In a world where data powers business strategy, the role of the CDO is more crucial than ever. Prudential’s inaugural global chief data officer, Kjersten Moody, speaks about building a new data team, fostering a purpose-driven approach and preparing for the AI-driven future.
As Prudential’s first global chief data officer, how did you shape this new role?
The first thing to recognise is that creating a new C-level role is a significant investment by the enterprise. It signals that there’s a big opportunity. The creation of the CDO role was a recognition by Prudential senior leadership that data, and specifically the use of data through data science and AI, was going to be key to being competitive and therefore needed to be a focus for the organisation.
The second thing is to recognise and respect that a new role leading a new department is like a new piece on the chessboard. The organisation has to understand how to work with this extra department and what the department does not do. They need to understand why that team is necessary for the organisation’s success, and how it contributes to the overall business.
For the data office, that means understanding the business strategies and how data, AI and analytics interact with that strategy to deliver long-term strategic value. And then it’s remembering every day that the customer should come first and that we must build trust.
Data teams going into 2025 need to accelerate data readiness for AI usage
What values do you lead by? And how do you inspire your team?
In terms of values, it’s really two things. The first is making sure that the customer is at the centre of everything. This means constantly linking back to how the strategy – the execution, the goals, the measurements and the KPIs – drives value for the customer.
The second value is being very open and encouraging collaboration across the business. It’s a mindset of ‘we go far if we go together’, both for myself and to instil into the team.
Inspiring the team is about celebrating success and having a high bar for that success. This ambition isn’t just about winning business; it’s also about helping Prudential and our people fulfil our company’s purpose. Our purpose is to help people tackle the financial challenges of a changing world. So, it’s about connecting purpose, strategy and execution – and celebrating successes throughout that entire value chain.
What position or experience has shaped your leadership style?
My time at Unilever has had a big influence on me. Unilever has a very strongly defined and held purpose. It was the first time in my career that I’ve had the opportunity to work in an organisation that has both a strongly held purpose and invests in their senior leaders’ personal purpose. They understood that personal purpose is a source of energy and inspiration for the individual leaders contributing to a mission-driven organisation. That was truly transformative for me personally when thinking about my career and my leadership approach and style.
It has influenced my approach to inspiring and motivating my team at Prudential. That recognition of purpose is a fantastic litmus test against the portfolio of work to ensure that the hours and the money we spend on projects drive outcomes that will benefit the enterprise.
What is the most important consideration for data teams going into 2025?
Artificial intelligence is being pulled into all different parts of the value chain. That is putting extra emphasis on data. Data teams going into 2025 need to accelerate data readiness for AI usage.
Whether that’s pivoting to more data mesh architectures, data products, enhancement and data management and governance programs, it’s really thinking about data in a much more specific way, as fuel for AI versus a more generalised enabler. That’s going to be the key consideration and the key difference maker.
What advice would you give aspiring data leaders?
It’s important to be extremely comfortable with and well-versed in the fundamentals as well as focusing on the innovation aspect of the role.
In many ways, despite a tremendously exciting, innovative landscape, the fundamentals are still the same. We still need to know what data we have. We still need to know where it is. It still needs to be owned. It still needs to be curated and cared for with quality metrics. That is a feeder system for the analytics and AI ecosystem, which is tremendously innovative and is creating exciting opportunities. We can safely say that those opportunities will continue to unfold in ways that we can’t even anticipate today.
A strong data strategy, grounded in those core fundamentals, is now driving AI in ways that fuel commercial growth. Don’t lose sight of these fundamentals in the rush to chase innovation.
And finally, remember that it is ultimately a team sport. Data is an enabler, and to unlock its potential, you need a cohesive team that connects with various parts of the business to deliver results. Data leaders need to be multilingual in the business strategy as well as the technology.
