Podcast
CDO Matters Podcast
Hosted by Profisee · EN
How can today’s Chief Data Officers help their organizations become more data-driven? Join former Gartner analyst Malcolm Hawker as he interviews on thought leaders on data fabrics, blockchain and more — and learns why they matter to today’s CDOs. If you want to dig deep into the CDO Matters that are top-of-mind for today’s Chief Data Officers, this show is for you.
20episodes
Episodes
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The AI Portfolio Dilemma: Why Most Companies Can't Account for What They're Spending | CDO Matters Ep 104
5d ago00:49:05Tap to summarizeMost organizations are committing serious capital to AI and can't answer a basic question: how much are we actually spending, and on what? That accountability gap is about to close, whether data leaders are ready or not.📌 In this episode:Why fewer than 5% of large companies can accurately track AI spend as a distinct category — and what happens when the CFO gets involvedThe Vane Loop framework: a quadrant-based approach to scoring data and AI investments on feasibility and impact across 70+ factorsWhy AI architecture decisions are now financial variables — and why most product managers aren't equipped to make themThe strategic case for decommissioning: why building a library of reusable skills beats running 200 half-finished use cases💬 The takeaway: "If you don't manage your costs, your costs will be managed for you." — Malcolm Hawker, Episode 104About the host + guest: Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters on Substack, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast.Karl Ivo Sokolov is Managing Director at Specific Group Austria and co-author of Finance, Grade Data and AI Products. He sits on the US Institute of Management Accountants board and is the creator of the Vane Loop framework for AI portfolio steering.
Transcribe →The Metadata Problem Nobody Talks About: Context, Catalogs, and the CDO's Next Land Grab | CDO Matters Ep. 103
3w ago00:52:15Tap to summarizeEvery organization is told they need context for AI to work. Almost none of them know where to start. The answer has been sitting in their metadata all along — but most CDOs haven't connected those dots yet.📌 In this episode:Why your data catalog is already a source of context — and how to expose it to agentic workflows todayThe semantic layer problem: definitions living in BI tools instead of governed catalogs, and why that creates riskWhy engineers and library scientists think about language completely differently — and why that gap matters for AIMalcolm's argument that CDOs are in a unique position to make a "land grab" on unstructured data before someone else does💬 The takeaway: "CDOs are in a unique position to make a land grab: the ontologists, the taxonomists, the library scientists are all over the organization without one single leader. That's your moment." — Malcolm HawkerAbout the host + guest: Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast. Ole Olesen-Bagneux is Chief Evangelist at Actian and O'Reilly author of Fundamentals of Metadata Management (2025) and The Enterprise Data Catalog (2023) — the practitioner's reference for anyone building or governing a data catalog.Subscribe to CDO Matters Monthly → https://profisee.com/cdo-matters-community/#join-community Follow Malcolm on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malhawker/Guest Ole Olesen-Bagneux → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ole-olesen-bagneux/
Transcribe →The Data Sprawl Dilemma: Centralize, Replicate, or Virtualize? | CDO Matters Ep. 102
May 2900:40:02Tap to summarizeMost organizations default to replicating data: copying it from source systems into warehouses and lakes so their tools can reach it. Anu Jain, founder and CEO of Nexus One, thinks that's the wrong answer. Malcolm isn't so sure and that's where it gets interesting.📌 In this episode:Why the official count of data sources is always an undercount: shadow data, unstructured data, and legacy systems mean the real number is far higher than anyone reportsThe case for virtualization over replication: bring the compute to the data, leave it where it lives, and collapse deployment timelines from months to days"Information yield" — the metric Walmart once reported publicly and stopped, and why AI is about to force every CDO to bring it backWhy centralize-vs-decentralize is a false choice: the Venn diagram reality of golden records, distributed data, and why you need governance across all of it regardless💬 The takeaway: "Think of CDOs as refineries. You have all this raw data. The question is: how are you enabling your organization to extract value and can you put a metric to it?" — Anu JainAbout the host + guest: Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast. Anu Jain is founder and CEO of Nexus One, former CEO of Think Big Analytics, and a veteran of IBM Watson and Teradata. He publishes in Fortune and is active on LinkedIn.Subscribe to CDO Matters Monthly → https://profisee.com/cdo-matters-community/#join-community Follow Malcolm on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malhawker/Guest Anu Jain → https://www.linkedin.com/in/anujain/
Transcribe →The State of the Data Nation: Why Your Roadmap Is Already Behind | CDO Matters Ep. 101
