S4 | Ep 15 | Large Scale Transformation and The Measurement of Success with Niresh Rajah, Group Chief Data Officer at Danske Banke

Driven by Data: The Podcast

In Episode 15, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is re-joined by Niresh Rajah, now the Group Chief Data Officer at Danske Banke, where they discuss building a Chief Data Office to support one of the largest digital transformations in financial services across Europe, which includes;

• Forward 28: the 5-year strategy to be a digitally orientated, customer-first, sustainable organisation
• Being hired to create a data-driven environment to support one of the largest FS digital transformations in Europe
• Constructing ‘Data-Driven Danske’ and the 4 components of focus
• The 5 layers of the ‘Data-Driven Danske’ layer cake
• Demonstrating value from a multi-billion investment
• The key instigator as to why the investment has been made
• Aligning Forward 28 and Data-Driven Danske
• Building the 8 capabilities that make up a Chief Data Office
• Battling defence and offence as a large FS organisation
• Why faith and trust only go so far
• The 4 metrics to measure that change is happening
• Using transition states to move towards the end-goal
• Having executives who see the value of data as being fundamental to their customers
• The challenge of prioritising the best use cases due to so much demand
• The reality of driving change in a large legacy organisation despite the appetite to do so
• Fighting the war for talent to build a forward-think chief data office
• Delivering quick wins despite having the trust of the executive leadership team
• Top-Down, Bottom-Up and the Messy Middle
• Developing an engagement and communication approach
• The importance of having a talent strategy to build a world-class D&A capability
• Building a co-sponsored cross-skilling programme
• Predictive AI v Generative AI

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