Data Perspectives

Recent Episodes:

Season 2| Episode 2| Quarter 2, 2023

Jennifer Agnes on the Importance of creating strong communities and data initiatives, to pay it forward

Episode summary:

In this episode, the host Nupur Gandhi is joined by the very 1st Chief Data officer (CDO) on the podcast, Jennifer Agnes.

 A humble human with numerous  accolades such as 'DataIQ’s Top 100 US Most Influential People in Data' and 'CDO Magazine’s Top Data Consultants', Jennifer is sure to wow you with her depth of knowledge and herextensive global experience but most importantly her ‘cool, calm and collected attitude’, will come across in all of her interactions.

 A Data Leader vested in ' 'Building Data Communities', Jennifer is currently the Managing Director of the Cynozure Group and takes every opportunity to create data initiatives to pay it forward.

 She credits resilience and being thick skinned as a recipe for success as a Chief Data officer and  brings a ton of insights and knowledge from her prior roles such as the Group Chief Data Officer at Schneider Electric, Chief Data Officer for Risk & Finance at Credit Suisse and an extensive experience at GE Capital for over 20 years.

Get ready to get enlightened about 'Executive coaching' and why it is anybody's game and not just limited to executives. If you want to hear Jennifer elaborate on why Data is a teams sport, do check out out the podcast on any of your preferred podcast platforms.

Recent Episodes:

Season 1 | Episode 3| Quarter 3, 2022

Scott Taylor on the value of Data Storytelling for Better Data Management

Episode summary:

In this episode, the host Nupur Gandhi is joined by the witty and the talented storyteller, Scott Taylor also touted as the Data Whisperer. He captivates you with valid analogies and funny witticisms' as he shares his career journey as a corporate professional in Nielsen and Dun & Bradstreet. He candidly shares his experiences, mistakes, challenges and learnings that have helped pave the way for him as a content creator and ultimately to being a solopreneur as a 'Data Whisperer'. You do not want to miss his practical tips and tricks spilled all over the podcast, on Data Storytellying, engaging the audience and garnering support from senior management.

Key Takeaways:

• If you break Storytellying into three parts, there's the data part, there's the story part, which is how you put that narrative together and there's a telling part. How do you present it? Think about: Are you capturing people's attention? Do they care? And really focus on the message that we're trying to deliver.
• One personal favorite technique used as a part of storytelling is to is how few words can I use? Reflect on Truth before meaning and find the truth in the data, before sharing the meaning.
• Tips on securing support of higher management: You got to be ready to present in a compelling way. Your first couple of minutes are the most important. Better understand your business and you better know what your executives are already talking about.
• If you plan to talk about a data program, you have to show why that work will enable the strategic intention of the enterprise. Where is your company going and why does data help you get there?
• Be okay to demonstrate courageous leadership, if you believe strongly about a topic, even if your thought is not conventional or popular one.
• Golden rule of data, is do unto your data as you would have it do unto you.
• Always remember if you have an initiative, no matter what it is, that's based on technology, hardware, software, data. If you have data, you need data management. Data Management is macro trend, agnostic.
• Don't talk about what you will deliver. Deliver it and then showcase the results. A lot of it is the positioning, a lot of it's in how we articulate it, which is part of what storytelling is all about.
• Leverage 1  min with a CEO: Start with some of the big things that are already on their mind. Have that in your head. Be fluent in what your business is trying to do. And if you're looking for where those initiatives are, what the vision of your company is, look at your own annual report or your own company strategy statement. Also be ready for a yes and when you get the yes, move on.
• Learn your business as a data leader and you will find opportunities and potentially funding.

More about the guest, Scott Taylor:

• Scott Taylor, more popularly known as The Data Whisperer, has helped countless companies by enlightening business executives to the strategic value of proper data management. He focuses on business alignment and the “strategic WHY” rather than system implementation and the “technical HOW.” As Principal Consultant for MetaMeta Consulting he helps Enterprises and Tech Brands tell their data story.

Recent Episodes:

Season 1| Episode 2| Quarter 2,2022

Sandi Perillo- Simmons on designing your Data Strategy leveraging Data Governance and Data Management principles

Episode summary:

In this episode, the host Nupur Gandhi is joined by a data strategist and data management expert, Sandi Perillo- Simmons.

Sandi gets candid about her career journey in data management and provides practical tidbits for building data governance ground up in any organization. She shares her broad experiences having worked in data governance roles at various capacities in a decentralized as well as centralized business function and explains not just 'the how' but especially 'The Why' of Data Strategy and Data Governance. She simplifies data cataloging and shares its critical role in data management. She brings her years of knowledge and experience in various data organizations to pinpoint why data standards need to be relevant.

She shares the rewarding experience working for industry organizations and underscores importance of cultivating relationships and networking to get to meet and learn from various other data enthusiasts. She provides invaluable tips and insights on how to enrich your data career while balancing with the demands and changes in a forever evolving data landscape.

Key Takeaways:

• You can’t try to solve every data problem so make some tough decisions on what you can and can’t do. This is where the strategy and roadmap comes into play. You need to organize the work and often stretch it out over a 3-5 year plan 
• A smart and efficient way of keeping up with the changing data landscape is to understand organization’s business strategy along with constant participation and learning – with people within your organization and outside of your organization
• For every Data management discipline that you include as part of your data strategy, you need rules and standards for how to go about performing these data management capabilities.
• Data Governance will get engrained when it is backed up with a leadership support, a data-governance driven mindset and when one customizes the governance roadmap based on the company's maturity.
• Data Cataloging is much like Yelp and is the gold standard of metadata management – making metadata accessible and informative to non-technical data users.
• Data Cataloging can help with tracking and scaling data lineage, remove manual aspects of Metadata management and shrink timeframe of creating data  

More about the guest, Sandi Perillo-Simons:

Sandi is a seasoned veteran in multiple data management disciplines such as data strategy, data governance and stewardship, data quality, metadata management, and data security/access. Sandi’s data management knowledge has helped drive enterprise data initiatives and data asset assessment programs providing tangible business value and enabling operational efficiencies. Sandi is currently a member of the IDMA Board of Directors, President of DAMA New England and holds the CIDM, CDMP, and ACE designations from IDMA, DAMA, and ACORD respectively.

DAMA New England is an educational and networking resource for the data management community. And this podcast is DAMA New England’s 1stinitiative.

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