VIDEO | Deloitte Digital MD: Focus on Strategy, Not Perfection

(US and Canada) David Chan, Managing Director of Deloitte Digital, speaks with Kellie De Leon, Senior Director of Marketing at Treasure Data, in a video interview about the customer data platform (CDP) and its role in digital transformation.

According to Chan, customer data platforms revolve around data, decision, and delivery — unifying disparate data sources, making better decisions based on analytics, and delivering insights through activation channels. The CDP is supposed to help get real-time signals faster to ensure customer engagement at the right moment, before the moment is missed.

Regarding the struggle to deliver customer experiences using data, Chan notes that while digital transformation used to be all about on-prem and automation, there is an apparent inclination to be more data-driven today.

Similarly, data strategy used to be more about enterprise data governance but now focuses more on maximizing the effectiveness of first-, second-, and third-party data.

When asked about working with clients to incorporate strategic thinking into the data strategy, he highlights the following choice cascade concept:

• What is your strategy?
• What are your values and measures?
• What are the capabilities you need?
• What are the technologies?
• What is your organizational construct that can support that?

For Chan, it is not about perfecting the strategy but articulating it so the leaders and teams understand where the organization is going. He says it is most important to have a strategy, not the perfect one.

As for the evolving need for CDP, Chan says it used to be marketing-focused and now serves ad tech applications, CRM, service, care, and commerce. CDP brought IT into the mix, he adds.

CDO Magazine appreciates David Chan for sharing his insights and data success stories with our global community.