Most teams don’t have a data problem; they have a decision problem.

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Nic Granger, Chief Information and Financial Officer at the North Sea Transition Authority, joins me to share her perspective from the intersection of data, finance, and transformation in a highly complex, regulated industry.

Nic leads a multidisciplinary portfolio spanning digital, data, and core services, with a focus on enabling better decisions across the energy transition.

We get into why data strategy is fundamentally a human challenge, not just a technical one, and how data-driven decision making only works when people can actually access and trust the data. You’ll hear how data leadership shifts when the goal isn’t dashboards, but real-world outcomes like energy security and decarbonization.

We also unpack why jumping straight to AI in business often misses the point, and what it really takes to build strong data foundations that support scale. If you’re responsible for digital transformation or shaping CTO strategy, this will likely reframe how you think about value, not just volume.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[03:15] The value of data has nothing to do with the data itself, and what it actually comes down to

[07:30] Nic's realization that turning petabytes into value is a people problem, not a technology problem

[10:05] The mistake most organizations make with data is jumping to AI before they've solved anything

[13:00] What decades of vital data trapped in unreadable PDFs look like, and what AI is doing about it

[16:45] Making industry data freely available unlocked competition from smaller players and academia in ways nobody expected

[21:20] Your team is probably already asking the right data questions; you just have to listen for them

[27:45] The reason Nic's team swapped the word "process" for "workflow" and what the language shift actually changed

[31:20] Digitizing a paper trolley process revealed hidden data that now predicts industry trends

[37:00] The one thing Nic says every CTO should prioritize in the next 90 days to unlock data value

If you want to support the work Nic mentioned, become a member of the Bat Conservation Trust.

Resources Mentioned:

CTO Craft | Website

UK National Data Repository (NDR) | Website

Bat Conservation Trust | Website

Falklands Conservation | Website

Lovable AI | Website

Base44 | Website

If you want to support the work Nic mentioned, become a member of the Bat Conservation Trust.

Find more from Nic Granger on LinkedIn.

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube, and explore coaching, cohorts, and how you can stay up to date at theCTOplaybook.com, helping you build your own playbook for your path at your pace.

90: Data Is a Leadership Problem, Not a Technical One — A Playbook for CTOs