May 1500:57:50Tap to summarizeThe data and AI landscape shifted more in the last six months than in the three years prior and most data teams are still operating off roadmaps that predate it. Malcolm Hawker goes solo to give data leaders an honest read on where things stand and what to prioritize for the rest of the year.📌 In this episode:Why Gartner's keynote message — that it's okay to be a late AI adopter — is advice Malcolm thinks is negligent, and why you don't have three more yearsHow agentic AI and tools like Microsoft Foundry and OpenAI Studio are finally connecting the dots between data foundations (MDM, data quality, governance) and real AI business outcomesWhat SAP's acquisition of Reltio means for MDM customers and who should be paying close attentionProfisee named a leader in the new Gartner Magic Quadrant for MDM: what it means and why it took four years to get here💬 The takeaway: "If you don't have some idea of how you need to adapt your governance model to support AI, you don't have three years to figure it out because you already had three."About the host: Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters on Substack, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast.🔗 Watch other episodes + read the transcripts on the CDO Podcast pageFollow Malcolm on LinkedIn
Transcribe →100 Episodes In: What the Data Industry Got Wrong (And Still Won't Admit) | CDO Matter Ep. 100
May 100:55:13Tap to summarizeFor a hundred episodes, the data world has been told data is the center of the universe. It isn't — and three of the most credible voices in the industry are finally saying so out loud. Malcolm Hawker sits down with Scott Taylor, Juan Sequeda, and Samir Sharma for a milestone roundtable: why AI isn't Hadoop, why CDOs keep failing for the same reasons, and what it's going to take to survive what's coming.
Transcribe →The Data Scientist's Dilemma: Why Good Models Die Before They Ship | CDO Matters Ep. 99
Apr 1700:49:26Tap to summarizeData science teams are delivering results — so why do so many projects never make it to production? Malcolm Hawker and Kristen Kehrer, founder of Data Moves Me and former data science leader, dig into the organizational failures behind the disconnect: governance that blocks data access, business stakeholders who hand scientists solutions instead of problems, and why product management may be the missing layer in your data org. They also get into what AI actually means for data science careers, whether junior roles have a future, and how staying relevant now means building things — fast.
Transcribe →The New Rules for Data Leadership | CDO Matters Ep. 98
Apr 200:48:57Tap to summarizeThe market for data leaders is growing - but the CDO role itself may be under pressure. In this episode, Malcolm Hawker and Kyle Winterbottom explore why organizations are questioning data leadership value, how AI is reshaping career paths, and what separates those who advance from those who stall. If you’re navigating your next move in data, this is a conversation you can’t afford to ignore.
Transcribe →AI Is Changing Marketing: What Every CDO and CMO Needs to Know About Data | CDO Matters Ep. 97
Mar 2000:52:23Tap to summarizeEpisode OverviewIn this episode of CDO Matters, Malcolm Hawker sits down with Yext Chief Data Officer Christian Ward to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping the relationship between data and modern marketing. As traditional playbooks built around search, SEO, and paid media begin to fracture, the conversation dives into what this shift means for CMOs—and why CDOs must step into a far more consultative and strategic role in guiding how organizations prepare their data for an AI-mediated customer journey. The result is a thoughtful discussion on the emerging data realities behind AI-driven discovery, and what data leaders must do today to ensure their marketing partners remain visible, relevant, and competitive in an AI-first world. Episode Links and ResourcesFollow Malcolm Hawker on LinkedInFollow Christian Ward on LinkedIn
Transcribe →The Data Strategy Canvas | CDO Matters Ep. 96
Mar 900:48:27Tap to summarizeEpisode OverviewIn this episode of CDO Matters, host Malcolm Hawker speaks with Samir Sharma about the idea behind the Data Strategy Canvas and how organizations can bring more structure to their data initiatives. They discuss how frameworks can help leaders connect data strategy to real business priorities and improve alignment across teams. The conversation explores practical ways data leaders can simplify complex strategy discussions and move from vision to execution.Episode Links and ResourcesFollow Malcolm Hawker on LinkedInFollow Samir Sharma on LinkedIn
Transcribe →Product Thinking, Platform Strategy, and the Future of AI Governance | CDO Matters Ep. 95
Feb 2100:45:17Tap to summarizeEpisode OverviewIn this episode of the CDO Matters podcast, I sit down with Microsoft’s Karthik Ravindran to unpack what it really means to be “AI-ready” in 2026, and why most organizations are still thinking about data the wrong way. We explore the collision of product management, governance, and platform strategy, and why AI success will be determined less by models and more by mindset, operating model, and the quality of the data fueling the engine. If you’re a data or analytics leader trying to translate AI hype into measurable business outcomes, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss! Episode Links and ResourcesFollow Malcolm Hawker on LinkedInFollow Karthik Ravindran on LinkedIn
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