Efficient knowledge leaders give attention to decision-making, sharing, Gartner says

The boundaries between chief knowledge officers and chief digital officers are blurring as knowledge officers are more and more requested to tackle extra strategic aims and lead digital transformation initiatives, based on market analysis agency Gartner.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of knowledge and analytics leaders with digital initiatives are both main — or closely concerned in — their group’s digital transformation initiatives, Gartner mentioned in its sixth Chief Knowledge Officer survey. Chief knowledge officers with business-facing key efficiency indicators and companions throughout the enterprise have been 1.7 instances extra more likely to show return on funding and enterprise worth, based on the survey of 469 high-level knowledge and analytics leaders.

Much less profitable knowledge leaders give attention to know-how as an alternative of individuals.

“Give attention to the outcomes: That’s the best way to win,” Gartner VP Andrew White mentioned throughout this week’s Gartner Knowledge and Analytics Summit, which was held nearly this yr. “It’s not about know-how, it’s not in regards to the dashboard, it’s in regards to the resolution.”

As extra enterprise leaders depend on data-driven insights to make selections, securing knowledge and growing an analytics technique turn out to be extra essential. The chief knowledge officer performs a mission-critical operate — on par with IT enterprise operations, HR, and finance — in three-quarters of huge organizations, Gartner mentioned. Knowledge and analytics leaders usually give attention to enhancing knowledge high quality, growing the worth of their D&A investments, and bettering knowledge sharing.

Knowledge sharing accelerates digital transformation as a result of it optimizes higher-quality knowledge to unravel enterprise challenges and targets. Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations that promote knowledge sharing will outperform their friends on most enterprise worth metrics.

Knowledge leaders additionally have to give attention to assembly enterprise targets and necessities. Knowledge leaders who don’t set up a transparent hyperlink between knowledge and analytics with enterprise outcomes are much less profitable, the survey discovered.

“If the CDO doesn’t exert affect throughout the group by selling knowledge sharing, participating stakeholders, and coaching the workforce to turn out to be knowledge literate, they’ll probably not carry out properly of their function,” Gartner VP Debra Logan mentioned in a press release.

Whereas each enterprise could not appoint a devoted chief knowledge officer, many are exploring methods to be extra strategic about how the enterprise works with knowledge. By 2023, half of the enterprises that don’t have a chief knowledge officer would require an govt to turn out to be the de facto CDO in the event that they wish to succeed, Gartner mentioned.

“The outcomes point out that extra organizations now perceive the synergy between constructing a data-driven enterprise and main digital transformation,” Logan mentioned. “D&A method is a enterprise technique infused with D&A pondering; it has a main function in digital enterprise technique, affecting every part the group does.”