Want to boost growth? Appoint a CDO

For its second annual Chief Data Officer Study, PwC analysed the world’s top 2,500 public companies by market capitalisation to identify how many have appointed an executive-level chief data officer, and to find out whether doing so affects a company’s performance. The study shows that while nearly three-quarters of companies have yet to appoint an executive-level data role, the situation is changing fast, with the 2022 study showing a 29% increase over last year’s figure. And it’s not just the biggest corporations; CDO appointments are on the rise in businesses of all sizes—a reflection of the soaring volume and complexity of data in virtually all fields and industries. That more organisations are seeing the value in giving data officers a seat at the leadership table is good news, because, as the chart above demonstrates, there’s a marked correlation between the presence of an executive-level CDO and revenue growth rates—across every industry. The upshot: organisations that don’t have a chief data officer role—one with meaningful agency, accountability, CEO access, and board-level support—should strongly consider creating one.