MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Execs Bullish on AI but Wary of Data Leadership

Every year in December and January, NewVantage Partners (NVP) conducts a survey of data and technology executives in large companies primarily located in the U.S. Every year, we (the authors) collaborate in analyzing and interpreting the results. And every year, we wonder why the survey results suggest that certain aspects of the data environment aren’t getting better faster, or why they sometimes even become worse.

The executives are usually pretty bullish about technology but quite bearish regarding whether their organizations are becoming more data-driven. They also express concerns about the executive roles — most frequently, the role of chief data officer (CDO) — that are charged with making their company’s data environment better.

About the Author

Thomas H. Davenport (@tdav) is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, a visiting professor at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, and a fellow of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. Randy Bean (@randybeannvp) is an industry thought leader, author, and CEO of NewVantage Partners, a strategic advisory and management consulting firm that he founded in 2001. He is a contributor to MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal. Contact him at rbean@newvantage.com.

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