S5 | Ep 13 | Leading with Data: The CDO’s Path to COO with Tamara Castelli, Chief Operating Officer at UNiDAYS

In Episode 13, of Season 5 of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Tamara Castelli, Chief Operating Officer at UNiDAYS where they discuss her transition from leading a data and insights team to becoming the Chief Operating Officer, which includes:

• Falling out of love with the theory of academia
• Being driven by seeing application result in outcomes
• Moving from consultancy to an end user organisation
• How a merger provided a career changing opportunity to lead
• A great analogy about a restaurant, a kitchen, china sets and menu font to describe how businesses can focus on the wrong things
• The transition from VP of Data & Insight to Chief Operating Officer
• The many parallels between the CDO and COO roles
• Why data has to drive change and understanding it’s role within that objective
• Why AI will bring the role of Data Leadership and business leadership to a point of overlap
• Why business leaders will face challenges in the future that Data Leaders have faced forever
• What may be seen as performance problems may actually be process problems
• Grabbing the opportunity with both hands by taking accountability for things outside of her remit
• Why operations is a great home for Data and Analytics teams
• The differences between the CDO and COO communities
• Why there’s less commonality between the COO community
• Success stories as a COO
• The power of having more influence as the COO
• Spotting data gaps more easily from a higher vantage point
• Launching OKRs around transformation and growth goals
• Navigating perceptions of the current perception your business has of you  
• Things to think about if you’re considering a move into an operational role

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