Data ownership must resolve a real problem
Naming an owner is only useful if that person can make the decisions needed to keep information fit for purpose.
Read the essayThe leadership review
Noriko Kato
Chief Data OfficerJapan · Global perspectiveVolume 03
Notes from practice
- NOTE I
Enterprise data ownership
Business functions were maintaining different versions of a critical performance measure.
- NOTE II
Decision intelligence
An analytics initiative had produced technically sound outputs that were not part of the management routine.
A leadership conviction
Trusted data becomes valuable when people can use it responsibly in a decision. I connect ownership, quality and analytical capability to business purpose, with explicit limitations and human accountability for consequential uses.
- Trusted source of truth
- 1
- Replacing 37 conflicting reports
- Value from analytics
- ₹410 Cr
- Verified by finance, year three
- Models governed
- 220
- Under one responsible-AI framework
- Time to decision data
- 9 days → 4 hrs
- For the executive committee
Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective.
In the boardroom
- Westmoor Housing FinanceIndependent Director · 2023 — Present
- The Responsible Data InstituteAdvisory Board Member · 2020 — Present
Recognition
- Data Leader of the YearThe Applied AI Forum · 2024
- Responsible AI AwardThe Technology Leaders Review · 2023
In conversation
- “Governing 220 models without slowing the business”The Applied AI Forum · 2025
- “The board's role in responsible AI”The Boardroom Review · 2024
- “Episode 120 — Data people can trust”The Leadership Ledger podcast · 2023
Made our data trustworthy enough to bet decisions on — and honest about where it was not.
Continue the conversation
Ideas are tested in conversation.
For board, advisory and speaking invitations, and for readers who want to take an argument further.
- Board appointments
- Advisory roles
- Speaking invitations
office@norikokato.example