business benefits from a data and AI foundation, they must first proactively address their own core beliefs. Read the full article.

Why Chief Data Officers Must Assume Leadership for Data Success

Randy Bean

As companies struggle to manage data as a vital business asset, they must develop the leadership skills, expertise, and organizational structure to effectively manage and communicate the business value of data. An important first step is establishing strong data leadership that will define and deliver on a data vision that supports the company’s broader business vision. Available Nov. 30.

Top-Down Leadership for Data: Seven Ways to Get Started

Thomas C. Redman

This article explores seven ways leaders can accelerate data efforts in their companies, derive near-term benefits, and gain a better understanding of the roles data can play in advancing their business objectives. They can initiate successful data strategies by focusing on data quality, building organizational capabilities, and putting data to work in new ways. Available Dec. 2.

Leading With Decision-Driven Data Analytics

Bart de Langhe and Stefano Puntoni

Making decisions with data often comes down to finding a purpose for the data at hand. Companies look for ways to extract value from available data, but that doesn’t necessarily mean data analysts are answering the right questions. The solution is simple: Instead of finding a purpose for data, find data for a purpose using an approach the authors describe as decision-driven data analytics. Available Dec. 7.

Empowering a Data Culture From the Inside Out

Jonathan Tudor, interviewed by Ally MacDonald

Transforming a company into a truly data-driven business involves fundamental organizational changes. In this interview, Jonathan Tudor, director of data and analytics at GE Aviation, explains how self-service data can help empower organizations at the individual level and bring powerful insights to day-to-day processes. Available Dec. 9.