CDO Matters Ep. 13 | The Journey to Thought Leadership with Anthony Algmin

Curiosity can lead you to unlikely places. For Malcolm Hawker, a simple curiosity about enterprise data led to a lasting career as an expert in the field and a thought leadership figure in the data and analytics space. Malcolm is interviewed by Anthony Algmin on the Data Leadership Lessons podcast to discuss his personal journey to becoming a thought leader in the data field. In this lively conversation, he shares insights on his career progression starting as a phone-based Technical Support agent for AOL in the mid ‘90s making $7 an hour to where he is today. Along the way, Malcolm shares several valuable insights on the current state of data leadership with practical advice on how CDOs can leverage critical data to become a more data-driven organization. Malcolm dives into why he chose to leave his position as a Gartner Analyst and use podcasts, LinkedIn and other channels to share best practices with CDOs as a part of his mission to “raise the bar” on data leadership. A common thread across Malcolm’s interview is the idea that many of the best practices consistently shared with CDOs and other data leaders are not being implemented today. He attributes much of this as a failure to align business incentives with IT incentives, as well as a failure by CDOs with more of an IT background being unwilling to defer to other experts to help solve difficult problems — at least those who aren’t high-priced consultants. Through this 45-minute conversation, Malcolm’s passion for helping CDOs consistently sits at the core with the support of his deep experience as a consultant, a software vendor, a CIO and a Gartner analyst. He explores the importance of CDOs having the right combination of business, technical and sales skills — and the importance of using the right messaging and mediums to ensure data organizations place business first, not technology. CDOs looking for new — and perhaps a bit irreverent — views on the state of data leadership today should find this episode of CDO Matters a breath of fresh air.