Data Organisations of the Future – Partners in Value Creation

Value creation has long been a top priority for Chief Data and Analytics Officers. In this executive blog, Amitabh Seli – Director, Data UK, CDAO at Danone and a Governing Body Member of the UK & Ireland CDAO Community – explores the strategic shifts required for businesses to unlock real value from their data investments.

Amitabh is a visionary data leader with a proven record of leveraging data as a core strategic asset to drive enterprise-wide transformation, build innovative data products, and strengthen business analytics capabilities. With a deep understanding of business objectives, he architected and executed large-scale data and AI strategies that have enabled global brands to achieve market growth, enhance customer centricity, and improve profitability. He is a trusted advisor to boards, adept in influencing investment and customer decisions. The views expressed here are his own, and not representative of Danone.

The pursuit of data maturity has sent many organisations down the route of expensive and sometimes underutilised, technology. The mantra for over a decade has been to collect more data, centralise it, and apply analytics to derive results and decisions. This gave rise to the era of massive data lakes and warehouses, aiming for a single source of truth but often failing to deliver complete solutions that meet business expectations.

The data organisation of the future is an agile, adaptive organisation that embeds data thinking into every business function, where data and business leaders collaborate to rewire their companies to capitalise on this opportunity. Winners in the years ahead will be those who reorganise their people, processes, and culture to be agile, decentralised, and business-value committed, giving them a competitive edge.

The current approaches are not successful due to a lack of technology, but because they confuse technology with strategy. Enterprises have invested heavily in AI and machine learning, yet leading research has shown that over 80% aren't yet seeing a material impact on earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). The future isn't about deploying more AI tools; it's about reorganising how enterprises broadly (and data sub-organisations within) plan and collaborate to get genuine value out of the technology, people, and product investments. To enable this, both mindset and structures should pivot from a centralised command-and-control model to one that empowers data ownership and business units.
 

Data as a product

A central data team built around the data warehouse/lake has a noticeable shortcoming: it manages capacity and security but often lacks the agility to respond and react to changing business needs.

Data mesh, on the other hand, is built on treating data as a managed resource in a decentralised way. In this model, ownership of data is distributed to domain-specific business teams who understand its context best. For example, a marketing team owns its customer data, a supply chain team owns its logistics data, and each is responsible for managing and exposing that data as a product for others to consume. This model shatters the illusion of control that stifles innovation, empowering business units to take ownership and innovate faster. Mesh technology – decentralised data ownership with central governance – can give companies the agility they need.
 

Data as a product is essential for creating value

Organisations will need to change their mindset from treating data as a byproduct of processes and operations to treating it as a strategic product with its own lifecycle, consumers, and value proposition. This shift redefines the data team's purpose, moving them from custodians to proactive value creators. In this new organisation, cross-functional "data product teams" will be composed of engineers, scientists, analysts, and subject matter experts. They focus on building high-quality, trusted data products that directly create value, as opposed to a central team providing datasets.

Companies must start thinking about monetising their data assets to prove their worth, and this is bigger than just a technological shift.
 

From controllers to enablers

The most significant barrier to data transformation is not technology, but people and culture. The role of the CDAO is evolving from that of a technical leader to a strategic business partner who spearheads the AI and data strategy. CDAOs will need to become more decision-centric, focusing on driving business value through data and driving literacy and adoption across the enterprise.

Leaders must move from being gatekeepers of data to being enablers who foster a data-literate workforce at all levels. Equipping employees with self-serve platforms and upskilling them to identify impactful use cases will become a key differentiator for people-centric and successful organisations.
 

The ethical and responsible data organisation

In the era of AI and GenAI, companies that demonstrate leadership in ethical data practices will build greater trust with customers and stakeholders, thereby mitigating reputational and regulatory risks. Investing in data governance can position organisations to lead in responsible innovation, unlocking AI's potential while maintaining safeguards.

Trustworthy AI that generates value starts with reliable data. Effective data governance is now a powerful tool for ensuring the quality and integrity of the data that fuels AI models. The next-gen data organisation will have robust governance frameworks that are centrally managed, with rules that are enforced for decentralised data products.
 

A new operating model for a data-driven world

The data organisation of the future is not about a new tool or a shiny new platform. It's about a new operating model that prioritises agility, decentralisation, business value, and a data-literate culture.

Leaders must be prepared to make bold decisions, align teams, invest in talent, and embrace the cultural change required to succeed. By focusing on practical applications that deliver measurable ROI, building comprehensive roadmaps, and scaling initiatives effectively, organisations can move from incremental gains to transformative change. 

Amitabh Seli is the Director, Data UK, CDAO at Danone and a Governing Body Member of the UK & Ireland CDAO Community. To connect with like-minded peers, apply to join your local CDAO community today. If you are already a member, sign in to register for upcoming community programs and events.