S4 | Ep 42 | Two Years On - What Happens After Putting a Valuation on Your Data Assets with Davin Crowley-Sweet, CDO at National Highways

Driven by Data: The Podcast

In Episode 42, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is re-joined by Davin Crowley-Sweet, Chief Data Officer at National Highways.

After Davin's first appearance almost 2 years ago (still the most listened-to episode of all time) they discuss what’s unfolded since valuing their data as an asset and the failings of the D&A industry, which includes;

• Why CDOs are playing musical chairs
• The language of business is finance and what that means for data
• Making data an asset class in its own right
• Why your job is to create clarity from ambiguity
• Recognising the difference between conflict and tension
• Why data professionals hide too much behind technical skills
• Putting a valuation on your data asset and the benefits of doing so
• Why the valuation is merely a means to an end
• The difference between valuation, value, benefits and monetisation
• Why being an enabler may provide good benefits but won’t capitalise on the value of the data
• The relationship between valuing your data asset and capital allocation
• How valuing the data asset has changed the business model
• How data people create new meanings from words that already exist and wonder why they’re being misunderstood
• Why it’s easier to make a data team business literate than it is to make an entire business data literate
• Why you don’t need a ‘data culture’
• Why there’s a fear of speaking about failure in the D&A industry
• Why creating a strategy was the biggest failure of his career
• Why earning trust and emotional commitment of the organisation is critical to success
• Data is hard because the job exists to challenge senior leaders' belief systems
• Why “you’re mental” if you think technology will fix that problem
• Why the future skillset of the CDO is more aligned to psychologists and philosophers
• What you should do today as a D&A professional if you want to make a difference

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