Hired for his change management skills, Aidan Miller, Chief Data Officer at DNB, has been working towards figuring out the challenges, and finding practical solutions for Norway’s largest financial group, DNB Bank.

In a conversation with Roshan Shetty, Head of FS for Benelux, Switzerland and Nordics, Infosys, Miller noted that there are challenges that could render financial services organizations irrelevant in the next 10 to 12 years. Challenges such as new market entrants and demanding customers, among others, are a constant.

“And underpinning all of this is data,” says Miller, adding that the Chief Data Officer’s role here is of essence.

“If I’m not resonating and getting business executives to understand why data is so important in what they’re doing, then I’m failing. And that’s actually the lesson that I’ve learnt is that making sure that you’re presenting the topics in a way that the business can understand and you always have to keep reiterating and revaluating the messages you’re giving. And if it doesn’t resonate then you’ve to keep trying.” According to Miller, repeated communication, along with keeping business relevance at the centre of every decision, is essential.

“If you’re not resonating with the business, you’re not going to win. We succeeded, but it took a lot more time than I thought, for me to reframe the why, and be less technical and more business oriented,” he adds.